Role of LARP7 in meiotic sex chromosome silencing

Meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI) is an essential event in meiotic progression in mammalian spermatogenesis. We found that La Ribonucleoprotein 7 (LARP7) is involved in MSCI. LARP7 plays a role in fetal germ cells to promote their proliferation, but is once abolished in postnatal gonocytes and re-expresses in spermatocytes at the onset of meiosis. In spermatocytes, LARP7 localizes to the XY body, a compartmentalized chromatin domain on sex chromosomes. This study aimed to elucidate a possible function of LARP7 in the XY body by using germline-specific Larp7-deficient mice.