Open AccessThe Mouse Murr1 Gene Is Imprinted in the Adult Brain, Presumably Due to Transcriptional Interference by the Antisense-Oriented U2af1-rs1 Gene
Author(s) -
Youdong Wang,
Keiichiro Joh,
Sadahiko Masuko,
Hitomi Yatsuki,
Hidenobu Soejima,
Akira Nabetani,
C.V. Beechey,
Satoshi Okinami,
Tsunehiro Mukai
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
molecular and cellular biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.14
H-Index - 327
eISSN - 1067-8824
pISSN - 0270-7306
DOI - 10.1128/mcb.24.1.270-279.2004
Subject(s) - biology , gene expression , gene , genomic imprinting , allele , regulation of gene expression , rna interference , in situ hybridization , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , rna , dna methylation
The mouse Murr1 gene contains an imprinted gene, U2af1-rs1, in its first intron. U2af1-rs1 shows paternal allele-specific expression and is transcribed in the direction opposite to that of the Murr1 gene. In contrast to a previous report of biallelic expression of Murr1 in neonatal mice, we have found that the maternal allele is expressed predominantly in the adult brain and also preferentially in other adult tissues. This maternal-predominant expression is not observed in embryonic and neonatal brains. In situ hybridization experiments that used the adult brain indicated that Murr1 gene was maternally expressed in neuronal cells in all regions of the brain. We analyzed the developmental change in the expression levels of both Murr1 and U2af1-rs1 in the brain and liver, and we propose that the maternal-predominant expression of Murr1 results from transcriptional interference of the gene by U2af1-rs1 through the Murr1 promoter region.