Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/11599
Title: FXN promoter silencing in the humanized mouse model of Friedreich Ataxia
Authors: Chutake, YK
Costello, WN
Lam, CC
Parikh, AC
Hughes, TT
Michalopulos, MG
Pook, MA
Bidichandani, SI
Issue Date: 2015
Publisher: PLOS
Citation: PLOS ONE, 10 (9): e0138437, (2015)
Abstract: Background - Friedreich ataxia is caused by an expanded GAA triplet-repeat sequence in intron 1 of the FXN gene that results in epigenetic silencing of the FXN promoter. This silencing mechanism is seen in patient-derived lymphoblastoid cells but it remains unknown if it is a widespread phenomenon affecting multiple cell types and tissues. Methodology / Principal Findings - The humanized mouse model of Friedreich ataxia (YG8sR), which carries a single transgenic insert of the human FXN gene with an expanded GAA triplet-repeat in intron 1, is deficient for FXN transcript when compared to an isogenic transgenic mouse lacking the expanded repeat (Y47R). We found that in YG8sR the deficiency of FXN transcript extended both upstream and downstream of the expanded GAA triplet-repeat, suggestive of deficient transcriptional initiation. This pattern of deficiency was seen in all tissues tested, irrespective of whether they are known to be affected or spared in disease pathogenesis, in both neuronal and non-neuronal tissues, and in cultured primary fibroblasts. FXN promoter function was directly measured via metabolic labeling of newly synthesized transcripts in fibroblasts, which revealed that the YG8sR mouse was significantly deficient in transcriptional initiation compared to the Y47R mouse. Conclusions / Significance- Deficient transcriptional initiation accounts for FXN transcriptional deficiency in the humanized mouse model of Friedreich ataxia, similar to patient-derived cells, and the mechanism underlying promoter silencing in Friedreich ataxia is widespread across multiple cell types and tissues.
URI: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0138437
http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/11599
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138437
ISSN: 1932-6203
Appears in Collections:Dept of Life Sciences Research Papers

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