Aging promotes reactivation of the Barr body at distal chromosome regions
Sarah Hoelzl, Tim P. Hasenbein, Stefan Engelhardt, Daniel Andergassen
Abstract
Decades ago, evidence of age-related reactivation of a single gene on the female inactive X chromosome was observed in mice. While stable silencing of the Barr body is crucial for balancing gene dosage between sexes, it remains unclear whether silencing is maintained during aging. Here we used allele-specific multi-omics approaches to capture a comprehensive catalog of genes escaping X chromosome inactivation throughout mouse development and aging. We found substantially elevated escape rates during aging across organs, occurring in multiple distinct cell types and concentrated at distal chromosome regions. Consistently, chromatin accessibility was increased across multiple megabases at chromosome ends, affecting regulatory elements of escapees. As several age-specific escapees are linked to human diseases, their elevated expression in females might contribute to sex-biased disease progression observed during aging.