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Reposted

Kaessmann Lab @kaessmannlab.bsky.social · Jul 16

Our study on a male-essential microRNA and the evolution of other dosage compensation mechanisms in birds is now out in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A male-essential miRNA is key for avian sex chromosome dosage compensation - Nature

Birds have evolved a unique sex chromosome dosage compensation mechanism involving the male-biased microRNA (miR-2954), which is essential for male survival by regulating the expression of dosage-sens...

www.nature.com

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Reposted

Nature Aging @nataging.nature.com · Jun 18

🗞️Our June issue is live!📷 This month, we're featuring work on editing epigenetic age, somatic mutation, senescence, Alzheimer’s biomarkers and much more. Read it all here: nature.com/nataging/vol...

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · Jun 18

We are so happy to be on the cover @sarahhoelzl.bsky.social 🎉 The cover depicts the Three Fates, who manipulate the threads of life and death. The Fates are shown as three older women, unraveling the threads of the inactive X chromosome during aging. www.nature.com/nataging/vol...

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Reposted

Technische Universität München @tum.de · May 27

Why do women experience aging-related diseases differently than men? A new study shows that with age, genes on the inactive X chromosome can reactivate – potentially influencing conditions like #dementia and #autoimmunity: go.tum.de/987255

#genetics #aging

📷 @dandergassen.bsky.social

Silent X chromosome awakens with age

In aging female mice, genes on the second X chromosome become active again. This could be an explanation for sex differences in aging humans regarding disease.

go.tum.de

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Reposted

Turner Lab @lab-turner.bsky.social · May 14

We're excited to publish our latest study led by Bryony Leeke @bryonyleeke.bsky.social and Wazeer Varsally, now out in @nature.com 🍾This study focusses on the epigenome of marsupial embryos 🦘 mapping DNA methylation in embryo development to specific embryo events www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵

Divergent DNA methylation dynamics in marsupial and eutherian embryos - Nature

A study reports on the DNA methylation dynamics during embryogenesis in marsupials, showing that these differ from those occurring during embryogenesis in eutherian mammals.

www.nature.com

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Reposted

Tuuli Lappalainen @tuuliel.bsky.social · May 6

Our new contribution to the quest to find causal GWAS genes! Sam Ghatan from my lab at @nygenome.org led a systematic comparison of eQTLs and CRISPRi+scRNA-seq screens. TL;DR: they provide highly complementary insights, with ortogonal pros and cons. 🧵👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Reposted

Melé Lab @melelab.bsky.social · Mar 20

Do you work in 💫human genetics💫?
Have you ever worried about what’s inside your gene annotation GTF⁉️

WELL, YOU SHOULD! 😱
Especially when studying a genetically diverse 🌍 cohort!

🔴We discover that gene annotations are European-biased 👉 impacting downstream analyses!

Don't miss this thread🧵⬇️
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Long-read transcriptomics of a diverse human cohort reveals widespread ancestry bias in gene annotation

Accurate gene annotations are fundamental for interpreting genetic variation, cellular function, and disease mechanisms. However, current human gene annotations are largely derived from transcriptomic...

www.biorxiv.org

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

Finally, we would like to thank all the reviewers for their valuable comments, the @nataging.nature.com editors, as well as Anton Wutz for highlighting our research in the News & Views section of Nature Aging: rdcu.be/eknAp

X inactivation shows frail ends when mice age

Nature Aging - Most genes on the inactive X chromosome are repressed throughout life, but there are exceptions. Hoelzl and colleagues map genes that escape repression in multiple organs over the...

rdcu.be

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

Overall, the escape landscape shows a high degree of organ and cell type specificity, with strong evidence of cluster organization. Explore the full Escape Atlas in the IGV browser for each organ and age time point: github.com/AndergassenL...

AgingX/02_resource at main · AndergassenLab/AgingX

Contribute to AndergassenLab/AgingX development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

Since we find that several age-specific escapees are associated with human diseases, we propose that their elevated expression in females may contribute to sex-biased disease progression with age, offering a new mechanism for age-related sex differences beyond hormonal influence.

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

In addition, allele-specific single-cell analysis revealed that age-specific escape manifests within distinct cell types, further providing evidence that age-related epigenetic changes promote gene escape.

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

An intriguing example is Reps2, where a specific isoform escapes in an age-dependent manner. While the long isoform of Reps2 is expressed from the Xa, the promoter of the short isoform shows age-dependent biallelic activity, leading to Xi-specific expression of the short isoform.

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

Consistently, chromatin accessibility was increased during aging and enriched across multiple megabases at chromosome ends, affecting regulatory elements of escapees.

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

We found substantially elevated escape rates during aging across organs, occurring in multiple distinct cell types and concentrated at distal chromosome regions.

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

Here, we used allele-specific multi-omics approaches to generate a comprehensive catalog of genes that escape X chromosome inactivation across major mouse organs throughout development and aging.

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

Decades ago, evidence for age-specific X-reactivation came from the observation that a single gene escapes silencing during aging. While stable Barr body inactivation is crucial for balancing gene dosage between sexes, its maintenance during aging remains unclear. Until now! ⌛️

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

This discovery was driven by the outstanding work of
@sarahhoelzl.bsky.social, together with co-authors
@hasenbeint.bsky.social, Stefan Engelhardt, @tum.de
- @dzhk.de, @erc.europa.eu 🙌
.

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

I’m incredibly proud to share the results of our lab’s first project, leading to the exciting discovery – Aging promotes reactivation of the Barr body at distal chromosome regions – now published in @nataging.nature.com!
🔗 tinyurl.com/3jkzzy7d

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dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

Finally, we would like to thank all the reviewers for their valuable comments, the @nataging.nature.com editors, as well as Anton Wutz for highlighting our research in the News & Views section of Nature Aging
🔗 rdcu.be/eknAp

X inactivation shows frail ends when mice age

Nature Aging - Most genes on the inactive X chromosome are repressed throughout life, but there are exceptions. Hoelzl and colleagues map genes that escape repression in multiple organs over the...

rdcu.be

dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

Overall, the escape landscape shows a high degree of organ and cell type specificity, with strong evidence of cluster organization. Explore the full Escape Atlas in the IGV browser for each organ and age time point: github.com/AndergassenL...

AgingX/02_resource at main · AndergassenLab/AgingX

Contribute to AndergassenLab/AgingX development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

1

dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

Since we find that several age-specific escapees are associated with human diseases, we propose that their elevated expression in females may contribute to sex-biased disease progression with age, offering a new mechanism for age-related sex differences beyond hormonal influence.

1

dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

In addition, allele-specific single-cell analysis revealed that age-specific escape manifests within distinct cell types, further providing evidence that age-related epigenetic changes promote gene escape.

1

dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

An intriguing example is Reps2, where a specific isoform escapes in an age-dependent manner. While the long isoform of Reps2 is expressed from the Xa, the promoter of the short isoform shows age-dependent biallelic activity, leading to Xi-specific expression of the short isoform.

1

dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

Consistently, chromatin accessibility was increased during aging and enriched across multiple megabases at chromosome ends, affecting regulatory elements of escapees.

1

dandergassen.bsky.social @dandergassen.bsky.social · May 2

We found substantially elevated escape rates during aging across organs, occurring in multiple distinct cell types and concentrated at distal chromosome regions.

1