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First published online December 15, 2003
doi: 10.1242/10.1242/jcs.00851

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Localisation of histone macroH2A1.2 to the XY-body is not a response to the presence of asynapsed chromosome axes

¹ III. Department of Zoology-Developmental Biology, University of Göttingen, Humboldtallee 34A, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
² Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London NM7 1AA, UK
³ Department of Animal Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: shoyer{at}gwdg.de)

Accepted 1 September 2003

Histone macroH2A1.2 and the murine heterochromatin protein 1, HP1ß, have both been implicated in meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI) and the formation of the XY-body in male meiosis. In order to get a closer insight into the function of histone macroH2A1.2 we have investigated the localisation of macroH2A1.2 in surface spread spermatocytes from normal male mice and in oocytes of XX and XY^Tdym1 mice. Oocytes of XY^Tdym1 mice have no XY-body or MSCI despite having an XY chromosome constitution, so the presence or absence of `XY-body' proteins in association with the X and/or Y chromosome of these oocytes enables some discrimination between potential functions of XY-body located proteins. We demonstrate here that macroH2A1.2 localises to the X and Y chromatin of spermatocytes as they condense to form the XY-body but is not associated with the X and Y chromatin of XY^Tdym1 early pachytene oocytes. MacroH2A1.2 and HP1ß co-localise to autosomal pericentromeric heterochromatin in spermatocytes. However, the two proteins show temporally and spatially distinct patterns of association to X and Y chromatin.

Key words: Histone macroH2A1.2, HP1ß, XY-body, Asynapsed chromosome axes

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