BioProject

Gene positioning and regulation of nuclear architecture are thought to influence gene expression. More...

Gene positioning and regulation of nuclear architecture are thought to influence gene expression. Here, we show that in mouse olfactory neurons, silent olfactory receptor (OR) genes from different chromosomes converge in a small number of heterochromatic foci. These foci are OR-exclusive and form in a cell-type-specific and differentiation- dependent manner. The aggregation of OR genes is developmentally synchronous with the downregulation of Lamin b Receptor (LBR) and can be reversed by ectopic expression of LBR in mature olfactory neurons. LBR-induced reorganization of nuclear architecture and redistribution of OR loci results in misregulation of OR transcription and disruption of the targeting specificity of the olfactory neurons. Our observations are consistent with a model of spatial regulation of OR expression and provide evidence for the instructive role of nuclear architecture and compartmentalization in gene regulation and differentiation. A complex probe was made by array capture to label mouse olfactory receptor genes by DNA FISH; this microarray data verifies the composition of that probe. Overall design: Probe was made by array capture and elution from a custom olfactory receptor genomic region tiling array. Probe was verified on a chr1-4 tiling array. Less...