Comparative and integrated functional genomics analysis of Klinefelter and Turner syndromes reveals network-wide effects of the sex chromosome dosage changes

Results: In TS, differentially expressed escape genes were downregulated but differentially expressed inactive genes were upregulated. In KS, differentially expressed escape genes were upregulated while inactive genes appeared unchanged. Interestingly, 81 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were associated with both TS and KS, and uniformly displayed expression changes into opposite directions. DEGs on the X chromosome and the autosomes were coexpressed in both TS and KS, indicating that there are molecular ripple effects of the changes in X chromosome dosage that extend to autosomes. Four potentially candidate genes (RPS4X, SEPT6, NKRF and CX0rf57) for KS were identified on Xq. Broad hypomethylation of the X chromosome is observed in TS whereas hypermethylation of chromosome X is present in KS. Only promoters of inactive genes were differentially methylated in both TS and KS while escape genes remained unchanged. The intrachromosomal contact map of the X chromosome in TS was partitioned into two superdomains and exhibited the structure of an active X chromosome. Conclusions: Components of the molecular basis of TS and KS were identified on the levels of the transcriptome and the epigenome, with candidate central genes on Xp for TS and on Xq for KS. The discovery of shared DEGs indicates the existence of common molecular mechanisms for gene regulation in TS and KS that are transmitting the gene dosage changes to the transcriptome.