This is really really cool biology published in +Nature News & Comment ! XIST is one of most famous (in my opinion) ncRNAs out there and is normally used in X-chromosome inactivation in females (so you get one active and one inactive chromosome)
In this study they took the XIST gene and put it inside chromosome 21 and in more detail into down syndrom iPS cell lines (so chr21 is a trisomy). And then the cool stuff happened…. by doing this the XIST transcript transformed the 3rd chromosome copy into a barr body (inactive chromosome) leaving 2 active normal chromosomes behind. By doing so the down syndrome genetic effect got genetically 'fixed', awesome!
Anyway, read the whole paper here http://bit.ly/12JJ3MU
#science #nature #xchromosome #inactivation #XIST #downsyndrome
