Transcriptional bursting shape autosomal dynamic random monoallelic expression inpre-gastrulation embryos

Abstract

In recent years, allele-specific single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) analysis has demonstrated wide-spread dynamic random monoallelic expression of autosomal genes (aRME) in different cell types. However, the prevalence of dynamic aRME during pre-gastrulation development remains unknown. Here, we show that dynamic aRME is wide-spread in different lineages of pre-gastrulation embryos. Additionally, the origin of dynamic aRME remains poorly understood. Theoretically, it is believed that independent transcriptional bursting from each allele leads to the dynamic aRME. However, based on analysis of allele-specific burst kinetics of autosomal genes, we found that allelic burst is not perfectly independent, rather it happens in semi-coordinated fashion. Importantly, we show that semi-coordinated allelic bursting of the genes; particularly with low burst frequency, leads to frequent asynchronous allelic bursting, thereby shaping the landscape of dynamic aRME in pre-gastrulation embryos. Altogether, our study provides significant insight into the prevalence and origin of dynamic aRME and cell to cell expression heterogeneity during early mammalian development. O_FIG_DISPLAY_L [Figure 1] M_FIG_DISPLAY C_FIG_DISPLAY