Heritability of skewed X-inactivation in female twins is tissue-specific and dependent on age

Abstract

To balance the X-linked transcriptional dosages between the sexes, one of the two X-chromosomes is randomly selected to be inactivated in somatic tissues of female placental mammals. Non-random, or skewed X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) toward one parental X has been observed in female somatic tissues, and this skewing effect has been associated with several complex human traits. However, the extent of the influence of genetic and environmental factors on XCI skewing is largely unknown. Here, we use RNA-seq and DNA-seq data taken from a large cohort of female twins to quantify the degree of skewing of XCI (DS) in multiple tissues and to study the relationship of XCI with age, genetic factors and complex traits. We show that the XCI patterns are highly tissue-specific with a higher prevalence of skewed XCI in blood-derived tissues than in fat or skin tissue. We also show that the DS in blood-derived tissues is associated with age and that the acquired DS occurs uniquely in blood-derived tissues with an inflection point at approximately 55 years of age. Heritability analysis indicates that the heritability of DS is both age and tissue specific; DS is heritable in blood tissue of females >55 years-old (h2 = 0.34) but is not heritable in blood tissues of females <55 years-old (h2 = 0), nor in skin and fat tissues at any age. We find a positive association between the DS and smoking status in blood tissues of older females (P = 0.02). The high tissue specificity of XCI patterns in human indicates the existence of tissue-specific mechanisms influencing XCI patterns, including genetic and environmental factors. We conclude that the heritability of XCI skewing in blood-derived tissues is dependent on age, representing a Gene x Age interaction that can shift the functional allelic dosage of an entire chromosome in a tissue-restricted manner.