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Males and females share the same genetic code, but gene expression profile often displays differences between two sexes. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) have been used to experiment as a useful tool to test gene function. They have also been characterized by gender-based differences in expressed genes such as Y-linked Sry or X-linked Hprt. However, there is no report on sex differences in global gene expression. Here, using the next-generation RNA sequencing, we compared the comprehensive transcriptome of MEFs derived from two sexes. In comparison with the female group, the male group up-regulated 27 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), in which a male-specific histone demethylase KDM5D gene is included, and 7 DEGs were down-regulated. Based on the results by searching the ENCODE analysis, it was shown that the expression of 15 genes identified is potentially regulated by the methylation of H3K4me1 or H3K4me3. Interestingly, we demonstrated that both of H3K4 methylation are induced by knocking down KDM5D, which causes changes in patterns of eight DEGs found in male MEFs. Collectively, these data not only suggest an importance of KDM5D-mediated demethylation of H3K4 involved in the sexually dimorphic gene expression in male MEFs, but also may provide information regarding sex-dependent changes in gene expression when MEFs are used for experiments.

Protein arginine methyltransferase PRMT5 synthesizes the symmetric dimethylarginine in nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins such as histone H2A, H4 and several non-histone proteins that are required for a variety of biological processes. Currently, two splice variants (v1 and v2) of murine PRMT5 have been deposited in the NCBI sequence database, in which PRMT5-v1 and -v2 contain different 33 and 16 amino acids at the N-terminal sequences, respectively. Here we showed that murine PRMT5-v1 is stable, but PRMT5-v2 is constantly degraded through both the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) and the autophagic-lysosomal pathway (ALP) in an N-terminal sequence-dependent manner. Furthermore, inhibition of UPS and ALP elevated the stability of PRMT5-v2 that made it localized in the nucleus and the cytoplasm. In addition, PRMT5-v2 exhibited the enzyme activity to catalyze histone H2A and H4 methylation. Notably, we found that the heat shock protein (Hsp) 70 specially recognizes the N-terminal sequence of PRMT5-v2 and the carboxyl terminus of Hsp70-interacting protein (CHIP) is required for poly-ubiquitination and the degradation of PRMT5-v2. These results suggest that Hsp70/CHIP chaperone-mediated protein degradation system is crucial in the regulation of PRMT5-v2 turnover, which has the potential to balance the symmetrical arginine dimethylation in cells.