Nonmammalian parent-of-origin effects.
Chromosomes acquire different epigenetic marks during oogenesis and spermatogenesis. After fertilization, if retained and selected, these differences may result in imprinting effects. Rather than being an oddity, imprinting effects have been found in many sexually reproducing organisms. Interestingly, imprinting can result in disparate effects under different selective forces. At the same time, epigenetic mechanisms and selective pressures shared by sexually reproducing organisms could underlie common imprinting effects. Large-scale studies are revealing that parent-of-origin effects are more common than previously thought and supporting the important contribution of imprinting to many traits and diseases.
Albacete Science and Technology Park, Regional Center for Biomedical Research (C.R.I.B.), University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain. elena.casaesperon@uclm.es
Elena
E
de la Casa-Esperón
D000818:Animals; D002872:Chromosome Deletion; D020090:Chromosome Segregation / Q000235:genetics; D004261:DNA Replication / Q000235:genetics; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000235:genetics; D018392:Genomic Imprinting / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D010641:Phenotype