Messing with Mendel.
Paramutation, a phenomenon of epigenetic switching that violates Mendel's Law of Segregation, was first discovered in maize and later observed in other plants. In a recent report in Nature, de Vanssay and colleagues (2012) describe in Drosophila an operationally analogous phenomenon to paramutation that is mediated by piwi-interacting RNAs.
Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. birchlerj@missouri.edu
James A
JA
Birchler