title: In brief: genomic imprinting and imprinting diseases.
abstract: Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic process by which the male and the female germline confer different DNA methylation marks and histone modifications onto specific gene regions, so that one allele of an imprinted gene is active and the other one is silent. Since the dosage of imprinted genes is important for normal development, growth and behaviour, the loss or duplication of the active allele can cause disease.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Humangenetik, Universitätsklinikum Essen, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Horsthemke
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D042002:Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly; D002872:Chromosome Deletion; D058674:Chromosome Duplication; D019175:DNA Methylation; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D020868:Gene Silencing; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000235:genetics*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D018392:Genomic Imprinting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: DNA methylation; epigenetics; genomic imprinting