title: Epigenetic consequences of artificial reproductive technologies to the bovine imprinted genes SNRPN, H19/IGF2, and IGF2R.
abstract: Animal breeders have made widespread use of assisted reproductive technologies to accelerate genetic improvement programs aimed at obtaining more, better and cheaper food products. Selection approaches have traditionally focused on Mendel's laws of inheritance using parental phenotypic characteristics and quantitative genetics approaches to choose the best parents for the next generation, regardless of their gender. However, apart from contributing DNA sequence variants, male and female gametes carry parental-specific epigenetic marks that play key roles during pre- and post-natal development and growth of the offspring. We herein review the epigenetic anomalies that are associated with artificial reproductive technologies in current use in animal breeding programs. For instance, we demonstrate that bovine embryos and fetuses derived by in vitro culture and somatic cell nuclear transfer show epigenetic anomalies in the differentially methylated regions controlling the expression of some imprinted genes. Although these genomic imprinting errors are undetected in the somatic tissues after birth, further research is warranted to examine potential germ cell transmission of epimutations and the potential risks of reproducing cattle using artificial reproductive technologies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Biomedicine, Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Animale, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Montreal , Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Lawrence C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Biomedicine, Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Animale, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Montreal , Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Jacinthe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Therrien
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Biomedicine, Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Animale, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Montreal , Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: France
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Filion
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Animal Sciences and Food Engineering, University of São Paulo, Pirassununga , Brazil.
authors.forename: Fabiana
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bressan
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Animal Sciences and Food Engineering, University of São Paulo, Pirassununga , Brazil.
authors.forename: Flávio V
authors.initials: FV
authors.lastname: Meirelles
keywords: animal cloning; cattle; epigenetics; genomic imprinting; in vitro culture; nuclear transfer