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PMID: 17121465 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Review

Genomic imprinting in mammals: emerging themes and established theories.

PLoS genetics ·Vol. 2 ·No. 11 ·2006-11-24 ·Pages e147

Wood AJ, Oakey RJ

Abstract

The epigenetic events that occur during the development of the mammalian embryo are essential for correct gene expression and cell-lineage determination. Imprinted genes are expressed from only one parental allele due to differential epigenetic marks that are established during gametogenesis. Several theories have been proposed to explain the role that genomic imprinting has played over the course of mammalian evolution, but at present it is not clear if a single hypothesis can fully account for the diversity of roles that imprinted genes play. In this review, we discuss efforts to define the extent of imprinting in the mouse genome, and suggest that different imprinted loci may have been wrought by distinct evolutionary forces. We focus on a group of small imprinted domains, which consist of paternally expressed genes embedded within introns of multiexonic transcripts, to discuss the evolution of imprinting at these loci.

MeSH Terms
Animals Chromosomes, Mammalian/genetics Gene Dosage/genetics Gene Duplication Genomic Imprinting/genetics Models, Genetic Molecular Sequence Data Placenta/metabolism
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Wood Andrew J
Massachusetts General Hospital, United States of America.
Oakey Rebecca J
Conflict of Interest

Competing interests. The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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Article Info
Journal
PLoS genetics
Abbr.
PLoS Genet
ISSN
1553-7404
DOI
10.1371/journal.pgen.0020147
Published
2006-11-24
Pages
e147
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
101239074
PMCID
PMC1657038
Subset
IM
Grants
Wellcome Trust · 071002 · United Kingdom
Databases
GENBANK
AY151253, DQ648020
RefSeq
NM_010923, NM_011663, NM_021432
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.0020147 PMC Full Text View journal details
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