Abstract
In a small subset of mammalian genes, one of the two inherited copies (alleles) is switched off. Which allele is subject to “genomic imprinting” is dependent on whether it was inherited from the mother or the father. Genomic imprinting is a developmentally determined epigenetic process and results in some “imprinted genes” only ever being expressed from the maternal allele, while others are only ever expressed from the paternal allele. Although an evolutionary enigma, imprinted genes have important effects on physiology and, in particular, play a significant role in brain and behavior.
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Abbreviations
- AG:
-
Androgenetic
- ART:
-
Artificial reproductive technology
- AS:
-
Angelman syndrome
- CNV:
-
Copy number variant
- GG:
-
Gynogenetic
- IC:
-
Imprinting center
- mUPD:
-
Maternal uniparental disomy
- PG:
-
Parthenogenetic
- pUPD:
-
Paternal uniparental disomy
- PWS:
-
Prader-Willi syndrome
- snoRNA:
-
Small nucleolar RNA
- VTA:
-
Ventral tegmental area
References
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Isles, A.R. (2016). Genomic Imprinting and Brain Function. In: Pfaff, D., Volkow, N. (eds) Neuroscience in the 21st Century. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3474-4_68
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3474-4_68
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Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
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