Evolution of an imprinted domain in mammals
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 - 07:14
in Biology & Nature
The normal human genome contains 46 chromosomes: 23 from the mother and 23 from the father. Thus, you have two copies of every gene (excluding some irregularity in the pair of sex chromosomes). In general, which parent contributes a chromosome has no effect on the expression of the genes found on it. Exceptions to this rule are caused by “genomic imprinting”—modification of DNA, which means that gene expression is influenced by which parent the gene came from. A new paper published this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology investigates the evolution of genomic imprinting in a specific region of the mammalian genome.