Unregulated expression of the imprinted genes H19 and Igf2r in mouse uniparental fetuses

The present study shows that the H19 and Igf2r genes, which are imprinted and expressed solely from maternal alleles, are expressed in an unregulatable manner in mouse uniparental, androgenetic, and parthenogenetic fetuses at day 9.5 of gestation. In the androgenetic fetuses, the H19 and Igf2r genes were respectively expressed at 12 and 40% of the levels in biparental fetuses. In addition, the expression of both genes was excessive (1259 and 482%, respectively) in the parthenotes. These expressions of the imprinted genes were not regulated by methylation in the regulatory regions. Moreover, the expression of the antisense Igf2r RNA (Air) was also excessive and was not correlated with Igf2r gene expression in the uniparental fetuses. Taken together, these results indicate that the parental specific expression of imprinted genes is not maintained in particular genes in uniparental embryos, which in turn suggests that both parental genomes are required to establish maternal specific expression of the H19 and Igf2r genes by trans-acting mechanisms.