Mammalian viviparity: a complex niche in the evolution of genomic imprinting

Evolution of mammalian reproductive success has witnessed a strong dependence on maternal resources through placental in utero development. Genomic imprinting, which has an active role in mammalian viviparity, also reveals a biased role for matrilineal DNA in its regulation. The co-existence of three matrilineal generations as one (mother, foetus and post-meiotic oocytes) has provided a maternal niche for transgenerational co-adaptive selection pressures to operate. In utero foetal growth has required increased maternal feeding in advance of foetal energetic demands; the mammary glands are primed for milk production in advance of birth, while the maternal hypothalamus is hormonally primed by the foetal placenta for nest building and post-natal care. Such biological forward planning resulted from maternal-foetal co-adaptation facilitated by co-expression of the same imprinted allele in the developing hypothalamus and placenta. This co-expression is concurrent with the placenta interacting with the adult maternal hypothalamus thereby providing a transgenerational template on which selection pressures may operate ensuring optimal maternalism in this and the next generation. Invasive placentation has further required the maternal immune system to adapt and positively respond to the foetal allotype. Pivotal to these mammalian evolutionary developments, genomic imprinting emerged as a monoallelic gene dosage regulatory mechanism of tightly interconnected gene networks providing developmental genetic stability for in utero development.