Developmental regulation of genomic imprinting during gametogenesis

Successful mammalian development requires both the male and female genomes. This is due in part to genomic imprinting, which results in offspring inheriting only one functional copy of a gene from either the mother or the father. Evidence suggests that this specialization of the parental genomes is established during gametogenesis when the imprint pattern inherited from the parent is switched to reflect the sex of the progeny. We used reverse transcription-PCR to analyze the allele-specific expression of Igf-2, Igf-2r, and H19 in the testes and ovaries of mice derived from an interspecies cross between Mus musculus and Mus spretus. Because of genomic imprinting, Igf-2 is expressed only from the paternal allele and Igf-2r and H19 only from the maternal allele, in most tissues. Although allele-specific expression was maintained in the neonatal testis and ovary, relaxation of imprinting was detected by 7 days after birth in the male and continued during testis development. In the female, relaxation of the Igf-2 and Igf-2r parental imprints was observed in the adult ovary and oocyte. These results (1) indicate that imprinted expression is relaxed during gametogenesis, presumably as a consequence or prerequisite of the imprinting mechanism, and (2) predict a subsequent imprinting event after which the allele-specific expression of Igf-2, Igf-2r, and H19 reflects the parent of origin.