Imprint switch mechanism indicated by mutations in Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes
1Laboratory of Developmental Genetics and Imprinting, Babraham Institute, Cambridge, UK. gavin.kelsey@bbsrc.ac.uk
Abstract:
Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic mechanism resulting in the preferential expression of the maternal or paternal alleles of a specific subset of genes in the mammalian genome. A key but relatively unexplored question is how imprints are established in the germline. New observations on two classical imprinting disorders, the Prader-Willi (PWS) and Angelman (AS) syndromes, offer the first genetic insight into this process. Molecular analysis of imprinting mutations that interfere with the appropriate establishment of the maternal and paternal epigenotypes has led to the identification of imprinted transcripts that could be involved in switching imprints in the germlines.
Related Concept Videos
Pleiotropy
In-vitro Mutagenesis
Position-effect Variegation
Genomic Imprinting and Inheritance
The expression of some genes depends on which parent passed the gene to the offspring, through a phenomenon known as...
Alternative RNA Splicing
There are five types of alternative RNA splicing that vary in the ways the pre-mRNA segments are removed or retained in the mature mRNA. The first...
Notch Signaling Pathway
The Notch gene came into the limelight in 1914 after the discovery that its mutation in Drosophila melanogaster leads to a serrated (or "notched") wing margin phenotype. It was not until 1985...


