DMMC Course: UNRAVELLING CHROMATIN & THE ROLE OF EPIGENETICS IN DISEASE

0935-0950 Wednesday 26 April 2006. UCD Conway Institute Lecture Theatre

Epigenetics: implications for cloning
Dr Kay Nolan (School of Biological and Environmental Science, UCD)

During development, somatic cells accumulate numerous epigenetic modifications, many of which are extremely stable and are inherited through mitosis. When such nuclei are used in somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), for the purpose of animal cloning or for generation of embryo stem cells for therapeutic reasons, the somatic nucleus must be rapidly ‘reprogrammed’ by the oocyte cytoplasm. The somatic nucleus is very different to sperm- or oocyte-derived pronuclei. Furthermore, epigenetic modifications are susceptible to alteration by the technical manipulations used in SCNT. Thus reprogramming may not occur efficiently, and this may contribute to the limited success of SCNT.

Resources

Review: Rideout III, W.M., Eggan, K. and Jaenisch, R. (2001). Nuclear cloning and epigenetic reprogramming of the genome. Science 293, 1093-1098. PubMed Entry

Review: Morgan, H.D., Santos, F., Green, K., Dean, W. and Reik, W. (2005). Epigenetic reprogramming in mammals. Hum Mol Genet 14, R47-R58. PubMed Entry