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

1130-1215 Wednesday 26 April 2006. UCD Conway Institute Lecture Theatre

Evolution of genomic imprinting
Dr Kay Nolan (School of Biological and Environmental Science, UCD)

Mammals are functionally haploid for imprinted genes, apparently forgoing the benefits associated with diploidy. Therefore the forces that drove the evolution of genomic imprinting have been intensely debated. A major limitation of the evolutionary theories is the scarcity of information on the regulation of imprinted gene orthologs in non-mammalian vertebrates (i.e. prior to the origin of genomic imprinting), and on the occurrence of imprinting in mammalian orders other than rodents and primates. We are addressing this deficiency for the IGF2 receptor by examining its regulated expression in two novel animals, the zebrafish Danio rerio and the dog Canis familiaris.

Resources

Reference: Killian, J.K., Nolan, C.M., Wylie, A.A., Li, T., Vu, T.H., Hoffman, A.R., Jirtle, R.L. (2001). Divergent evolution in M6P/IGF2R imprinting from the Jurassic to the Quaternary. Human Molecular Genetics 10, 1721-1728. PubMed Entry

Reference: Wilkins, J.F. and Haig, D. (2001). Genomic imprinting of two antagonistic loci. Proceedings of the Biological Society 268, 1861-1867. PubMed Entry