Analysis of the platypus genome suggests a transposon origin for mammalian imprinting |
| |
Authors: | Andrew J Pask Anthony T Papenfuss Eleanor I Ager Kaighin A McColl Terence P Speed Marilyn B Renfree |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Zoology, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia;(2) Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA;(3) Bioinformatics Division, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria, 3050, Australia |
| |
Abstract: | Background Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic phenomenon that results in monoallelic gene expression. Many hypotheses have been advanced
to explain why genomic imprinting evolved in mammals, but few have examined how it arose. The host defence hypothesis suggests
that imprinting evolved from existing mechanisms within the cell that act to silence foreign DNA elements that insert into
the genome. However, the changes to the mammalian genome that accompanied the evolution of imprinting have been hard to define
due to the absence of large scale genomic resources between all extant classes. The recent release of the platypus genome
has provided the first opportunity to perform comparisons between prototherian (monotreme; which appear to lack imprinting)
and therian (marsupial and eutherian; which have imprinting) mammals. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|