环境因素所致印迹基因改变与子代器官发育

印迹基因是由大约100个基因组成的一类特殊子集,主要以亲本单等位基因的方式表达,对胚胎的生长发育具有重要作用.近年来发现,环境因素所引起的印迹基因表观遗传修饰改变可造成胎儿多脏器发育不良甚至成年后多疾病易感,且存在多代遗传效应.本文基于国内外最新研究进展,总结了印迹基因表达改变对个体发育阶段以及生命后期器官功能的影响,...

Alteration of imprinted genes and offspring organ development caused by environmental factors

Imprinted genes are a special subset of about 100 genes,which are mainly expressed in the form of parental monoallelic genes,and play important roles in the growth and development of embryos.In recent years,it has been found that epigenetic modification of imprinted genes induced by environmental factors can cause fetal multi-organ dysplasia and even susceptibility to multiple diseases in adulthood,which also exhibit multi-generational inheritance.In this review,we summarize the effects of expression changes of imprinted genes on ontogenetic development and organ functions in late stage of life,and propose that abnormal epigenetic modification and expression of imprinted genes caused by environmental deleterious factors are important mechanisms for explaining the multi-organ dysplasia in offspring.Such mechanisms are greatly significant for understanding the phenotypic changes caused by alteration of imprinted gene expression during ontogeny and exploring early prevention and treatment strategies of diseases.