In Greek mythology, Medea betrays her homeland to assist her lover, the adventurer Jason, to obtain the Golden fleece. In exile she bears him two children, but later discovers that Jason plans to marry the King of Corynth’s daughter, so that their future children will become heirs to the throne. Seeking revenge, Medea poisons the bride and slaughters her children, leaving Jason with no chances ...

Luca Lambertini1,2, Men-Jean Lee3, Carmen J. Marsit4 and Jia Chen1,5,6 1Department of Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, 2Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, 3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, 4Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Dart...

antisense RNA, aRNA (complementary RNA) → sense RNA ARN antimensajero, ARN complementario An RNA sequence that is complementary to all or part of a functional mRNA molecule, to which it binds, blocking its translation3. Nota: los ARN complementarios pueden ser sintéticos o naturales. Cuando son sintéticos suelen llamarse micRNA, por messenger-RNA-interfering complementary RNA4, una molécula de ...

In diploid cells, allelic exclusion reduces genes to functional haploidy, because only one of two alleles is active. It is best known in cells producing immunoglobulins, but other examples also exist. X-chromosome inactivation in female mammals is related to allelic exclusion, but in this case the dosage compensation mechanism extends to the whole chromosome. Functional hemizygosity in some mam...

Genomic imprinting at the Igf2/H19 locus originates from allele-specific DNA methylation, which modifies the affinity of some proteins for their target sequences. Here, we show that AT-rich DNA sequences located in the vicinity of previously characterized differentially methylated regions (DMRs) of the imprinted Igf2 gene are conserved between mouse and human. These sequences have all the chara...

KCNQ1OT1 is located in the region with the highest number of genes showing genomic imprinting, but the mechanisms controlling the genes under its influence have not been fully elucidated. Therefore, we conducted a comparative analysis of the KCNQ1/KCNQ1OT1-CDKN1C region to study its conservation across the best assembled eutherian mammalian genomes sequenced to date and analyzed potential eleme...

The pattern of molecular evolution of imprinted genes is controversial and the entire picture is still to be unveiled. Recently, a relationship between the formation of imprinted genes and gene duplication was reported in genome-wide survey of imprinted genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. Because gene duplications influence the molecular evolution of the duplicated gene family, it is necessary to in...

A comprehensive, domain-wide comparative analysis of genomic imprinting between mammals that imprint and those that do not can provide valuable information about how and why imprinting evolved. The imprinting status, DNA methylation, and genomic landscape of the Dlk1-Dio3 cluster were determined in eutherian, metatherian, and prototherian mammals including tammar wallaby and platypus. Imprintin...

Genomic imprinting results in monoallelic gene expression in a parent-of-origin–dependent manner. It is achieved by the differential epigenetic marking of parental alleles. Over the past decade, studies in the model systems Arabidopsis thaliana and maize (Zea mays) have shown a strong correlation between silent or active states with epigenetic marks, such as DNA methylation and histone modifica...