Maternal effect refers to the genetic phenomenon in which a phenotype in the progeny is caused by a genetic mutation in the maternal genome rather than a mutation of its own. Maternal effect genes are usually involved in the maternal-to-zygotic transition during embryonic development before zygotic genes are turned on. Although it is widely observed in invertebrate organisms, it is not common i...

Traditionally, molecular imprinting of proteins has proved challenging due to solvent limitations, recovery of the protein template, and most importantly, lack of specificity due to the large number of possible interaction sites. In this work, a surface imprinting technique has been developed to template hydrogel materials for specific protein recognition. Our model protein, the immunoglobulin ...

Molecularly imprinted polymers bearing atrazine transforming activity were prepared by using newly designed templates that are atrazine analogues attached with an allyl or a styryl group via a disulfide bond at the 6-position, methacrylic acid as a functional monomer and styrene/divinylbenzene as crosslinkers. After polymerization, the disulfide bond was reduced to remove the atrazine moiety fr...

Biosensors are a promising tool offering the possibility of low cost and fast analytical screening in point-of-care diagnostics and for on-site detection in the field. Most biosensors in routine use ensure their selectivity/specificity by including natural receptors as biorecognition element. These materials are however too expensive and hard to obtain for every biochemical molecule of interest...

In contrast to the biallelic expression of most genes, expression of genes subject to genomic imprinting is monoallelic and based on the sex of the transmitting parent. Possession of only a single active allele can lead to deleterious health consequences in humans. Aberrant expression of imprinted genes, through either genetic or epigenetic alterations, can result in developmental failures, neu...

The close interaction between mother and offspring in mammals is thought to contribute to the evolution of genomic imprinting or parent-of-origin dependent gene expression. Empirical tests of theories about the evolution of imprinting have been scant for several reasons. Models make different assumptions about the traits affected by imprinted genes and the scenarios in which imprinting is predi...

Stochastic processes and imprinting, along with genetic factors, lead to monoallelic or allele-biased gene expression. Stochastic monoallelic expression fine-tunes information processing in immune cells and the olfactory system, and imprinting plays an important role in development. Recent studies suggest that both stochastic events and imprinting may be more widespread than previously consider...

Each somatic cell of the human body contains 46 chromosomes consisting of two sets of 23; one inherited from each parent. These chromosomes can be categorised as 22 pairs of autosomes and two sex chromosomes; females are XX and males are XY. Similarly, at the molecular level, two copies of each autosomal gene exist; one copy derived from each parent. Until the mid-1980s, it was assumed that eac...