Genomic Imprinting

Group Leader : Jo Peters

Genomic imprinting is a form of gene regulation whereby some genes are silenced when inherited from the father and some are silenced when inherited from the mother. Only about 80 imprinted genes are known in the mouse, and many of these occur in clusters. For the most part these clusters are localised to imprinting regions found on seven mouse autosomes. Mice with uniparental disomy for an imprinting region show abnormal phenotypes during pre- or postnatal development. Growth abnormalities and lethalities are common, and behavioural anomalies are a frequent postnatal effect. These phenotypes can be attributed to an incorrect expressed dose of imprinted gene(s) within the regions involved. Aberrant expression of the orthologous gene(s) in humans has implications for disorders occurring prenatally, and in children and adults.

Read more about genomic imprinting or see the imprinting maps

Updates to the Maps and Data coming soon...