Genomic imprinting of a placental lactogen gene in Peromyscus

Paul B. Vrana, Paul G. Matteson, Jennifer V. Schmidt, Robert S. Ingram, Andrew Joyce, Kelly L. Prince, Michael J. Dewey, Shirley M. Tilghman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

The mammalian genome contains over 30 genes whose expression is dependent upon their parent-of-origin. Of these imprinted genes the majority are involved in regulating the rate of fetal growth. In this report we show that in the deer mouse Peromyscus the placental lactogen-1-variant (pPl1-v) gene is paternally expressed throughout fetal development, whereas the linked and closely related pPl1 gene is expressed in a biallelic manner. Neither the more distantly related pPl2A gene, nor the Mus Pl1 gene displays any preferential expression of the paternal allele, suggesting that the acquisition of imprinting of pPl1-v is a relatively recent event in evolution. Although pPl1 expression is temporally mis-regulated in the dysplastic placentae of hybrids between two Peromyscus species, its over-expression cannot account for the aberrant phenotypes of these placentae. We argue that the species-specific imprinting of pPl1-v, encoding a growth factor that regulates nutrient transfer from mothers to their offspring, is consistent with the parent-offspring conflict model that has been proposed to explain the evolution of genomic imprinting.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)523-532
Number of pages10
JournalDevelopment Genes and Evolution
Volume211
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - 2001

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Genetics
  • Developmental Biology

Keywords

  • Genomic imprinting
  • Growth control
  • Peromyscus
  • Placenta
  • Placental lactogen

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