Rachel Fieldhouse in Nature:
The effect of a gene can vary greatly — and sometimes be the complete opposite — depending on whether it is inherited from the mother or the father. Some genetic variants can, for instance, increase a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes when inherited from the father, but lower it when inherited from the mother. But such effects have been challenging to unpick owing to gaps in genomic data. A study published in Nature this week describes a statistical method used to identify at least 30 parent-of-origin effects1 in 14 genes.
When a child is conceived, it inherits two copies of almost every gene — one from each parent — and both are generally turned either on or off. But in some regions of the genome, one copy can be turned on, or expressed, while the other is silenced. This can lead to ‘imprinting’ disorders such as Prader-Willi syndrome, which is usually caused by a missing or non-functional paternal copy of the UBE3A gene on chromosome 15. In contrast, a missing or non-functional maternal copy can cause Angelman syndrome.
More here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.