Abstract
Two epigenetically regulated subsets of genes that potentially link environmental exposures early in development to adult diseases are imprinted genes and those with metastable epialleles. Genes with metastable epialleles have highly variable expressions because of stochastic allelic modifications in the epigenome. Genomic imprinting is an unusual epigenetic form of gene regulation that results in monoallelic expression in a parent-of-origin dependent manner. The viable yellow agouti (Avy) mouse harbors a metastable Agouti gene because of an upstream insertion of a transposable element. We previously used this animal model to demonstrate that nutritional and chemical toxicant exposures during early development induce persistent epigenetic changes at the Avy locus that result in alterations in coat color and adult disease susceptibility. We also showed that low doses of ionizing radiation (
Published Version
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