Abstract
The interest in genomic imprinting and epigenetics in animal husbandry has to a extent been driven by the occurrence of a fetal overgrowth during assisted reproduction techniques (ART) in ruminants. This overgrowth is known as large offspring syndrome or LOS for short (reviewed by [1]). It is characterized by a significant increase in birth weight (8% – 50%), increase in gestational length, breathing problems at birth and an increased frequency of perinatal death. The phenomenon has been reported in both cattle and sheep with incidences up to 100%. It has been observed that a high proportion of serum in the in vitro culture medium can increase the frequency of LOS in sheep. Thus, factors in the serum and culture-environment per se have been suspected to be involved in the ethiology of LOS, but transfer into an asynchronous uterine environment where the gestational age is unmatched between the embryo and the recipient may also contribute.
Highlights
Perinatal Death In Domestic Animals: The 20th Symposium of the Nordic Committee for Veterinary Scientific Cooperation (NKVet) Meeting abstracts – A single PDF containing all abstracts in this Supplement is available here. http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/files/pdf/1751-0147-49-S1-info.pdf
The interest in genomic imprinting and epigenetics in animal husbandry has to a large extent been driven by the occurrence of a fetal overgrowth syndrome during assisted reproduction techniques (ART) in ruminants
Mammals have one gene copy from the father and one from the mother. In those cases where they are distinguishable by small neutral differences it has been possible to observe that they are both expressed. This is because the regulatory proteins will bind to the two gene copies and the number of protein molecules produced from the maternal gene copy is the same as the number of molecules produced from the paternal copy (Fig. 1A)
Summary
Published: 12 December 2007 Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2007, 49(Suppl 1):S7 doi:10.1186/1751-0147-49-S1-S7. Mammals have one gene copy from the father (paternal) and one from the mother (maternal) In those cases where they are distinguishable by small neutral differences it has been possible to observe that they are both expressed . Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2007, 49(Suppl 1):S7 http://www.actavetscand.com/content/49/S1/S7 insulin growth factor 2 (IGF2) gene, which promote fetal growth, the maternal copy is silenced and IGF2 is solely expressed from the paternal gene copy. Identical imprints are formed on all copies of the gene in question, i.e. both the paternal and the maternal gene copy of the germ cells are either imprinted or left non-imprinted depending on the sex of the fetus This ensures that gametes coming from a male will all carry one chromosome, which has the paternal-specific imprint and that the gamete coming from a female will have the opposite imprinting status. This genetic battle between the mother and father appears to continue even after birth
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