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Chapter category: Gene Expression

Imprinted Genes, Postnatal Adaptations and Enduring Effects on Energy Homeostasis

This chapter appears in the following book:

Genomic Imprinting

Edited by: Jon F. Wilkins
ISBN: 978-0-387-77575-3
» Get more information about this book at landesbioscience.com «

Chapter authors:
Margalida Frontera, Benjamin Dickins, Antonius Plagge and Gavin Kelsey


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The effects of imprinted genes on fetal growth and development have been firmly established. By and large, their roles conform to a conflict over provision of limited maternal resources to offspring, such that paternally expressed imprinted genes in offspring generally promote growth of the fetus, while maternally expressed imprinted genes tend to restrict it. It is comparatively recently that the important effects of imprinted genes in postnatal physiology have begun to be demonstrated, although a similar conflict may apply. In this chapter, we shall review some of the genetic evidence for imprinted effects on obesity, consider the action of selected imprinted genes in the central and peripheral control of energy homeostasis and look in detail at the intriguing effects of imprinting at the Gnas locus. Finally, we shall discuss whether these observations fit expectations of the prevailing theory for the existence of imprinting in mammals and go on to consider imprinted genes as targets for developmental programming.

Margalida Frontera

Benjamin Dickins

Antonius Plagge

Gavin Kelsey
Laboratory of Developmental Genetics and Imprinting, The Babraham Institute

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Additional chapters from this book:

Control of Imprinting at the Gnas Cluster

Jo Peters and Christine M. Williamson

Genomic imprinting is a form of epigenetic regulation in mammals whereby a small subset of genes is silenced according to parental origin. Early work had indicated regions of the genome that were like...

What Are Imprinted Genes Doing in the Brain?

William Davies, Anthony R. Isles, Trevor Humby and Lawrence S. Wilkinson

As evidence for the existence of brain-expressed imprinted genes accumulates, we need to address exactly what they are doing in this tissue, especially in terms of organisational themes and the major ...

Genomic Imprinting and Human Psychology: Cognition, Behavior and Pathology

Lisa M. Goos and Gillian Ragsdale

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The GNAS locus and Pseudohypoparathyroidism

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Imprinted Genes and Human Disease: An Evolutionary Perspective

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Imprinted genes have been associated with a wide range of diseases. Many of these diseases have symptoms that can be understood in the context of the evolutionary forces that favored imprinted express...

DNA Methylation Reprogramming in the Germ Line

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Genomic imprinting attracted particular attention in the 1980s following the discovery that the parental origin of genetic information is essential for normal development of eutherians, for review see...

Imprinted Genes, Postnatal Adaptations and Enduring Effects on Energy Homeostasis

Margalida Frontera, Benjamin Dickins, Antonius Plagge and Gavin Kelsey

The effects of imprinted genes on fetal growth and development have been firmly established. By and large, their roles conform to a conflict over provision of limited maternal resources to offspring, ...

Evolutionary Theories of Imprinting--Enough Already!

Tom Moore and Walter Mills

In our view, the conflict theory of imprinting explains the evolution of parental allele-specific gene expression patterns in the somatic tissues of mammals and angiosperms. Not surprisingly, given it...

Immune Receptor Signaling, Aging and Autoimmunity

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Aging is associated with a myriad of changes including alterations in glucose metabolism, brain function, hormonal regulation, muscle homeostasis and the immune system. Aged individuals, generally sti...


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