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First published online January 13, 2009

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ES cells make an imprint

Genomic imprinting - parental-specific gene expression in which either the maternal or paternal copy of a gene is expressed - is important in early development and can contribute to disease. To date, imprinting has been mostly studied in mammalian embryos, which often entails long experimental time frames. Now, on p. 437, Denise Barlow and colleagues demonstrate that differentiating embryonic stem (ES) cells provide a much-needed in vitro system for studying this phenomenon. The authors show that imprinted expression of the Igf2r gene is established when ES cells differentiate, and that this coincides with the onset of the paternal-specific expression of Airn, a non-coding RNA that, in the mouse, silences the paternal allele of Igf2r. These events mimic aspects of imprinting that occur in the mouse embryo during and after implantation. Surprisingly, during ES cell differentiation, expression from the paternal Igf2r promoter remains constant instead of being silenced, while expression from the maternal Igf2r promoter increases up to tenfold, revealing a novel mechanism for Airn-mediated imprinting - through an expression bias rather than silencing.

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Related articles in Development:

An in vitro ES cell imprinting model shows that imprinted expression of the Igf2r gene arises from an allele-specific expression bias

Paulina A. Latos, Stefan H. Stricker, Laura Steenpass, Florian M. Pauler, Ru Huang, Basak H. Senergin, Kakkad Regha, Martha V. Koerner, Katarzyna E. Warczok, Christine Unger, and Denise P. Barlow
Development 2009 136: 437-448. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in Development Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?