Imprinting - (Jun/13/2006 )

What is the principle behind genetic imprinting? How does it work?

And any references/ reviews that I can read up?

Thanks

just a quick note

imprinting is caused by differences in the methylation status (usually) between paternal and maternal chromosones, since methylation of DNA suppresses the gene.

thus certain genes are naturally only methylated in paternal chromosones while others only in maternal copies, this usually because the presence of two functional genes will be detrimental

see syndromes such as prader-willi/angelman for a more in depth discussion of the role and effect of imprinting

Thanks!

Where can I get more detailed info on this?

for more research related info see pubmed or google scholar, while for more general information try wikipedia