What are imprinted genes doing in the brain?

Davies, William ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7714-2440, Isles, Anthony Roger ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7587-5712, Humby, Trevor ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1840-1799 and Wilkinson, Lawrence Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9337-6124 2008. What are imprinted genes doing in the brain? Wilkins, Jon F., ed. Genomic Imprinting, Advances in experimental medicine and biology, vol. 626. Berlin: Springer, pp. 62-70. (10.1007/978-0-387-77576-0_5)

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Abstract

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 challenges posed by reconciling imprinted gene action in brain with current evolutionary theories attempting to explain the origin and maintenance of geneomic imprinting. We are at the beginning of this endeavor and much work remains to be done but already it is clear that imprinted genes have the potential to influence diverse behavioral processes via multiple brain mechanisms. There are also grounds to believe that imprinting may contribute to risk of mental and neurological disease. As well as being a source of basic information about imprinted genes in the brain (e.g., via the newly established website, www.bgg.cardiff.ac.uk/imprinted_tables/index. html), we have used this chapter to identify and focus on a number of key questions. How are brain-expressed imprinted genes organised at the molecular and cellular levels? To what extent does imprinted action depend on neurodevelopmental mechanisms? Do imprinted gene effects interact with other epigenetic influences, especially early on in life? Are imprinted effects on adult behaviors adaptive or just epiphenomena? If they are adaptive, what areas of brain function and behavior might be sensitive to imprinted effects? These are big questions and, as shall become apparent, we need much more data, arising from interactions between behavioral neuroscientists, molecular biologists and evolutionary theorists, if we are to begin to answer them.

Item Type:	Book Section
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology Medicine MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics (CNGG) Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute (NMHRI)
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Publisher:	Springer
ISBN:	9780387775753
Related URLs:	Publisher
Last Modified:	28 Sep 2023 12:29
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/5572

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