GENE IMPRINTING: ENGRAVING THE PATHOGENESIS OF HERIDETARY DISEASES

Abstract

Gene imprinting has conduited the scope of our understanding of phenotypic expression and its corelation with constituent genotype. It is an epigenetic process that involves DNA methylation and histone modulation to attain monoallelic gene expression without altering the genetic sequences. A distinctive model of non-mendelian genetics, imprinting extends the control over expression of traits and selection of the allele that would direct the same, in a manner decided by the parent of origin. The constitutive existence of this imprinting even after gametogenesis, throughout the somatic development extends a clue for its regulatory hold on several heridetary traits. Several heridetary diseases like Cancers, Russell-Silver syndrome, Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, Prader-Willi and Angelman Syndromes and Neurodegenration have shown to be a subsequent error in the genomic impriting process. So, understanding these epigenetic regulations can be a therapeutic strategy for disease modelling and especially targeting their patterns of heridetary inheritance.