FIND ARTICLE

Volume: 
Issue: 
2
Date of issue: 
The phenomenon of genomic imprinting occurs in both animals ( mammals ) and plants ( flowering plants ), and consists of seemingly nierównocennej expression of imprinted genes derived from the father and mother in offspring ; alleles derived from one of the parents are muted. This article presents the Issues of imprintingiem genomowynm associated with plants . In flowering plants the embryo and endosperm are the result of double fertilization, a characteristic only for this group of plants. Genomic imprinting in plants refers to the development of the endosperm and the embryo is not unlike the animals in which imprinting is a consequence of being dead mammalian embryos created jednorodzicielsko or with the participation of only one genome of the male ( androgenic ) or female ( parthenogenesis / gynogenesis ) . On the basis of genetic and molecular discovered the existence of the so-called . maternal-effect genes , which are expressed in the diploid sporophyte or gametophyte haploid female . Identified several such genes responsible for seed development in Arabidopsis and Zea . For several years, the greatest interest is the group of Arabidopsis genes : MEDEA (MEA ) , FERTILIZATION - INDEPENDENT SEED2 ( FIS2 ) and FERTILIZATION - INDEPENDENT endosperm ( FIE ) , which are responsible for blocking the division of the cell nucleus of the egg and the central cell before fertilization . Analysis of early embryogenesis in Arabidopsis showed that the expression of paternal alleles is delayed during seed development of genomic imprinting. These data indicate that in the absence of expression of paternal alleles , the first division of the zygote are under the sole control of the maternal allele . Differential expression of maternal and paternal alleles were detected for 20 genes in Arabidopsis , which are expressed during the early stages of seed development . The mechanism responsible for imprinting in plants are , as postulated for the animals, changes in the methylation of cytosine , but also paramutation and transgene silencing . Also shows the importance of genomic imprinting in plant reproduction , especially in apomiksji .
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The Editorial Board
Andrzej Łukaszyk - przewodniczący, Zofia Bielańska-Osuchowska, Szczepan Biliński, Mieczysław Chorąży, Aleksander Koj, Włodzimierz Korochoda, Leszek Kuźnicki, Aleksandra Stojałowska, Lech Wojtczak

Editorial address:
Katedra i Zakład Histologii i Embriologii Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Poznaniu, ul. Święcickiego 6, 60-781 Poznań, tel. +48 61 8546453, fax. +48 61 8546440, email: mnowicki@ump.edu.pl

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