[an error occurred while processing this directive]

HEREDITAS ›› 2010, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (8): 769-778.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1005.2010.00769

• en • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Review on the genomic imprinting at the mammalian DLK1-DIO3 cluster

ZHAO Li-Xia1, ZHAO Gao-Ping2, ZHOU Huan-Min 1, 2   

  1. 1. College of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Huhhot 010018, China; 2. College of Animal Science and Animal Medicine, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Huhhot 010018, China
  • Received:2009-10-27 Revised:2010-01-09 Online:2010-08-20 Published:2010-08-23
  • Contact: ZHOU Huan-Min E-mail:huanminzhou@263.net

Abstract: The mammalian imprinting domain DLK1-DIO3 is located on distal human chromosome 14, mouse chromosome 12 and sheep chromosome 18. This cluster contains three imprinted protein-coding genes (Dlk1, Rtl1, and Dio3), which were expressed from the paternally inherited chromosome and several imprinted noncoding RNA genes expressed from the maternally inherited allele, such as miRNAs, snoRNAs, and large noncoding RNA Gtl2. The altered gene dosage of DLK1-DIO3 cluster resulted in several severe abnormal phenotypes in human and mouse, even death, suggesting the importance of these genes for normal development. This review focuses on the function of imprinted genes on this domain and the mechanism of their imprinting regulation.

Key words: imprinting control region (ICR), DNA methylation, noncoding RNA, imprinting, DLK1-DIO3