So, one of the goals of this blog is to provide an introduction to the phenomenon of genomic imprinting. This is going to be assembled through a series of posts. They can all be found by searching under either the "primers" tag or the "genomic imprinting" tag. But, those searches will also bring up other material, and will present it in reverse chronological order, which may not be the most useful thing.
Here, I have attempted to organize them in a pedagogical order, which is mostly forward chronological, with a brief description of what each post covers. The goal is to provide something that is comprehensible to the reader with no background in genetics, or even biology. At the same time, I hope that there is enough information to serve as a resource, or at least a jumping-off point for the geneticist who is just getting their feet wet in imprinting and epigenetics.
Do you have specific questions about imprinting? Is there something that you've read about or heard about that you would like explained? Would you like that explanation to include pop-culture references? Drop me an e-mail, and I'll see what I can do.
Primers in Genomic Imprinting:
Genomic Imprinting I
What is genomic imprinting? Click to find out!
Genomic Imprinting II: Inclusive Fitness and Conflict
An introduction to the "kinship" or "conflict" theory of the evolutionary origins of imprinting.
Genomic Imprinting III: The Loudest Voice Prevails
Why do small evolutionary conflicts lead to complete silencing of one allele?
Genomic Imprinting IV: Escalation Between Loci
What happens when you have a pair of oppositely imprinted genes?
Genomic Imprinting V: DNA methylation and gene silencing
How does DNA methylation turn off a gene?
Genomic Imprinting VI: Hemimethylation
How are allelic methylation differences maintained through development?