A study published in the advance online publication of
Tomohiro Kono and colleagues from the Tokyo University of Agriculture, Japan, report that they knocked out one allele of H19—a maternally expressed gene thought to function as A noncoding mRNA that blocks IN CIS the expression of Igf2—in an oocyte derived solely from two maternal genomes. A normally developed and viable parthenote resulted, suggesting a pivotal role for the paternally imprinted H19 gene in allowing Igf2 expression from the paternal allele and controlling the requirement for a paternal genome, according to the authors.
“When you put these two sets of chromosomes together functionally, the individual would have a father-like genome with the original mother genome, and therefore it works and gives rise to a ...
