Open AccessIs imprinting the result of “friendly fire” by the host defense system?
Author(s) -
Miroslava Ondičová,
Rebecca J. Oakey,
Colum P. Walsh
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.587
H-Index - 233
eISSN - 1553-7404
pISSN - 1553-7390
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008599
Subject(s) - biology , imprinting (psychology) , retrotransposon , dna methylation , genetics , genomic imprinting , zinc finger , computational biology , evolutionary biology , transposable element , gene , transcription factor , genome , gene expression
In 1993, Denise Barlow proposed that genomic imprinting might have arisen from a host defense mechanism designed to inactivate retrotransposons. Although there were few examples at hand, she suggested that there should be maternal-specific and paternal-specific factors involved, with cognate imprinting boxes that they recognized; furthermore, the system should build on conserved biochemical factors, including DNA methylation, and maternal control should predominate for imprints. Here, we revisit this hypothesis in the light of recent advances in our understanding of host defense and DNA methylation and in particular, the link with Krüppel-associated box–zinc finger (KRAB-ZF) proteins.