Prantera Giorgio, Bongiorni Silvia
Department of Ecology and Biology, University of Tuscia, Via San Camillo de Lellis, 01100 Viterbo, Italy.
Genet Res Int. 2012;2012:867390. doi: 10.1155/2012/867390. Epub 2012 Apr 8.
Recently, epigenetics has had an ever-growing impact on research not only for its intrinsic interest but also because it has been implied in biological phenomena, such as tumor emergence and progression. The first epigenetic phenomenon to be described in the early 1960s was chromosome imprinting in some insect species (sciaridae and coccoideae). Here, we discuss recent experimental results to dissect the phenomenon of imprinted facultative heterochromatinization in Lecanoid coccids (mealybugs). In these insect species, the entire paternally derived haploid chromosome set becomes heterochromatic during embryogenesis in males. We describe the role of known epigenetic marks, such as DNA methylation and histone modifications, in this phenomenon. We then discuss the models proposed to explain the noncanonical chromosome cycle of these species.
最近，表观遗传学不仅因其内在的研究价值，而且因其与肿瘤发生和进展等生物学现象相关，对研究产生了越来越大的影响。20世纪60年代初描述的第一个表观遗传现象是某些昆虫物种（蕈蚊科和蚧总科）中的染色体印记。在这里，我们讨论了最近的实验结果，以剖析蜡蚧科（粉蚧）中印记性兼性异染色质化现象。在这些昆虫物种中，雄性胚胎发育过程中，父本来源的整个单倍体染色体组会变成异染色质。我们描述了已知表观遗传标记，如DNA甲基化和组蛋白修饰，在这一现象中的作用。然后，我们讨论了为解释这些物种非典型染色体周期而提出的模型。
