INRA, UMR444, Laboratoire de Génétique Cellulaire, Castanet-Tolosan F-31326, France.
Genet Sel Evol. 2013 Jun 11;45(1):16. doi: 10.1186/1297-9686-45-16.
Little is known about epigenetic mechanisms in birds with the exception of the phenomenon of dosage compensation of sex chromosomes, although such mechanisms could be involved in the phenotypic variability of birds, as in several livestock species. This paper reviews the literature on epigenetic mechanisms that could contribute significantly to trait variability in birds, and compares the results to the existing knowledge of epigenetic mechanisms in mammals. The main issues addressed in this paper are: (1) Does genomic imprinting exist in birds? (2) How does the embryonic environment influence the adult phenotype in avian species? (3) Does the embryonic environment have an impact on phenotypic variability across several successive generations? The potential for epigenetic studies to improve the performance of individual animals through the implementation of limited changes in breeding conditions or the addition of new parameters in selection models is still an open question.
除了性染色体剂量补偿现象之外，人们对鸟类中的表观遗传机制知之甚少，尽管这些机制可能与几种家畜物种一样，参与了鸟类的表型变异。本文综述了可能对鸟类性状变异性有重要贡献的表观遗传机制的文献，并将结果与哺乳动物中已有的表观遗传机制知识进行了比较。本文主要探讨了以下问题：(1) 鸟类中存在基因组印迹吗？(2) 胚胎环境如何影响鸟类物种的成年表型？(3) 胚胎环境是否对多个连续世代的表型变异性有影响？通过在繁殖条件中实施有限的改变或在选择模型中添加新参数，使个体动物的表现得到改善的表观遗传研究的潜力仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。
