ELi5: What is Genetic Imprinting? How is it different of other Chromosomal and Genetic errors like Addition or Deletion?

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I’ve been trying to wrapped around it and read multiple books but nowhere I got satisfactory explanation.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I assume you mean genomic imprinting. First of all, it’s simply not an error at all. It does not imply any deviation from what the genetic code “should” be and is a nomal part of how everyone human’s genes work (though there are plenty of other organisms which don’t use it). In fact if this mechanism doesn’t work, you get certain diseases.

Genes can be turned on and off without changing the genetic code. This is very important because if every cell in your body started producing every protein encoded in your genome completely unregulated, you would stop existing very quickly. One way to turn genes on or off is through epigenetic modifications and that’s what genomic imprinting is about. If a gene is affected by this mechanism, then you’ll recieve one allele from each parent exactly as you “should”, but only the one you got from your father is turned on and the other is off (or vice versa). Again, this has no impact on the genetic code, the sequence of A,T,C and G is the exact same whether it’s on or off. Epigenetics is mostly about DNA methylation and histone modification.

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