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jmurr

MH
Posts:158

07/13/2007 11:27 PM
We're getting pretty far from dogs and pointing development but this abstract may be of interest. The animals are rats, I believe. The epigenetic change and the behavior which induces it combine to cause trangenerational transmission - no germ-line change necessary. "Maternal care associated with methylation of the estrogen receptor-alpha1b promoter and estrogen receptor-alpha expression in the medial preoptic area of female offspring." Champagne FA, Weaver IC, Diorio J, Dymov S, Szyf M, Meaney MJ. Douglas Hospital Research Center, Montral, Qubec, Canada H4H 1R3. "Variations in maternal behavior are associated with differences in estrogen receptor (ER)-alpha expression in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) and are transmitted across generations such that, as adults, the female offspring of mothers that exhibit increased pup licking/grooming (LG) over the first week postpartum (i.e. high LG mothers) show increased ERalpha expression in the MPOA and are themselves high LG mothers. In the present studies, cross-fostering confirmed an association between maternal care and ERalpha expression in the MPOA; the biological offspring of low LG mothers fostered at birth to high LG dams show increased ERalpha expression in the MPOA. Cross-fostering the biological offspring of high LG mothers to low LG dams produces the opposite effect. We examined whether the maternal programing of ERalpha expression is associated with differences in methylation of the relevant ERalpha promoter. Levels of cytosine methylation across the ERalpha1b promoter were significantly elevated in the adult offspring of low, compared with high, LG mothers. Differentially methylated regions included a signal transducer and activator of transcription (Stat)5 binding site and the results of chromatin immunoprecipitation assays revealed decreased Stat5b binding to the ERalpha1b promoter in the adult offspring of low, compared with high, LG mothers. Finally, we found increased Stat5b levels in the MPOA of neonates reared by high, compared with low, LG mothers. These findings suggest that maternal care is associated with cytosine methylation of the ERalpha1b promoter, providing a potential mechanism for the programming of individual differences in ERalpha expression and maternal behavior in the female offspring. "PMID: 16513834 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]" ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cj" To: Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 9:07 AM Subject: Re: [working-gundog] epigenetics \| > Most of what I've found so far happens (perhaps) early in fetal \| > development so \| > propagation into germ cells is probably by standard cell differentiation \| > processes. \| > jere \| \| ~~~~~~~~ \| \| I can readily understand the transmission of epigenetic effects in bacteria \| and protozoans since they divide to reproduce and also they exchange DNA. I \| can understand epigenetic transmission in plants that propagate by runners, \| cuttings and other forms of cloning. I run into a mental block when it \| comes to most sexually reproducing organisms. Of course parthenogenesis \| could transfer epigenetic effects but the formation of unique reproductive \| cells from specific tissues early in mammalian life doesn't seem to favor \| any mechanism that could pass on epigenetic changes to the semi-mature or \| adult animal. \| \| (I will admit that teen age human males have a direct linkage between the \| brain and reproductive organs but it's primarily a nervous one in which the \| testes control the brain... there's no evidence of transmission of anything \| from the brain to the gonads.) \| \| Cj \|

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