ArticlePLoS biology2006
A maternal-offspring coadaptation theory for the evolution of genomic imprinting.
Article in PLoS biology, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 102 papers.
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Who cites it
102 citing papers in PubMed.
- Separating direct, indirect, and parent-of-origin genetic effects in the human population.Cell genomics · 2026Article
- Evolution of Gene Expression Across Functional Regions of the Mouse Placenta.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- A quantitative genetic model for indirect genetic effects and genomic imprinting under random and assortative mating.Genetics · 2026Article
- Bioinformatics insights into plant genomic imprinting: approaches, challenges, and future perspectives.Briefings in functional genomics · 2026Review
- How Imprinted Genes Shape Nurturing Behaviours and Neural Circuits.Brain, behavior and evolution · 2026Review
- Intergenerational neuroimaging's present and future: Considering sex as a biological variable to enhance knowledge of brain development through parent-offspring similarity.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Review
- Separating direct, indirect and parent-of-origin genetic effects in the human population.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Decoding hybridization barriers: the molecular and genetic orchestration of the triploid block in Arabidopsis thaliana.BMC plant biology · 2025Review
- Empowering plant epigenetics to breed resilience of crops: From nucleolar dominance to transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.The plant genome · 2025Review
- Article
- United by conflict: Convergent signatures of parental conflict in angiosperms and placental mammals.The Journal of heredity · 2024Review
- Review
- Unveiling the imprinted dance: how parental genomes orchestrate seed development and hybrid success.Frontiers in plant science · 2024Review
- Environmental and Genetic Traffic in the Journey from Sperm to Offspring.Biomolecules · 2023Review
- Imprinted genes and the manipulation of parenting in mammals.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2023Review
- The parenting hub of the hypothalamus is a focus of imprinted gene action.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
- Epigenetic opportunities for evolutionary computation.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Endosperm and Maternal-specific expression of EIN2 in the endosperm affects endosperm cellularization and seed size in Arabidopsis.Genetics · 2023Article
- Epigenetic Reprogramming and Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2023Review
- Imprinted Genes: Genomic Conservation, Transcriptomic Dynamics and Phenomic Significance in Health and Diseases.International journal of biological sciences · 2023Review
42 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Imprinted genes are expressed either from the maternally or paternally inherited copy only, and they play a key role in regulating complex biological processes, including offspring development and mother-offspring interactions. There are several competing theories attempting to explain the evolutionary origin of this monoallelic pattern of gene expression, but a prevailing view has emerged that holds that genomic imprinting is a consequence of conflict between maternal and paternal gene copies over maternal investment. However, many imprinting patterns and the apparent overabundance of maternally expressed genes remain unexplained and may be incompatible with current theory. Here we demonstrate that sole expression of maternal gene copies is favored by natural selection because it increases the adaptive integration of offspring and maternal genomes, leading to higher offspring fitness. This novel coadaptation theory for the evolution of genomic imprinting is consistent with results of recent studies on epigenetic effects, and it provides a testable hypothesis for the origin of previously unexplained major imprinting patterns across different taxa. In conjunction with existing hypotheses, our results suggest that imprinting may have evolved due to different selective pressures at different loci.
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