Nature Genetics
33, 502 - 507 (2003)
Published online: 10 March 2003; | doi:10.1038/ng1125
Genome imprinting regulated by the mouse Polycomb group protein EedJesse Mager1, 2, Nathan D. Montgomery1, 2, Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena1, 3
& Terry Magnuson1, 2, 31
Department of Genetics and Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 103 Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7264, USA. 2
Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 103 Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7264, USA. 3
Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 103 Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7264, USA.
Correspondence should be addressed to Terry Magnuson terry_magnuson@med.unc.eduEpigenetic regulation is essential for temporal, tissue-specific and parent-of-origin−dependent gene expression. It has recently been found that the mouse Polycomb group (PcG) gene Eed (embryonic ectoderm development) acts to maintain repression of the imprinted X chromosome. Here, we investigated whether Eed is also required for regulation of autosomal imprinted loci. Expression analyses showed that transcripts from the silent alleles of a subset of paternally repressed genes were present in Eed-/- embryos. Parent-of-origin methylation was preserved in these embryos, but we observed changes in the methylation status of specific CpGs in differentially methylated regions (DMRs) at affected but not at unaffected loci. These data identify Eed as a member of a new class of trans-acting factors that regulate parent-of-origin expression at imprinted loci.
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