The Science Seminar Series: February 21, 2008 4pm

Epigenomics: Comparative Analysis of Imprinted Region on Human Chromosome 11p15

Dr. Ikhide Imumorin, Spelman College

Hosting Dept: Biology

Powell Hall

Time: 4:00 - 5:00pm

Abstract

Human chromosome 11p region contains the highest number of known imprinted genes reported to date. To gain better comparative understanding of this region, we have carried out in-silico comparative analysis of the annotated genomic sequences of the human, chimpanzee, mouse, rat, dog and bovine genomes, and used the chicken genome as the out-group. The analysis showed a high conservation of synteny, gene order and transcription orientation in all but one of the mammalian genomes, while the chicken genome showed some rearrangements in this region. The average density of genes in this region was 80% higher than in the rest of the chromosome in the mammals, except for rodents and chicken that were only about 10 and 20% higher, respectively. The average density of CpG islands was 2 times higher in this region compared to the rest of the chromosome in the mammals, except for rodents which remained the same. There was a 60% and 30% decrease in repeats in human and mouse respectively compared to the rest of the chromosome. Our study suggests that there may be structural features of imprinted regions that may be predictive of important differences in gene imprinting among mammalian species.