About the workshop

The biological significance of epigenetic regulation has been clarified in a few cases, one being the regulation of gene expression according to parental origin, defined as parental genomic imprinting.

Imprinting has been identified in plants and mammals and has proven to bear a major impact on sexual reproduction with potential repercussion on crop yield and assisted reproduction techniques used in veterinary and medical practices.

The prominent studies in mammals and the widespread belief that imprinting was confined to mammals had a tendency to obscure the role of imprinting in other systems. However it now becomes apparent that imprinting has evolved independently in plants, mammals and possibly other organisms. This workshop is to our knowledge the first attempt to confront the results obtained by researchers working on epigenetic controls of reproduction in mammals, plants and invertebrates.

The molecular events that govern the remodeling of chromatin in order to reset the genome activity and the epigenetic controls taking place during gametogenesis and after fertilization are only beginning to be understood. These essential steps of reproduction involve biological constraints defining the differentiated gametic cell types, conflicting with the necessary re-setting of epigenetic modifications towards totipotency.

It is thus likely that in the near future evidence of novel physiological and molecular controls will emerge from different model systems. This knowledge will elucidate what is the part of imprinting that is truly original and unique to mammals and what may originate from a set of still unknown mechanisms common to reproduction in organisms where imprinting does not take place.

Click image to download/view workshop poster