Epigenetic regulation in mammalian development and dysfunction: the effects of somatic cloning and genomic imprinting

Although somatic cell cloning has been accomplished in several mammalian species, its efficiency remains considerably low due to fetal mortality during the pre- and perinatal periods, which suggests incomplete initialization of epigenetic memories during the somatic cloning procedure. Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic mechanism that produces functional differences between the paternal and maternal genomes, and plays an essential role in...