Inheritance patterns of maternal alleles in imprinted regions of the mouse genome at different stages of development

Deviations from Mendelian 1:1 transmission ratio have been observed in mice and humans. With few exceptions, the mechanism leading to transmission-ratio distortion (TRD) remains obscure. We proposed that a genomic imprinting mechanism plays a key role in the genesis of grandparental origin-dependent TRD (Naumova et al. 2001). To further test this hypothesis, we analyzed the transmission of grandparental alleles at three imprinted regions of the mouse genome known to contain genes required for embryo development. We found and replicated moderate (58%: 42%) TRD in favor of grandmaternal alleles in the imprinted region of maternal distal Chromosome (Chr) 12 among female offspring. Comparison of transmission ratios at the distorted region of Chr 12 among 3-week-old mice with those in embryos suggests that the distortion in favor of grandmaternal alleles is owing to postimplantation embryo loss. The absence of grandparental origin-dependent TRD for maternal Chr 6 and 7 implies that the relationship between TRD and imprinting is complex. Most likely, multiple conditions are required for TRD to occur.