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Marsupial mothers regulate the composition of their milk so that it is optimal for the development stage of their young. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Epigenetics & Chromatin shows that, similar to the human placenta, which regulates embryonic growth and development, insulin appears to be imprinted in the marsupial mammary gland.
Insulin is well known as the hormone which regulates blood sugar levels but it also essential for proper functioning of the nervous system, protein synthesis, and for cell growth and survival. It is also required for lactation in mammals and, along with insulin growth factor 2 (IGF2), is present in milk. Imprinting is a way of controlling gene expression. To ensure only one copy of a certain gene is active (monoallelic), the other copy is silenced, usually by methylation. Imprinting is established during sperm or egg production so that the developing embryo inherits paternally imprinted genes from its father, and maternally imprinted from its mother. Consequently the active copy is inherited only from either the mother or father. However this is complicated by imprinting being both tissue specific and dependent on the stage of development.
http://phys.org/news/2012-08-imprinting-wallaby-growth-young.html
Insulin is well known as the hormone which regulates blood sugar levels but it also essential for proper functioning of the nervous system, protein synthesis, and for cell growth and survival. It is also required for lactation in mammals and, along with insulin growth factor 2 (IGF2), is present in milk. Imprinting is a way of controlling gene expression. To ensure only one copy of a certain gene is active (monoallelic), the other copy is silenced, usually by methylation. Imprinting is established during sperm or egg production so that the developing embryo inherits paternally imprinted genes from its father, and maternally imprinted from its mother. Consequently the active copy is inherited only from either the mother or father. However this is complicated by imprinting being both tissue specific and dependent on the stage of development.
http://phys.org/news/2012-08-imprinting-wallaby-growth-young.html