Maternal care boosted by paternal imprinting in mammals

Previous work has suggested that the imprinted gene Phlda2 regulates the signalling function of the placenta by modulating the size of the endocrine compartment. This study investigated the affect that Phlda2 mutant placenta has upon the brains of the wildtype dams carrying different placenta and consequently offspring. Affymetrix Mouse Microarray analysis of maternal hippocampus and hypothalamus was used to demonstrate gene expression changes in the maternal brains of wildtype dams carrying mutant placenta at E16.5. Hippocampus and Hypothalamus of WT dams carrying E16.5 Phlda2+/+(129) (non-transgenic; 1X), Phlda2-/+(129) (maternal KO; 0X) and Phlda2+/+BACx1(129) (single copy Phlda2 transgene; 2X) placenta(N=4 of each genotype, two independent litters) were used to extract RNA and hybridize to Affymetrix microarrays.