Placental Transcriptome and Stunting

Mammals with placentas and flowering plants evolved genomic imprinting in nutritive tissues, the placenta and endosperm, respectively. In these tissues, the genomes inherited from the mother and father are in conflict over resource allocation to offspring. In imprinted genes, transcription is repressed on the paternal or the maternal allele, resulting in allele specific expression (ASE). We investigated the variation in ASE of imprinted genes in term human placentas in order to detect loss of imprinting (LOI), which leads to partial expression of the repressed allele. We collected the placental tissue from birth to women in our multigenerational, prospective cohort study in Mali, West Africa. We followed the women from their own infancies, early childhood to adulthood (age 18+ years).... (for more see dbGaP study page.)