Genetic imprinting in clinical genetics.

Genetic, and indeed genomic, imprinting does occur in humans. This is manifest at the level of the genome, the individual chromosome, subchromosomal region or fragile site, or the single locus. The best evidence at the single gene level comes from a consideration of familial tumour syndromes. Chromosomal imprinting effects are revealed when uniparental disomy occurs, as in the Prader-Willi syndrome and doubtless other sporadic, congenital anomaly syndromes. Genomic imprinting is manifest in the developmental defects of hydatidiform mole, teratoma and triploidy. Fragile (X) mental retardation shows an unusual pattern of inheritance, and imprinting can account for these effects. Future work in clinical genetics may identify congenital anomalies and growth disorders caused by imprinting: the identification of imprinting effects for specific chromosomal regions in mice will allow the examination of the homologous chromosomal region in humans.