10.04.2016 // Justin Wong, MSc Student, Babak Lab

Chromosomes and bytes of code: A computational genomics approach to identify imprinted genes on the human X chromosome 

​Humans and other mammals have two sets of chromosomes: one set that is maternally inherited; the other, paternally inherited.  While most genes are evenly expressed, there are cases where one copy of the gene is favoured over the other. We typically think of this happening as one trait or allele being ‘dominant’ over the other. In the case of genomic imprinting, however, gene expression is determined based on parent of origin, rather than gene sequence. This results in asymmetric expression of alleles for traits inherited maternally vs. paternally. Defects in imprinted genes are responsible for a number of diseases such as: Prader-Willi syndrome, Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, and Angelman syndrome. To date, there have been no imprinted genes identified on the human X chromosome. This is mainly due to the experimental limitations, as well as the random X inactivation that occurs in humans. With these restrictions in mind, how do we investigate genomic imprinting on the human X chromosome? Can computers and data mining be used to complement next-gen sequencing and traditional molecular techniques?

11:30-12:30 BioSci Rm. 3110