Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Recent genomic research increases our understanding of the causes of complex diseases and strengthens the evidence that many complex diseases, even those with late age of onset, are caused in part by genetically induced, adverse prenatal environments.This special issue of the Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology specifically examines the evidence that gene-gene interactions during early development influence human traits and diseases.Mothers largely determine the fetal environment; therefore the maternal genotypes are expected to influence fetal development.Two types of gene-gene interactions are possible during pregnancy, intragenerational interaction, and intergenerational interaction.Intragenerational effects concern gene-gene interactions within an individual's genome to affect their own disease outcome.Intergenerational effects lead to conflicts between a mother and her fetus in some cases and, in other cases, they lead to beneficial environments that protect against disease.Intergenerational interactions can occur between genes in a child's genome affecting the mother's phenotype or between genes in a mother's genome affecting the child's phenotype.There can also be interactions between the maternal genes and fetal genes, such as maternal-fetal genotype incompatibility, that cause changes in the mother's or the child's phenotype.Maternal-fetal genotype (MFG) incompatibility is not just a theoretical possibility.The most well-known example of this form of gene-gene interaction is Rhesus factor Dinduced hemolytic disease of the newborn [1], in which a Rhesus-negative mother develops antibodies to her Rhesuspositive fetus, leading to destruction of fetal red blood cells.Gene-gene interactions have also been studied as causes of pregnancy complications such as gestational
Source: BioMed Research International
DOI: 10.1155/2010/853612
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,680
OpenAlex ID: W2071490593