RE: All about the Sperm-DNA (My Research, Vol. 1)
Awesome post as usual, thanks for the fun read. Looks like some cool research and definitely something we'll have to understand before we get to "GATACA" levels of engineering our genomes.
It also reminded me of an autism-like condition I learned about last year called Angelman syndrome. It's caused by a mutation in the maternal copy of a specific gene (UBE3A) because the paternal copy of the gene is selectively methylated and never expressed in neurological development.
This imprinting is more prominent in the limbic system and the cerebellum, centres responsible for emotion responses and complex motor movements. Consiquently these are often the deficits we see in individuals with Angelman syndrome. It's so called because a hallmark of the disease is a happy disposition.