Month: September 2022

EUTHERIA, PLACENTAL MAMMALS. "Placental mammals all bear live young, which are nourished before birth in the mother's uterus through a specialized embryonic organ attached to the uterus wall, the placenta." https://lnkd.in/e3Zwz2F View in LinkedIn

HYBRID FETUS. "The fetus will express both maternal and paternal proteins. While the former will be tolerated by the mother’s immune system, the latter will be recognized as invasive. It is the placenta that protects the fetus from attack by the mother’s immune system." https://lnkd.in/e6q2jTP View in LinkedIn

UNIQUE CHALLENGE. "The overall placental structure mediates immune challenges found in no other organ of the body, as it involves two genetically distinct organisms: mother (decidua) and fetus (placental trophoblast)." https://lnkd.in/eN_bZTg View in LinkedIn

PLACENTAL PLASTICITY. "The placental system and the fetal membranes evolved an astonishing complexity and diversity following the radiation of placental mammals. This plasticity may have been driven by evolutionary intraspecies tensions between the mother and the fetus and the involved genes. Likely, such tensions resulted in a field of opposing processes between the parent and offspring." https://lnkd.in/edVs2NW View in LinkedIn

BORROWED GENES. "About 3000 genes are specifically expressed in eutherian placentas, associated with gene duplications, specifically expressed genes, and a high percentage of retroviral genes adapted for placental functions." https://lnkd.in/edVs2NW View in LinkedIn

"ANCIENT GENES involved in growth and metabolism were co-opted for use during early embryogenesis, likely enabling the accelerated development of extraembryonic tissues. Recently duplicated genes are utilized at later stages of placentation to meet the metabolic needs of a diverse range of pregnancy physiologies. Together, these mechanisms served to develop the specialized placenta, a novel structure that led to expansion of the eutherian mammal, including humankind." https://lnkd.in/eN_bZTg View in LinkedIn

VIRAL GENE EXCHANGE. "Retroviruses are often expressed in the placenta. Placental expression probably evolved to facilitate retroviral transmission from mother to offspring and from offspring to mother." https://lnkd.in/edp9HQZ View in LinkedIn

DOMESTICATED VIRAL GENES. "The placenta became a site where retroviral genes were ‘domesticated’ to serve adaptive functions in the host, including the manipulation of maternal physiology for the benefit of the fetus." https://lnkd.in/edp9HQZ View in LinkedIn

PLACENTAL EVOLUTION. "Three distinct mechanisms have been proposed to mediate the evolution of new form, including changes in splicing isoforms, increased transcriptional regulatory complexity, and gene family expansion by duplication and divergence." https://lnkd.in/eN_bZTg View in LinkedIn

VIRAL ACQUISITIONS. "Many mammalian viruses have acquired genes from their hosts during their evolution. The rationale for these acquisitions is usually quite clear: the captured genes are subverted to provide a selective advantage to the virus." https://lnkd.in/e9E9b8u View in LinkedIn