A paternal presence pre-birth
June 15, 2009
The dramatic size dichotomy between male and female gametes (known as anisogamy) is a testament to the initial difference in parental investment between the sexes. Indeed, it has long been assumed that any non-genetic factors influencing our development came packaged in the spacious cytoplasm of the egg. With the sperm’s insatiable need for speed, evolution has shed all unnecessary bulk from the gametes’ data-filled head, leaving only the barebones DNA helix that makes you your father’s child.
But a recent study published yesterday in the online edition of Nature challenges this long-standing belief that sperm are nothing more than packets of genetic code. Scientists at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah School of Medicine found that mature, human sperm have extensive epigenetic markings, particularly at loci that are important in development.
Maybe we have a little more than we realized to be thanking our fathers for this Father’s Day.
