PhD from Texas A&M University
Graduate fields: Animal Science, Animal Breeding
Area(s) of interest:
- Animal molecular and quantitative genetics
- Functional and nutritional genomics
- Metabolic syndrome in animal models
- Genetics and economics of indigenous livestock resources in Sub-Saharan Africa
Teaching:
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Current:
- ANSC 2210 Introductory Animal Genetics Proposed:
- ANSC 4870 Molecular and Evolutionary Genetics of Domestic Animals
- ANSC 6890 Special Topics in Animal Genomics
- American Society of Animal Science
- International Society of Animal Genetics
- Genetics Society of America
- NIH-NIDDK Network of Minority Investigators
Current Research Interests:
Epigenetics of Mammalian Growth and Development
Genomic imprinting is defined as non-Mendelian expression from only one of the two parental copies of a gene. It has become a very important topic of biological interest in recent years due to involvement in various biological processes, notably control of intra-uterine growth, brain function, behavior and tumorigenesis. We are interested in epigenetic control of growth-related genes and influence of parent-of-origin effects on mammalian birth weight, particularly in cattle. Better understanding of imprinted genes would help with molecular-assisted selection at birth and better success with in-vitro embryo culture and nuclear cloning. This is because alterations in epigenetic modifications manifested in aberrant reprogramming during pre-implantation development in cultured and cloned embryos lead to a myriad of pathologies such as large offspring syndrome in ruminants.
- Representative Publications and Presentations
- Imumorin, I.G., Kim, H-W., Lee, Y-M., De Koning, D.-J., Arendonk, J.A.M., De Donato, M., Taylor, J.F. and Kim J-J. Parent-of-origin effects on bovine growth and carcass traits with possible implications for subspecies hybridization. BMC Genomics. Under review.
- De Donato, M., Young, E.Z., Dubose, P.M., Jeff, J., Bates, C. and Imumorin, I.G. Comparative in-silico analysis of the heavily imprinted human chromosome 11p15 region demonstrates differences among mammalian genomes. Epigenetics. Under review.
- Lawton, B.R., Carone, B.R., Obergfell, C., Ferreri, G., Gondolphi, C., VandeBerg, J.L., Imumorin, I.G., O’Neill, R.J. and O’Neill, M.J. 2008. Genomic imprinting of IGF2 in marsupials is methylation dependent. BMC Genomics. 9:205.
Genetics of Metabolic Syndrome
Our interest in genetics of metabolic syndrome involves the emerging area of intra-uterine fetal metabolic programming via nutritional effects on gene expression that might set the stage for the cluster of adult onset diseases that underlie the metabolic syndrome. There is a preponderance of evidence that an overwhelming number of known imprinted genes are expressed (in a few cases exclusively) in the developing fetus and placenta, therefore, aberrant epigenetic reprogramming due to mutations in these genes might play a role in susceptibility to metabolic disease later in life. Our goal is to identify and characterize parent-of-origin effects in imprinted candidate genes, establish epigenetic association between these genes and metabolic syndrome using algorithms designed to test for imprinted transmission of disease alleles in animal models of human disease and livestock development.
- Representative Publications
- Steinle N.I., Kazlauskaite, R., Imumorin, I.G., Hsueh, W.-C., Pollin, T.I., O’Connell, J.R., Mitchell, B.D. and Shuldiner, A.R. 2004. Variation in the Lamin A/C (LMNA) Gene: Associations with metabolic syndrome. Arterio. Thromb. Vasc. Biol. 24:1708 – 13.
- Mitchell, B.D and Imumorin, I.G. 2002. Genetic determinants of diabetes and atherosclerosis (Invited Review). Current Atheroscl. Reports 4 (3): 193 – 98.
- Imumorin, I.G., Hsueh, W. C., Mitchell, B.D. and Shuldiner, A.R. 2002. Linkage and association analyses of diabetes and related traits with chromosome 14p markers in the Amish Family Diabetes Study. Diabetes 51 (Suppl 2): A265.
Characterization of Indigenous Livestock Resources in Sub-Saharan Africa
Most domestic animal species in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the West African sub-region have not been properly characterized. Local populations, which are genetic resources that harbor enormous natural variation that must be preserved, are under pressure from imported high performing breeds In addition, introgression from other populations through crossbreeding practices result in the loss of original genetic variants, hence most breeds and varieties are not only threatened by extinction due to breed replacement but also by the genetic erosion of the native population. In collaboration with colleagues across Sub-Saharan Africa, we are involved in studies to study natural variation in indigenous livestock using protein isozymes and microsatellite DNA markers, and how these correlate with physiological indices of performance and productivity and contribute to breed improvement and conservation of important germplasm on the African continent.
- Representative Publications
- Okpeku, M.O. Ozoje, M.O., O’Neill, M.J., Adebambo, O.A. and Imumorin, I.G. 2009. Population genetic structure of goats in Southwestern Nigerian using microsatellite DNA markers. Genetics, Selection and Evolution. Submitted.
- Orheruata, M., Okpeku, M.O. and Imumorin, I.G. 2004. Phenotypic and body measurement characteristics in native and some exotic chickens in Edo State. Proceedings 29th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Society for Animal Production. 29: 17 – 21.
- Imumorin, I.G., Ologun, A.G. and Oyeyemi, M. O. 1999. Preliminary observations on effects of hemoglobin genotype and estimate of genetic distance at the Hb locus in West African Dwarf and Red Sokoto goats. Tropical Journal of Animal Sciences 1: 1 – 9.