AP31672

Puberty in Girls

According to new research, the age at which girls reach sexual maturity is influenced by 'imprinted' genes. 'Imprinted' genes are a small sub-set of genes whose activity differs depending on which parent passes on that gene. An international study of 180,000 women, to include scientists from 166 institutions around the world was done and studies show that researchers found 123 genetic variations that coincided with the timing of which girls received their first menstrual cycle."Normally, our inherited physical characteristics reflect a roughly average combination of our parents' genomes, but imprinted genes place unequal weight on the influence of either the mother's or the father's genes. Our findings imply that in a family, one parent may more profoundly affect puberty timing in their daughters than the other parent." says Dr. John Perry, lead author at the Medical Research Council ( Epidemiology Unit), University of Cambridge.The activity of imprinted genes differs depending on which parent the gene is inherited from -- some genes are only active when inherited from the mother, others are only active when inherited from the father. In our textbook, it says that menarche (the onset of menstruation) usually occurs around the age of 12. Researchers can now debate that the age of which a girl receives her menarche may depend on the genes of her parents. If this is true, girls can have an idea of when puberty will happen. That definitely may have been beneficial when I was growing up.

References: University of Cambridge. "Age of puberty in girls influenced by which parent 'imprinted' genes are inherited from." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 July 2014. .

John R. B. Perry et al. **Parent-of-origin-specific allelic associations among 106 genomic loci for age at menarche**. //Nature//, 2014; DOI: 10.1038/nature13545

Wood, Samuel E., Ellen R. Green. Wood, and Denise Roberts. Boyd. //Mastering the World of Psychology//. Fourth ed. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2011. Print.

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