Is it possible to tell which parent a somatic chromosome came from without testing the parents?

Submitted by WillMammoth t3_11vc3a5 in askscience

Is it possible to detect whether a specific chromosome came from the mother or father of an individual without testing the parents? Ie given both of an individual's chromosome 1, is there any chemical marker or something which would indicate whether it came from the male or female parent?

My instinct says no, but I'm wondering if any epigenetic chromosomal markings are more associated with one sex or anything like that.

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quantumwalrus t1_jctpb4v wrote

I mean if the chromosome in question relates to a particular phenotype that has a visible presentation such as a cleft chin you would be able to determine which parent you received that gene from simply by looking at their chins and your chin. The epigenetic’s question is one I can’t answer as well as there is still a ton of research going into epigenetics but I wouldn’t be surprised if a probability of which parent a chromosome came from could be estimated using it.

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Fresh_Macaron_6919 t1_jdd9m95 wrote

>if any epigenetic chromosomal markings are more associated with one sex or anything like that.

Yes, this is the main thing that separates animals like ligers (M lion/F tiger) and tions (F lion/M tiger) as well as mules(M donkey/F horse) and hinnies(F donkey/M horse). Biologists wondered for a long time why these hybrids were so different depending on the sex of their parents, with the only significant, apparent factor being different womb environments. As it turns out the epigenetics differ depending on sex, which significantly effects the development of offspring even if the genes they received from their parents were the same.

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