Allelic exclusion is a process by which only one allele of a gene is expressed while the other allele is silenced. For most genes, the individual inherits one copy of each gene from each parent.
At least two distinct selection events can lead to allelic exclusion. On one hand, one allele of the gene can be transcriptionally silent, which would result in the expression of only the second allele. On the other hand, both alleles can be transcribed, in which case posttrancriptional and posttranslational mechanisms will lead to the elimination of the protein product of one allele.
Though the mechanism by which allelic exclusion occurs is not fully understood.
Read more about Allelic Exclusion: Allelic Exclusion in B-Lymphocytes, Allelic Exclusion in Sensory Neurons
Famous quotes containing the word exclusion:
“All men, in the abstract, are just and good; what hinders them, in the particular, is, the momentary predominance of the finite and individual over the general truth. The condition of our incarnation in a private self, seems to be, a perpetual tendency to prefer the private law, to obey the private impulse, to the exclusion of the law of the universal being.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)