Neurodevelopmental Memes

Genetics humor at its finest! This meme perfectly captures the fascinating phenomenon of genomic imprinting in Angelman Syndrome. The paternal UBE3A gene is just chilling there with a smile while the maternal UBE3A gene is literally screaming because it's the one doing all the work! In genomic imprinting, only one parental allele is expressed while the other is silenced. When the maternal UBE3A gene is defective or missing, the paternal copy can't compensate because it's epigenetically silenced in neurons, resulting in Angelman Syndrome. It's basically like having only one working parent in the gene household, and when that parent calls in sick, nobody's making dinner!