שאלה | 9. When a horse and donkey hybridize, the phenotype of the offspring (mule or hinny) depends on which species is the mother and which is the father. How is this phenomenon associated with genomic imprinting?

9. When a horse and donkey hybridize, the phenotype of the offspring (mule or hinny) depends on which species is the mother and which is the father. How is this phenomenon associated with genomic imprinting?

		Imprinting involves the random silencing of one allele, so hybrid offspring may fail to express key genes if both alleles are randomly silenced.
		Hybrid offspring show different phenotypes depending on which species contributes which set of imprinted genes
		Only maternal imprints are functional in early development, so hybrid viability depends solely on the mother's species.
		Imprinting leads to X-chromosome inactivation in males, which differs between species and causes developmental failure in male hybrids.