In maize, seed development initiates with double fertilization to form the embryo and the nutritive endosperm. Prior to fertilization of the endosperm, the maternal genome is demethylated, establishing the primary epigenetic mark for parent-of-origin based, or imprinted, gene expression. We are interested in understanding how imprinting arises at a locus and how genetic and epigenetic differences (particularly at TEs) work together to create an imprinted pattern of expression that varies across genotypes and species.