Approximately one in every 200 mammalian proteins is anchored to the cell membrane through a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor. These proteins play important roles notably in neurological development and function. To date, more than 20 genes have been implicated in the biogenesis of GPI-anchored proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe early repolarization (ER) pattern on the 12-lead electrocardiogram is characterized by J point elevation in the inferior and/or lateral leads. The ER pattern is associated with an increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD). Based on studies in animal models and genetic studies, it has been proposed that J point elevation in ER is a manifestation of augmented dispersion of repolarization which creates a substrate for ventricular arrhythmia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The genetic aetiology of neurodevelopmental defects is extremely diverse, and the lack of distinctive phenotypic features means that genetic criteria are often required for accurate diagnostic classification. We aimed to identify the causative genetic lesions in two families in which eight affected individuals displayed variable learning disability, spasticity and abnormal gait.
Methods: Autosomal recessive inheritance was suggested by consanguinity in one family and by sibling recurrences with normal parents in the second.
Background: Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) is a multisystem disorder with distinctive facial appearance, intellectual disability and growth failure as prominent features. Most individuals with typical CdLS have de novo heterozygous loss-of-function mutations in NIPBL with mosaic individuals representing a significant proportion. Mutations in other cohesin components, SMC1A, SMC3, HDAC8 and RAD21 cause less typical CdLS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTMC1, a second-tier deafness gene below GJB2, is an appreciable cause of recessive nonsyndromic hearing loss (DFNB7/11) in North Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South Asia. Additionally, a single founder mutation, c.100C>T (p.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeighboring genes are often coordinately expressed within cis-regulatory modules, but evidence that nonparalogous genes share functions in mammals is lacking. Here, we report that mutation of either TMEM138 or TMEM216 causes a phenotypically indistinguishable human ciliopathy, Joubert syndrome. Despite a lack of sequence homology, the genes are aligned in a head-to-tail configuration and joined by chromosomal rearrangement at the amphibian-to-reptile evolutionary transition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To determine the clinical sensitivity of DFNB1 genetic testing (analysis of the connexin 26 gene GJB2) for non-syndromic sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in British Pakistani children and extend to a comparison with British White children and literature data.
Design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: City of Bradford, UK.
Digital clubbing, recognized by Hippocrates in the fifth century BC, is the outward hallmark of pulmonary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy, a clinical constellation that develops secondary to various acquired diseases, especially intrathoracic neoplasm. The pathogenesis of clubbing and hypertrophic osteoarthropathy has hitherto been poorly understood, but a clinically indistinguishable primary (idiopathic) form of hypertrophic osteoarthropathy (PHO) is recognized. This familial disorder can cause diagnostic confusion, as well as significant disability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMeckel syndrome (MKS) is a rare autosomal recessive lethal condition characterized by central nervous system malformations (typically occipital meningoencephalocele), postaxial polydactyly, multicystic kidney dysplasia, and ductal proliferation in the portal area of the liver. MKS is genetically heterogeneous and three loci have been mapped respectively on 17q23 (MKS1), 11q13 (MKS2), and 8q24 (MKS3). Very recently, two genes have been identified: MKS1/FLJ20345 on 17q in Finnish kindreds, carrying the same intronic deletion, c.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMeckel-Gruber syndrome is a severe autosomal, recessively inherited disorder characterized by bilateral renal cystic dysplasia, developmental defects of the central nervous system (most commonly occipital encephalocele), hepatic ductal dysplasia and cysts and polydactyly. MKS is genetically heterogeneous, with three loci mapped: MKS1, 17q21-24 (ref. 4); MKS2, 11q13 (ref.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMeckel-Gruber syndrome (MKS), the most common monogenic cause of neural tube defects, is an autosomal recessive disorder characterised by a combination of renal cysts and variably associated features, including developmental anomalies of the central nervous system (typically encephalcoele), hepatic ductal dysplasia and cysts, and polydactyly. Locus heterogeneity has been demonstrated by the mapping of the MKS1locus to 17q21-24 in Finnish kindreds, and of MKS2 to 11q13 in North African-Middle Eastern cohorts. In the present study, we have investigated the genetic basis of MKS in eight consanguineous kindreds, originating from the Indian sub-continent, that do not show linkage to either MKS1 or MKS2.
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