Expansion of a 12-kb VNTR containing the REXO1L1 gene cluster underlies the microscopically visible euchromatic variant of 8q21.2.

Copy number variants visible with the light microscope have been described as euchromatic variants (EVs) and EVs with extra G-light material at 8q21.2 have been reported only once before. We report four further patients with EVs of 8q21.

Precocious puberty in two girls with PEHO syndrome: a clinical feature not previously described.

The authors present 2 girls with progressive encephalopathy, hypsarrhythmia, and optic atrophy syndrome. They describe a novel finding, precocious puberty, a feature not previously reported in this syndrome. The authors also present their clinical features and the results of investigations, including radiological findings, and compare the patients of this report to previously reported cases.

Duplications of the critical Rubinstein-Taybi deletion region on chromosome 16p13.3 cause a novel recognisable syndrome.

Background: The introduction of molecular karyotyping technologies facilitated the identification of specific genetic disorders associated with imbalances of certain genomic regions. A detailed phenotypic delineation of interstitial 16p13.3 duplications is hampered by the scarcity of such patients.

Postnatal follow-up of prenatally diagnosed trisomy 16 mosaicism.

Objective: To determine the long-term outcome of pregnancies prenatally diagnosed with trisomy 16 and identify variables associated with the outcome.

Methods: We reviewed all published and our unpublished data from trisomy 16 pregnancies for which outcomes were available for children of greater than 1 year of age.

Results: Nineteen cases were diagnosed with trisomy 16 on chorionic villus sampling (CVS) and 17 cases at amniocentesis.

Identification and functional characterization of 2 variant alleles of the telomerase RNA template gene (TERC) in a patient with dyskeratosis congenita.

Heterozygous mutations of the human telomerase RNA template gene (TERC) have been described in patients with acquired aplastic anemia and the autosomal dominant form of dyskeratosis congenita (DKC). Patients with mutations in both TERC alleles have not yet been reported. Here, we report a patient with DKC who inherited 2 distinct TERC sequence variants from her parents; a deletion (216_229del) in one and a point mutation (37A>G) in the other allele of the TERC gene.