Genetic basis of Parkinson's disease: inheritance, penetrance, and expression

Genetic basis of Parkinson’s disease: inheritance, penetrance, and expression

Parkinson's disease can be caused by rare familial genetic mutations, but in most cases it is likely to result from an interaction between multiple genetic and environmental risk factors. Over recent years, many variants in a growing number of genes involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease have been identified. Mutations in several genes have been shown to cause familial parkinsonism...

Biochemical Basis for Dominant Inheritance, Variable Penetrance, and Maternal Effects in RBP4 Congenital Eye Disease

Gestational vitamin A (retinol) deficiency poses a risk for ocular birth defects and blindness. We identified missense mutations in RBP4, encoding serum retinol binding protein, in three families with eye malformations of differing severity, including bilateral anophthalmia. The mutant phenotypes exhibit dominant inheritance, but incomplete penetrance. Maternal transmission significantly increa...

“ Genetic basis of inheritance and variation ”

Rethinking the genetic basis and inheritance of fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.

1. Mostacciuolo M, Pastorello E, Vazza G et al. Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy: epidemiological and molecular study in a north-east Italian population sample. Clin Genet 2009: 75: 550–555. 2. Lemmers RJLF, Van der Vliet PJ, Klooster R et al. A unifying genetic model for fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. Science 2010: 329: 1650–1653. 3. Scionti I, Greco F, Ricci G et al. Large-sca...

The genetic basis of familial hypercholesterolemia: inheritance, linkage, and mutations

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a genetic disorder of lipoprotein metabolism characterized by high plasma concentrations of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc), tendon xanthomas, and increased risk of premature coronary heart disease. FH is one of the most common inherited disorders; there are 10,000,000 people with FH worldwide, mainly heterozygotes. The most common FH cause is mu...