Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

Where genotype is not predictive of phenotype: towards an understanding of the molecular basis of reduced penetrance in human inherited disease

Cooper, David Neil ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8943-8484, Krawczak, Michael, Polychronakos, Constantin, Tyler-Smith, Chris and Kehrer-Sawatzki, Hildegard 2013. Where genotype is not predictive of phenotype: towards an understanding of the molecular basis of reduced penetrance in human inherited disease. Human Genetics 132 (10) , pp. 1077-1130. 10.1007/s00439-013-1331-2

[thumbnail of Cooper 2013.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (868kB) | Preview

Abstract

Some individuals with a particular disease-causing mutation or genotype fail to express most if not all features of the disease in question, a phenomenon that is known as ‘reduced (or incomplete) penetrance’. Reduced penetrance is not uncommon; indeed, there are many known examples of ‘disease-causing mutations’ that fail to cause disease in at least a proportion of the individuals who carry them. Reduced penetrance may therefore explain not only why genetic diseases are occasionally transmitted through unaffected parents, but also why healthy individuals can harbour quite large numbers of potentially disadvantageous variants in their genomes without suffering any obvious ill effects. Reduced penetrance can be a function of the specific mutation(s) involved or of allele dosage. It may also result from differential allelic expression, copy number variation or the modulating influence of additional genetic variants in cis or in trans. The penetrance of some pathogenic genotypes is known to be age- and/or sex-dependent. Variable penetrance may also reflect the action of unlinked modifier genes, epigenetic changes or environmental factors. At least in some cases, complete penetrance appears to require the presence of one or more genetic variants at other loci. In this review, we summarize the evidence for reduced penetrance being a widespread phenomenon in human genetics and explore some of the molecular mechanisms that may help to explain this enigmatic characteristic of human inherited disease.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Medicine
Subjects: Q Science > QH Natural history > QH426 Genetics
Publisher: Springer
ISSN: 0340-6717
Funders: Wellcome Trust
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 30 March 2016
Last Modified: 05 May 2023 09:51
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/61467

Citation Data

Cited 420 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics