Inheritance of cleft palate in South America: evidence for a major locus recessive.
OBJECTIVE
Determine the model of inheritance of non-syndromic cleft palate in humans.


METHODS
Complex segregation analysis performed in families of consecutive newborns affected with non-syndromic cleft palate.


METHODS
The Latin American Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations (ECLAMC). Four hundred and seven consecutive newborns affected with non-syndromic cleft palate registered during the period 1967-97.


METHODS
Likelihood ratio test and Akaike information criterion (AIC) values.


RESULTS
The single major locus recessive model provided a significantly better explanation of the data. It was the most parsimonious and had the smallest AIC value of the six models tested with approximately the same likelihood as the general model (chi2 = 2.44, p = 0.5).


CONCLUSIONS
To have defined a genetic model for non-syndromic cleft palate and provided evidence for a single major locus inheritance suggests that genetic linkage studies could be implemented.
Vieira
A R
AR
Latin American Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations (ECLAMC), Department of Genetics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. alexandre-vieira@uiowa.edu
Romitti
P A
PA
Orioli
I M
IM
Castilla
E E
EE
D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005808:Genes, Recessive; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D040582:Inheritance Patterns; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010375:Pedigree; D013020:South America / Q000453:epidemiology