TERC is not a major gene in human neural tube defects.
BACKGROUND
Neural tube defects (NTDs) are the second most common birth defects, after congenital heart defects. Telomerase, the reverse transcriptase that maintains telomere DNA, has been shown to be important for neural tube development and bilateral symmetry in the brain. In knockout mice null for the telomerase RNA component (TERC), telomere loss results in the failure of neural tube closure, primarily at the forebrain and midbrain.


METHODS
We investigated TERC for variants that may predispose to human NTDs in 477 NTD cases with a variety of phenotypic presentations.


RESULTS
Two novel single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified in the human TERC sequence but showed no association with the NTD phenotype.


CONCLUSIONS
Variants in TERC are unlikely to be a major risk factor for the most common form of human NTDs, lumbosacral myelomeningocele.
Center for Human Genetics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.
Lisa P
LP
Benz
Frances E
FE
Swift
Felicia L
FL
Graham
David S
DS
Enterline
Elizabeth C
EC
Melvin
Preston
P
Hammock
John R
JR
Gilbert
Marcy C
MC
Speer
Alexander G
AG
Bassuk
John A
JA
Kessler
Timothy M
TM
George
D000818:Animals; D017931:DNA Primers; D005260:Female; D005784:Gene Amplification; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009436:Neural Tube Defects / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000453:epidemiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D011247:Pregnancy; D012313:RNA / Q000235:genetics*; D019098:Telomerase / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics*
D017931:DNA Primers; C422952:telomerase RNA; D012313:RNA; D019098:Telomerase