Genetic approaches to identify disease genes for birth defects with cleft lip/palate as a model.
BACKGROUND
Understanding the etiology of birth defects is an important step toward developing improved treatment and preventive strategies. Most birth defects have an underlying genetic basis, ranging from single genes playing dominant or recessive roles in Mendelian disorders to a mixture of contributions from multiple genes and environmental triggers in complex traits. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of genetic approaches to identifying disease genes for genetically complex birth defects.


METHODS
A review of the literature describing successes and limitations for identifying disease genes for complex traits was conducted.


RESULTS
Cleft lip and cleft palate are common congenital anomalies with significant medical, psychological, social, and economic ramifications. The Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man catalog (OMIM; http://www3.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Omim) lists more than 400 single-gene causes of clefts of the lip and/or palate. Genetic causes of clefting also include chromosomal rearrangements, genetic susceptibility to teratogenic exposures, and complex genetic contributions of multiple genes.


CONCLUSIONS
Genetic causes of birth defects can be identified using an increasingly powerful combination of careful sample collection, molecular analytic methods, and statistical evaluations. We will describe a range of approaches to search for genetic factors of birth defects and use our own work with cleft lip and palate as a model.
Lidral
Andrew C
AC
Department of Orthodontics and Dows Institute for Dental Research, College of Dentistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. Andrew-Lidral@Uiowa.edu
Murray
Jeffrey C
JC
D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000235:genetics*; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000235:genetics*; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000235:genetics*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D010375:Pedigree; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013723:Teratogens / Q000633:toxicity
D013723:Teratogens