title: Trisomy 21 mosaicism: we may all have a touch of Down syndrome.
abstract: Ever increasing sophistication in the application of new analytical technology has revealed that our genomes are much more fluid than was contemplated only a few years ago. More specifically, this concerns interindividual variation in copy number (CNV) of structural chromosome aberrations, i.e. microdeletions and microduplications. It is important to recognize that in this context, we still lack basic knowledge on the impact of the CNV in normal cells from individual tissues, including that of whole chromosomes (aneuploidy). Here, we highlight this challenge by the example of the very first chromosome aberration identified in the human genome, i.e. an extra chromosome 21 (trisomy 21, T21), which is causative of Down syndrome (DS). We consider it likely that most, if not all, of us are T21 mosaics, i.e. everyone carries some cells with an extra chromosome 21, in some tissues. In other words, we may all have a touch of DS. We further propose that the occurrence of such tissue-specific T21 mosaicism may have important ramifications for the understanding of the pathogenesis, prognosis and treatment of medical problems shared between people with DS and those in the general non-DS population.
authors.affiliation: Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Warwick, UK. maj.hulten@ki.se
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hultén
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jonasson
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Iwarsson
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Uppal
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Vorsanova
authors.forename: Y B
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Yurov
authors.forename: I Y
authors.initials: IY
authors.lastname: Iourov
mesh_terms: D002891:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 21; D056915:DNA Copy Number Variations; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics*; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006801:Humans; D009030:Mosaicism