Recent advances in understanding inheritance of Holoprosencephaly

Christèle Dubourg (1, 2) , Artem Kim (1) , Erwan Watrin (1) , Marie de Tayrac (1, 2) , Sylvie Odent (1, 2) , Véronique David (1, 2) , Valérie Dupé (1)

1 IGDR - Institut de Génétique et Développement de Rennes
2 CHU Pontchaillou [Rennes]

Holoprosencephaly (HPE) is a complex genetic disorder of the developing forebrain characterized by high phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity. HPE was initially defined as an autosomal dominant disease, but recent research has shown that its mode of transmission is more complex. The past decade has witnessed rapid development of novel genetic technologies and significant progresses in clinical studies of HPE. In this review, we recapitulate genetic epidemiological studies of the largest European HPE cohort and summarize the novel genetic discoveries of HPE based on recently developed diagnostic methods. Our main purpose is to present different inheritance patterns that exist for HPE with a particular emphasis on oligogenic inheritance and its implications in genetic counseling.

Keywords: complex disorder; Sonic hedgehog; oligogenic inheritance; holoprosencephaly

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Genetics

Christèle Dubourg, Artem Kim, Erwan Watrin, Marie de Tayrac, Sylvie Odent, et al.. Recent advances in understanding inheritance of Holoprosencephaly. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part C Seminar in Medical Genetics, 2018, Holoprosencephaly, 178 (2), pp.258-269. ⟨10.1002/ajmg.c.31619⟩. ⟨hal-01812521v2⟩