Williams syndrome as a model for elucidation of the pathway genes - the brain - cognitive functions: genetics and epigenetics.

ABSTRACT: Genomic diseases or syndromes with multiple manifestations arise spontaneously and unpredictably as a result of contiguous deletions and duplications generated by unequal recombination in chromosomal regions with a specific architecture. The Williams syndrome is believed to be one of the most attractive models for linking genes, the brain, behavior and cognitive functions. It is a neurogenetic disorder resulting from a 1.5 Mb deletion at 7q11.23 which covers more than 20 genes; the hemizigosity of these genes leads to multiple manifestations, with the behavioral ones comprising three distinct domains: 1) visuo-spatial orientation; 2) verbal and linguistic defect; and 3) hypersocialisation. The shortest observed deletion leads to hemizigosity in only two genes: eln and limk1. Therefore, the

SUBMITTER: Nikitina EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3999462 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature