Martina M A Muggenthaler, Biswajit Chowdhury, S Naimul Hasan, Harold E Cross, Brian Mark, Gaurav V Harlalka, Michael A Patton, Miho Ishida, Elijah R Behr, Sanjay Sharma, Kenneth Zahka, Eissa Faqeih, Brian Blakley, Mike Jackson, Melissa Lees, Vernon Dolinsky, Leroy Cross, Philip Stanier, Claire Salter, Emma L Baple, Fowzan S Alkuraya, Andrew H Crosby, Barbara Triggs-Raine, Barry A Chioza
Orofacial clefting is amongst the most common of birth defects, with both genetic and environmental components. Although numerous studies have been undertaken to investigate the complexities of the genetic etiology of this heterogeneous condition, this factor remains incompletely understood. Here, we describe mutations in the HYAL2 gene as a cause of syndromic orofacial clefting. HYAL2, encoding hyaluronidase 2, degrades extracellular hyaluronan, a critical component of the developing heart and palatal shelf matrix...
January 2017: PLoS Genetics