PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

1-May-2014

Contact: Glenna Picton picton@bcm.edu 713-798-7973 Baylor College of Medicine

HOUSTON (May 1, 2014) -- A team of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine have identified the gene underlying a newly recognized genetic syndrome that has symptoms of sleep apnea, delayed speech and hyptonia, or generalized upper body weakness.

The study published online today in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

The Baylor researchers first studied a patient from Australia with these symptoms who had been seen by many doctors and had multiple diagnostic tests, without any diagnosis.

Although there was no family history of the disease, the researchers performed DNA sequence analysis on the patient and her parents to determine if there was an underlying genetic cause for her symptoms.

The results showed damaging mutations had newly arisen in five genes in the patient when compared with the parents DNA sequence.

One gene was a candidate for causing the disease because similar mutations were never seen in healthy control individuals.

"This led us to ask if there were any other undiagnosed disease cases that had similar mutations in this gene," said Dr. Fan Xia, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics and in the Whole Genome Laboratory at Baylor and the first author on the report.

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