Assortative mating and parental genetic relatedness contribute to the pathogenicity of variably expressive variants

Many rare genetic variants are variably expressive, conferring risk for a range of clinical features with incomplete penetrance. We implicate assortative mating as a risk factor for disease in families carrying these variants by increasing genetic disease liability over generations, leading to the “genetic anticipation” observed in these families.

Source: The American Journal of Human Genetics - November 17, 2023 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Corrine Smolen, Matthew Jensen, Lisa Dyer, Lucilla Pizzo, Anastasia Tyryshkina, Deepro Banerjee, Laura Rohan, Emily Huber, Laila El Khattabi, Paolo Prontera, Jean-Hubert Caberg, Anke Van Dijck, Charles Schwartz, Laurence Faivre, Patrick Callier, Anne-Laur Tags: Article Source Type: research