To find low
penetrance genes which increase the risk of melanoma.
There are other possible low
penetrance genes promoting susceptibility to melanoma which Melanoma Genetics Consortium and others are exploring.
It is also possible that families carrying these low
penetrance genes may have more cases of melanoma if they live in areas of the world where the environmental exposures are more extreme such as Queensland: that is, as a result of gene / environment interaction.
The hypothesis then, is that inheritance of these putative low
penetrance genes predisposes white skinned peoples to melanoma but that as this predisposition is weak, there may be only one or occasionally two cases in the family.
For melanoma it is easiest to group susceptibility genes into rare high
penetrance genes and more common lower
penetrance genes but the truth is that this distinction is not absolute.
It is possible that the co-inheritance of more than one such low
penetrance gene may result in more marked clustering of melanoma in some families.
Not exact matches
Penetrance is a technical term signifying that a powerful
gene may pull its punches.
Importantly, only approximately one ‐ quarter of individuals with the mutations manifest the disease; this incomplete
penetrance is also likely a consequence of the effects of disease ‐ modifying
genes, environmental influences, or both in a given individual.
Research suggests that random fluctuations in
gene activity could explain some instances of the phenomenon, known as partial
penetrance, which likely plays a role in some human diseases.
The human CHD7
gene is known to be involved in CHARGE syndrome, which also shows inner ear malformations and a variety of other features with varying
penetrance and appears to be due to frequent de novo mutation.
Presentations included: Genetics Primer & Clinical Updates by Linford Williams, MS, LGC; Genetics and Women's Health: Seeing and Foreseeing the Ethical Challenges Ahead by Ruth Farrell, MD, MA; Preimplantation Genetic Screening and Diagnosis: What You Need to Know by Marissa Coleridge, MS, LGC; Evolution of Prenatal Genetic Screening and Testing: NIPT and Beyond by Jeff Chapa, MD, MBA; Promises and Pitfalls of Prenatal Whole Exome Sequencing by Amanda Kalan, MD; Fertility Preservation and Cancer: Survivors, Previvors, and the Newly Diagnosed by Rebecca Flyckt, MD; Improving Access to Cancer Genetics via Telegenetics by Ryan Noss, MS, LGC; Breast Cancer: Management of Moderate
Penetrance Predisposition
Genes by Holly Pederson, MD; Use of Hormonal and Non-hormonal Therapies in Breast Cancer Survivors and Women at High Risk for Breast / Gyn Cancers by Holly Thacker, MD; Addressing Commonly Asked Patient Questions about Genetics by Rebekah Moore, MS, LGC, Christina Rigelsky, MS, LGC and Allison Schreiber, MS, LGC; and a panel discussion on Genetic Testing Reimbursement featuring Bruce Rogen, MD, MPH and John Yao, MD, MBA, MPH, which was moderated by Daniel Sullivan, MD..
Next, Dr. Wildin reviews basic genetic terminology, including
genes /
gene structure, genotype, phenotype,
penetrance, expressivity, inheritance, variation, mutation types, and how
genes are linked to disease.
Incomplete
penetrance, genetic heterogeneity, pleiotropy, and
gene - environment interactions are just some of the factors that make even studies of relatively simple genetic diseases challenging.
The more cases there are then the more likely it is that there is a high
penetrance susceptibility
gene in the family as described above.
The most frequent high
penetrance melanoma
gene found to be mutated in melanoma families is CDKN2A and the protein produced by the
gene is called p16.
There is likely to be a continuous range of
genes with variable
penetrance all of which probably interact with other
genes and with the environment.
These are called low
penetrance genes.Although each
gene has a very small effect on risk, when we have many of such
genes then our cancer risk is considerably increased.
In the majority of families with high
penetrance melanoma susceptibility
genes however the family history will reveal melanoma predominantly.
Wednesday, Oct. 18, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m., Room 330A, South Building Platform Session: Pleiotropism and
Penetrance in Cancer - causing
Genes Moderators: Pengei Liu, Baylor College of Medicine; and Wenyi Wang, University of Texas
For example, there are predisposing
genes with near 100 %
penetrance such as Huntington's Chorea (everyone with the predisposition will manifest the syndrome if they live long enough), while there are many other
genes, which have a low
penetrance.
In any country, people who inherit more of these low
penetrance melanoma
genes are more likely to get melanoma if they sun bathe.
The first paper was published in 2009, and a series of more recent papers have shown increased numbers of these low
penetrance melanoma susceptibility
genes.
Project Title: Using functional studies to explore potential high
penetrance melanoma susceptibility
genes identified using whole exome and genome sequencing.
(ref) The problem is that some dogs that carry these
genes will never develop the disease (incomplete or variable
penetrance) while others that appear free of those
genes develop cardiomyopathy (DCM) all the same.
The parent of an affected animal can be also be affected, due to the high
gene frequency (thus, the apparent dominant inheritance), but this is not always the case (thus, the apparent incomplete
penetrance).
Inheritance with incomplete
penetrance means that other factors — other
genes,
gene regulators, and / or environment — are involved in the process that determines whether cataracts do or do not develop in any particular dog.
Genes for diseases like this are often said to have incomplete
penetrance.
Another type of
gene that has incomplete
penetrance is the risk factor
gene — a
gene that will significantly increase risk of having the disease.
Essentially, what happens in utero to cause this is when a kitten inherited the autosomal dominant trait of the ZRS cic element of the PD
gene with an incomplete
penetrance.
Autosome is a chromosome that is not a sex chromosome, and when ZRS cic element of PD
gene was not in proportion to the mother or father cat carrying a certain variant of a
gene that is because the
gene had either an incomplete or reduced
penetrance.