1q21.1 duplication syndrome

1q21.1 duplication syndrome
Classification and external resources
OMIM	612475
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1q21.1 duplication syndrome or 1q21.1 (recurrent) microduplication is a rare aberration of chromosome 1. Unique, the international rare chromosome disorder group, has 57 genetically confirmed registered cases of this duplication worldwide (October 2012).

In a common situation a human cell has one pair of identical chromosomes on chromosome 1. With the 1q21.1 duplication syndrome one chromosome of the pair is over complete, because a part of the sequence of the chromosome is duplicated twice or more. In 1q21.1, the '1' stands for chromosome 1, the 'q' stands for the long arm of the chromosome and '21.1' stands for the part of the long arm in which the duplication is situated.

Next to the duplication syndrome, there is also a 1q21.1 deletion syndrome. While there are two or three copies of a similar part of the DNA on a particular spot with the duplication syndrome, there is a part of the DNA missing with the deletion syndrome on the same spot. Literature refers to both the deletion and the duplication as the 1q21.1 copy-number variations (CNV).

The CNV leads to a very variable phenotype and the manifestations in individuals are quite variable. Some people who have the syndrome can function in a normal way, while others have symptoms of mental retardation and various physical anomalies.

Meiosis is the process of dividing cells in humans. In meiosis, the chromosome pairs splits and a representative of each pair goes to one daughter cell. In this way the number of chromosomes will be halved in each cell, while all the parts on the chromosome (genes) remain, after being randomized. Which information of the parent cell ends up in the daughter cell is purely decided by chance. Besides this random process, there is a second random process. In this second random process the DNA will be scrambled in a way that pieces are omitted (deletion), added (duplication), moved from one place to another (translocation) and inverted (inversion). This is a common process, which leads to about 0.4% variation in the DNA. It explains why even identical twins are not genetically 100% identical.

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