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Concept
Haploinsufficiency
Summary
Haploinsufficiency in genetics describes a model of dominant gene action in diploid organisms, in which a single copy of the wild-type allele at a locus in heterozygous combination with a variant allele is insufficient to produce the wild-type phenotype. Haploinsufficiency may arise from a de novo or inherited loss-of-function mutation in the variant allele, such that it yields little or no gene product (often a protein). Although the other, standard allele still produces the standard amount of product, the total product is insufficient to produce the standard phenotype. This heterozygous genotype may result in a non- or sub-standard, deleterious, and (or) disease phenotype. Haploinsufficiency is the standard explanation for dominant deleterious alleles.
In the alternative case of haplosufficiency, the loss-of-function allele behaves as above, but the single standard allele in the heterozygous genotype produces sufficient gene product to produce the same, standard phenotype as seen in the homozygote. Haplosufficiency accounts for the typical dominance of the "standard" allele over variant alleles, where the phenotypic identity of genotypes heterozygous and homozygous for the allele defines it as dominant, versus a variant phenotype produced only by the genotype homozygous for the alternative allele, which defines it as recessive.
The alteration in the gene dosage, which is caused by the loss of a functional allele, is also called allelic insufficiency.
About 3,000 human genes cannot tolerate loss of one of the two alleles.
An example of this is seen in the case of Williams syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by the haploinsufficiency of genes at 7q11.23. The haploinsufficiency is caused by the copy-number variation (CNV) of 28 genes led by the deletion of ~1.6 Mb. These dosage-sensitive genes are vital for human language and constructive cognition.
Another example is the haploinsufficiency of telomerase reverse transcriptase which leads to anticipation in autosomal dominant dyskeratosis congenita.
Official source
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