GladChild: Children who suffer Microcephalus characterized by a very small head size or below the normal standard. Scientists find cause of child-headed very small due to the evolution of the brain due to a single gene mutation.
Mutations in single genes have a major influence on the size and shape of the human brain cortex, the part of the brain that plays an important role in high-level functions such as language ability, memory and consciousness.
Researchers conducted genetic analysis of three families in Turkey and Pakistan. The first family is taken from the Turks, while the second and third family from Pakistan.
Children from three families are the children with the condition Microcephalus (very small head size) are most severe. Brain size of children was only 10 percent of normal size with a structure that is less normal.
Researchers say that Microcephalus in children caused by mutations in a gene called centrosomal NDE1. NDE1 centrosomal genes are genes involved in cell division.
The rate of decrease in the size of the cerebral cortex and the effects on brain morphology suggests this gene plays a key role in the evolution of the human brain, said Murat Gunel, associate professor of Neurosurgery of Genetics and Neurobiology at Yale School of Medicine as quoted from Epharmapedia on Thursday August 4, 2011.
These findings demonstrate how a single molecule has influenced the expansion of the human brain cortex in 5 million years. We are now a little closer to understanding how this phenomenon can happen, said Gunel.
This study has been published the American Journal of Human Genetics on April 28, 2011. Microcephalus is a measure of head circumference below the standard deviation of the average head circumference in children his age. Because small head size so that the development of the child is not optimal, even lagging behind his age. Microcephalus because brain development is not optimal due to illness or skull bones close prematurely.
Mutations in single genes have a major influence on the size and shape of the human brain cortex, the part of the brain that plays an important role in high-level functions such as language ability, memory and consciousness.
Researchers conducted genetic analysis of three families in Turkey and Pakistan. The first family is taken from the Turks, while the second and third family from Pakistan.
Children from three families are the children with the condition Microcephalus (very small head size) are most severe. Brain size of children was only 10 percent of normal size with a structure that is less normal.
Researchers say that Microcephalus in children caused by mutations in a gene called centrosomal NDE1. NDE1 centrosomal genes are genes involved in cell division.
The rate of decrease in the size of the cerebral cortex and the effects on brain morphology suggests this gene plays a key role in the evolution of the human brain, said Murat Gunel, associate professor of Neurosurgery of Genetics and Neurobiology at Yale School of Medicine as quoted from Epharmapedia on Thursday August 4, 2011.
These findings demonstrate how a single molecule has influenced the expansion of the human brain cortex in 5 million years. We are now a little closer to understanding how this phenomenon can happen, said Gunel.
This study has been published the American Journal of Human Genetics on April 28, 2011. Microcephalus is a measure of head circumference below the standard deviation of the average head circumference in children his age. Because small head size so that the development of the child is not optimal, even lagging behind his age. Microcephalus because brain development is not optimal due to illness or skull bones close prematurely.
