Humans normally have 46 chromosomes in each cell, divided into 23 pairs. Two copies of chromosome 15, one copy inherited from each parent, form one of the pairs. Chromosome 15 spans about 100 million base pairs (the building blocks of DNA) and represents more than 3 percent of the total DNA in cells.
Identifying genes on each chromosome is an active area of genetic research. Because researchers use different approaches to predict the number of genes on each chromosome, the estimated number of genes varies. Chromosome 15 likely contains between 650 and 1,000 genes.
Genes on chromosome 15 are among the estimated 20,000 to 25,000 total genes in the human genome.
Most genes are inherited as two working copies, one from the mother and one from the father. However, in a few instances, a gene is imprinted, which means that one copy is silenced. This is called genomic imprinting. If the active copy is mutated, then disease results, even though the silenced gene copy may be normal.
How much is currently known about what happens in the developing brain that puts people at risk of schizophrenia?
Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have reported a major breakthrough in understanding the molecular basis for Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), perhaps the most studied among the class of diseases that involves defects in parental imprinting.
Researchers have found that people born with a rare abnormality of their chromosomes have a 2,700-fold increased risk of a rare childhood leukaemia. In this abnormality, two specific chromosomes are fused together but become prone to catastrophic shattering.
An international research consortium led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the University of Chicago has answered several questions about the genetic background of obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome, providing the first direct confirmation that both are highly heritable and also revealing major differences between the underlying genetic makeup of the disorders.
Researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute and Agilent Laboratories have found that Prader-Willi syndrome - a genetic disorder best known for causing an insatiable appetite that can lead to morbid obesity - is associated with the loss of non-coding RNAs, resulting in the dysregulation of circadian and metabolic genes, accelerated energy expenditure and metabolic differences during sleep.
New research suggests that fainting may be genetic and, in some families, only one gene may be responsible. However, a predisposition to certain triggers, such as emotional distress or the sight of blood, may not be inherited.
Identifying and understanding the combination of factors that leads to autism is an ongoing scientific challenge. This developmental disorder appears in the first three years of life, and affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills.
Usher syndrome is a hereditary disease in which affected individuals lose both hearing and vision. The impact of Usher syndrome can be devastating. In the United States, approximately six in every 100,000 babies born have Usher syndrome.
New research by scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine may have pinpointed an underlying cause of the seizures that affect 90 percent of people with Angelman syndrome (AS), a neurodevelopmental disorder.
In a step toward understanding possible genetic differences in smoking behaviors, a team of researchers co-led by SRI International has identified a genetic marker associated with smoking quantity in people of African ancestry.
Results of a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill may help pave the way to a treatment for a neurogenetic disorder often misdiagnosed as cerebral palsy or autism.
Richard Holbrooke, John Ritter, Lucille Ball, Jonathan Larson and Great Britain's King George II were all taken by the same silent killer: an acute aortic dissection. Now, scientists led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Baylor College of Medicine have found an association with a common genetic variant in the population that predisposes people to acute dissections and can approximately double a person's chances of having the disease.
According to a new study, a genetic mutation thought to be responsible for the rare hereditary brain disorder Kufs disease is finally identified. The research was carried out by Dr Melanie Bahlo and her team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's bioinformatics department in Parkville, Australia, in partnership with neurologist and epilepsy specialists Professor Sam Berkovic and Dr Todor Arsov from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Scientists from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and the University of Melbourne have used innovative new technologies to identify the gene responsible for a rare but fatal hereditary brain disorder. The discovery will make it possible to diagnose the disease through a blood test rather than a brain biopsy.
Two new studies highlight the power of sequencing cancer patients' genomes as a diagnostic tool, helping doctors decide the best course of treatment and researchers identify new cancer susceptibility mutations that can be passed from parent to child.
Norwegian researchers have discovered genes that increase not only one's risk of lung cancer, but perhaps one's urge to smoke as well. Now these researchers are working on developing a blood test for lung cancer.
A new Geisinger study begins to unlock the puzzle of painkiller (opioid) addiction - why some people are more likely to become addicted than others. Geisinger investigators have found that patients with four common risk factors have a significantly higher risk of addiction. In addition, a history of severe drug dependence and drug abuse compounds the risk.
Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and elsewhere have succeeded in identifying for the first time a gene associated with susceptibility to chronic pain caused by nerve injury in humans, signaling a significant step toward better understanding and treating of the condition.
Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and elsewhere have succeeded in identifying for the first time a gene associated with susceptibility to chronic pain caused by nerve injury in humans, signalling a significant step toward better understanding and treating of the condition.
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