{"id":363,"date":"2012-09-12T04:12:59","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T04:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/?p=363"},"modified":"2026-02-25T20:32:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T20:32:44","slug":"recessive-germline-sdha-and-sdhb-mutations-causing-leukodystrophy-and-isolated-mitochondrial-complex-ii-deficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2012\/09\/12\/recessive-germline-sdha-and-sdhb-mutations-causing-leukodystrophy-and-isolated-mitochondrial-complex-ii-deficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"Recessive germline SDHA and SDHB mutations causing leukodystrophy and isolated mitochondrial complex II deficiency (Contributed by R.W. Taylor PhD, DSc, FRCPath)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mitochondrial diseases affect both children and adults and are clinically and genetically diverse, on account of the dual genetic control of mitochondrial function. Isolated complex II deficiency is a rare form of mitochondrial disease, due to autosomal recessive mutations in either structural components of this enzyme (the <em>SDHA<\/em>, <em>SDHB<\/em>, <em>SDHC<\/em> and <em>SDHD<\/em> genes) or two known assembly factors (<em>SDHAF1<\/em> and <em>SDHAF2<\/em>). Interestingly, these genes are also implicated in tumour formation with germline and somatic mutations known to cause hereditary cancers including paraganglioma and pheochromocytoma. We describe two families with novel mutations in the <em>SDHA <\/em>and <em>SDHB<\/em> genes, in which affected children present with a leukodystrophy (brain white matter disease), and for the first time show that <em>SDHB <\/em>mutation can cause a primary mitochondrial, neurological phenotype in the absence of tumours. Studies in yeast confirm that the new mutation is disease-causing in humans. (<a href=\"http:\/\/jmg.bmj.com\/content\/49\/9\/569\">http:\/\/jmg.bmj.com\/content\/49\/9\/569<\/a> )<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mitochondrial diseases affect both children and adults and are clinically and genetically diverse, on account of the dual genetic control of mitochondrial function. Isolated complex II deficiency is a rare form of mitochondrial disease, due to autosomal recessive mutations in either structural components of this enzyme (the SDHA, SDHB, SDHC and SDHD genes) or two [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2012\/09\/12\/recessive-germline-sdha-and-sdhb-mutations-causing-leukodystrophy-and-isolated-mitochondrial-complex-ii-deficiency\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Recessive germline SDHA and SDHB mutations causing leukodystrophy and isolated mitochondrial complex II deficiency (Contributed by R.W. Taylor PhD, DSc, FRCPath) - JMG Contact blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2012\/09\/12\/recessive-germline-sdha-and-sdhb-mutations-causing-leukodystrophy-and-isolated-mitochondrial-complex-ii-deficiency\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Recessive germline SDHA and SDHB mutations causing leukodystrophy and isolated mitochondrial complex II deficiency (Contributed by R.W. Taylor PhD, DSc, FRCPath) - JMG Contact blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mitochondrial diseases affect both children and adults and are clinically and genetically diverse, on account of the dual genetic control of mitochondrial function. Isolated complex II deficiency is a rare form of mitochondrial disease, due to autosomal recessive mutations in either structural components of this enzyme (the SDHA, SDHB, SDHC and SDHD genes) or two [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2012\/09\/12\/recessive-germline-sdha-and-sdhb-mutations-causing-leukodystrophy-and-isolated-mitochondrial-complex-ii-deficiency\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JMG Contact blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-12T04:12:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-25T20:32:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hqqu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@HuiQiQu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hqqu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2012\\\/09\\\/12\\\/recessive-germline-sdha-and-sdhb-mutations-causing-leukodystrophy-and-isolated-mitochondrial-complex-ii-deficiency\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2012\\\/09\\\/12\\\/recessive-germline-sdha-and-sdhb-mutations-causing-leukodystrophy-and-isolated-mitochondrial-complex-ii-deficiency\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"hqqu\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/be0250f8d5b52412c3e7c222dabd591b\"},\"headline\":\"Recessive germline SDHA and SDHB mutations causing leukodystrophy and isolated mitochondrial complex II deficiency (Contributed by R.W. 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