{"id":745,"date":"2015-03-24T19:07:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T19:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/?p=745"},"modified":"2026-02-25T01:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:09:06","slug":"loss-of-function-de-novo-mutations-play-an-important-role-in-severe-human-neural-tube-defects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2015\/03\/24\/loss-of-function-de-novo-mutations-play-an-important-role-in-severe-human-neural-tube-defects\/","title":{"rendered":"Loss-of-function de novo mutations play an important role in severe human neural tube defects (Contributed by Philippe Lemay)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Neural tube defects (NTDs) are very common and severe birth malformations that are caused by failure of neural tube closure. They are caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors that remain largely unknown. Anencephaly and spina bifida are severe NTDs that affect reproductive fitness but are still prevalent across generations, suggesting a role for new or <em>de novo<\/em> mutations (DNMs) in their etiology. We have re-sequenced the exomes of 43 sporadic cases affected with either spina bifida or anencephaly and their unaffected parents and we have indeed demonstrated that loss of function DNMs play an important role in their causation. Our study also strongly implicates <em>SHROOM3<\/em> in the pathogenesis of human NTDs. (<a href=\"http:\/\/jmg.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2015\/03\/24\/jmedgenet-2015-103027\">http:\/\/jmg.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2015\/03\/24\/jmedgenet-2015-103027<\/a> )<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neural tube defects (NTDs) are very common and severe birth malformations that are caused by failure of neural tube closure. They are caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors that remain largely unknown. Anencephaly and spina bifida are severe NTDs that affect reproductive fitness but are still prevalent across generations, suggesting a role [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2015\/03\/24\/loss-of-function-de-novo-mutations-play-an-important-role-in-severe-human-neural-tube-defects\/\">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-745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Loss-of-function de novo mutations play an important role in severe human neural tube defects (Contributed by Philippe Lemay) - 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\/2015\/03\/24\/loss-of-function-de-novo-mutations-play-an-important-role-in-severe-human-neural-tube-defects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Loss-of-function de novo mutations play an important role in severe human neural tube defects (Contributed by Philippe Lemay) - JMG Contact blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Neural tube defects (NTDs) are very common and severe birth malformations that are caused by failure of neural tube closure. They are caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors that remain largely unknown. Anencephaly and spina bifida are severe NTDs that affect reproductive fitness but are still prevalent across generations, suggesting a role [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2015\/03\/24\/loss-of-function-de-novo-mutations-play-an-important-role-in-severe-human-neural-tube-defects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JMG Contact blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-24T19:07:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-25T01:09:06+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\\\/2015\\\/03\\\/24\\\/loss-of-function-de-novo-mutations-play-an-important-role-in-severe-human-neural-tube-defects\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2015\\\/03\\\/24\\\/loss-of-function-de-novo-mutations-play-an-important-role-in-severe-human-neural-tube-defects\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"hqqu\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/be0250f8d5b52412c3e7c222dabd591b\"},\"headline\":\"Loss-of-function de novo mutations play an important role in severe human neural tube defects (Contributed by Philippe Lemay)\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-24T19:07:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-25T01:09:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2015\\\/03\\\/24\\\/loss-of-function-de-novo-mutations-play-an-important-role-in-severe-human-neural-tube-defects\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":139,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2015\\\/03\\\/24\\\/loss-of-function-de-novo-mutations-play-an-important-role-in-severe-human-neural-tube-defects\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2015\\\/03\\\/24\\\/loss-of-function-de-novo-mutations-play-an-important-role-in-severe-human-neural-tube-defects\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2015\\\/03\\\/24\\\/loss-of-function-de-novo-mutations-play-an-important-role-in-severe-human-neural-tube-defects\\\/\",\"name\":\"Loss-of-function de novo mutations play an important role in severe human neural tube defects (Contributed by Philippe Lemay) - 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