genetics

Last reviewed 01/2018

Chromosome 15 has regions which are imprinted. For healthy development a foetus must inherit a maternal and a paternal copy of the imprinted region. One such region is 15q11-13:

  • deletion of the maternal 15q11-13 results in Angelman syndrome

  • deletion of the paternal 15q11-13 results in Prader-Willi syndrome:
    • this accounts for 60% of Prader-Willi cases

  • maternal uniparental disomy of chromosome 15 results in Prader-Willi:
    • this accounts for 30% of Prader-Willi cases

  • paternal uniparental disomy of chromosome 15 results in Angelman syndrome