Systems genetics of nonsyndromic orofacial clefting provides insights into its complex aetiology.
Razaghi-Moghadam Z., Namipashaki A., Farahmand S., Ansari-Pour N.
Nonsyndromic oral clefting (NSOC) is although one of the most common congenital disorders worldwide, its underlying molecular basis remains elusive. This process has been hindered by the overwhelmingly high level of heterogeneity observed. Given that hitherto multiple loci and genes have been associated with NSOC, and that complex diseases are usually polygenic and show a considerable level of missing heritability, we used a systems genetics approach to reconstruct the NSOC network by integrating human-based physical and regulatory interactome with whole-transcriptome microarray data. We show that the network component contains 53% (23/43) of the curated NSOC-implicated gene set and displays a highly significant propinquity (P