Phenotype-genotype correlation in 20 deletion and 20 non-deletion Angelman syndrome patients

Angelman syndrome (AS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by the absence of a maternal contribution to chromosome 15q11-q13. There are four classes of AS according to molecular or cytogenetic status: maternal microdeletion of 15q11-q13 (approximately 70% of AS patients); uniparental disomy (UPD); defects in a putative imprinting centre (IM); the fourth includes 20-30% of AS individuals with biparental inheritance and a normal pattern of allelic methylation in 15q11-q13. Mutations of UBE3A have recently been identified as causing AS in the latter group. Few studies have investigated the phenotypic differences between these classes. We compared 20 non-deletion to 20 age-matched deletion patients and found significant phenotypic differences between the two groups. The more severe phenotype in the deletion group may suggest a contiguous gene syndrome.