Frequency of rare fragile sites among mentally subnormal schoolchildren

The frequency of rare fragile sites was studied among 240 children in special schools for subnormal intelligence (IQ 52-85). 1/130 boys studied (0.8%) had the fragile site at Xq27.3 while it was not found in any girl (0/110). In two children an autosomal rare fragile site at 2q11.2 (2/240, 0.8%) was seen. In addition a constitutional chromosome abnormality was found in a further seven children (7/240, 2.9%).