The neurodegenerative disease spinal muscular atrophy is caused by mutation of the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. SMN2 is a nearly identical copy of SMN1 that is unable to prevent disease, because most SMN2 transcripts lack exon 7 and thus produce a nonfunctional protein. A key cause of inefficient SMN2 exon 7 splicing is a single nucleotide difference between SMN1 and SMN2 within exon 7....

In Malaysia, Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is diagnosed based on clinical observation with or without muscle biopsy. Molecular analyses of the SMA-related genes have not been available so far. In this preliminary study, we searched for homozygous deletion of Survival Motor Neuron (SMN1) and Neuronal Apoptosis Inhibitory Protein (NAIP) genes in Malay patients with SMA and found homozygous deleti...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive neuromuscular disease characterized by degeneration and loss of motor neurons of the anterior horn of the spinal cord. The clinical manifestations include proximal symmetric weakness and progressive muscle atrophy. The identification of the SMN1 gene as determinant of SMA has opened alternative ways of studying the disease. Absence of SMN1...

In the crenarchaeote Sulfolobus islandicus REN1H1, a mobile element of 321 bp length has been shown to be active. It does not contain terminal inverted repeats and transposes by a replicative mechanism. This newly discovered element has been named SMN1 (for Sulfolobus miniature noninverted repeat transposable element).

Proximal spinal muscular atrophy is caused by deletion or mutation of the survival motor neuron 1 gene, SMN1. Rentention of a nearly identical copy gene, SMN2, enables survival but is unable to fully compensate for the loss of SMN1. The SMN1 and SMN2 genes differ by a single nucleotide that results in alternative splicing of SMN2 exon 7 due to the disruption of a binding site for an essential s...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a recessive disorder characterized by loss of motor neurons in the spinal cord. It is caused by mutations in the telomeric survival motor neuron 1 ( SMN1 ) gene. Alterations within an almost identical copy gene, the centromeric survival motor neuron 2 ( SMN2 ) gene produce no known phenotypic effect. The exons of the two genes differ by just two nucleotides, nei...

Proximal spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a leading genetic cause of infant death worldwide, is an early-onset, autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disease characterized by the loss of spinal α-motor neurons. This loss of α-motor neurons is associated with muscle weakness and atrophy. SMA can be classified into five clinical grades based on age of onset and severity of the disease. Regardless o...