Trinucleotide Diseases and Instability

Till recently, mutations in genes were described in textbooks as deletions or point mutations. These mutations can be inherited from a parent or they are de novo alterations. The discovery in 1991 that human disease can be caused by large-scale ex­ pansion of highly unstable trinucleotide repeats has elucidated a new mutation mechanism, heritable unstable DNA. In the subsequent years more then 10 ...