Gene interactions and modifiers in epilepsy

Abstract

The onset, progression, and severity of epilepsy vary between family members with identical mutations in primary disease genes. The background of genetic variation unique to each individual genome contributes to clinical variation. Known examples of gene interactions in human families and mouse models provide insight into underlying molecular mechanisms. For an expanded treatment of this topic see Jasper’s Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies, Fourth Edition (Noebels JL, Avoli M, Rogawski MA, Olsen RW, Delgado-Escueta AV, eds) published by Oxford University Press. (available on the National Library of Medicine Bookshelf [NCBI] at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books ).