Researchers discover new gene that causes early diabetes (7/20/2008)

Patients with a rare developmental disorder which causes early diabetes are helping researchers to discover genes that are of fundamental importance for the normal development of the unborn baby.

Scientists at the University of Southampton have identified a gene that is involved in maintaining the difference between the maternal and paternal copy of a special group of genes called imprinted genes.

Imprinted genes are genes whose expression is determined by the parent they are inherited from. In imprinting, one of the two copies of a gene inherited from each parent is switched off by molecular instructions coming from either the mother or the father. A child will therefore inherit only one working copy of that gene. Imprinted genes are of particular importance in fetal growth and neurodevelopment.

The new gene is called ZFP57 and seems to be crucial in controlling the way the cell maintains the 'on-off' switch for imprinted genes.

In 1995 the Southampton researchers were the first to show that neonatal diabetes is due to abnormal control of an imprinted gene and now they have found a reason why control can go wrong.

Lead author of the study, Professor Karen Temple of the University of Southampton's School of Medicine, explains: "When ZFP57 is disrupted, it can have serious effects on the growth and development of the unborn baby and cause diabetes in early life, as well as other problems including heart disease in some children. It is a new gene for childhood diabetes which can recur in families. The gene is likely to play a controlling role in birth weight.

"This work provides an important step forward in our quest to understand the genetic causes of neonatal diabetes and helps us to understand more about how imprinted genes are controlled."

The research is published online in Nature Genetics and was funded by Diabetes UK.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the University of Southampton

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