What is known about the genetic abnormality?
Basically, the occurrence of PWS is due to lack of several genes on one of an individual s two chromosome 15s the one normally contributed by the father. In the majority of cases, there is a deletion the critical genes are somehow lost from the chromosome. In most of the remaining cases, the entire chromosome from the father is missing and there are instead two chromosome 15s from the mother (uniparental disomy). The critical paternal genes lacking in people with PWS have a role in the regulation of appetite. This is an area of active research in a number of laboratories around the world, since understanding this defect may be very helpful not only to those with PWS but to understanding obesity in otherwise normal people.
