What is Monogenic Disease and Polygenic Disease?
Some disorders, such as albinism, hemophilia and Huntington’s disease, are caused by mutations in a single gene, so called monogenic diseases. Common medical problems such as diabetes, hypertension and most of cancers do not have a single genetic cause—they are likely associated with the effects of multiple genes in combination with lifestyle and environmental factors. Conditions caused by many contributing genes are called polygenic diseases.
