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  • Title: Genetic modelling of dizygotic twinning in pedigrees of spontaneous dizygotic twins.
    Author: Meulemans WJ, Lewis CM, Boomsma DI, Derom CA, Van den Berghe H, Orlebeke JF, Vlietinck RF, Derom RM.
    Journal: Am J Med Genet; 1996 Jan 22; 61(3):258-63. PubMed ID: 8741871.
    Abstract:
    The inheritance of spontaneous dizygotic (DZ) twinning was investigated in 1,422 three-generation pedigrees ascertained through mothers of spontaneous DZ proband twins. DZ twinning was modelled as a trait expressed only in women. The penetrance was modelled first as a parity independent and secondly as parity dependent. The observed frequencies of maternal and paternal grandmothers with DZ twins differed significantly from the expectations under an X-linked mode of inheritance. Complex segregation analysis showed that the parity-independent phenotype of "having DZ twins" was consistent with an autosomal monogenic dominant model, with a gene frequency of 0.035 and a female-specific lifetime penetrance of 0.10. Recessive, polygenic, and sporadic models were rejected. The autosomal dominant model revealed a strong robustness against a changing population prevalence and the loss of information due to the presence of same-sexed twin pairs of unknown zygosity. When DZ twinning was modelled as a parity dependent trait, the data were compatible with an autosomal dominant model with a gene frequency of 0.306 and a penetrance of 0.03 per birth for female gene carriers.
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