Today's Albuquerque Journal has an article about a certain founder effect that is found in Hispanic families from Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado's San Luis Valley. The illness is recombinant 8 syndrome, a genetic disease that causes mental retardation and internal deformations and defects.
A "founder effect" is a genetic mutation passed on through the descendants of a small population that intermarries. For example, founder effects are prevalent in Spanish New Mexico and French Quebec due to the small amount of families that settled those areas in their early histories.
Other founder effects mentioned in the article include OPMD, a type of muscular dystrophy, and cavernous cranial malformation, a type of brain defect. To read more about this disease, click on the link below:
ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: Founder Effect
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07 September 2009
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