Orofacial clefts (OFC) are congenital abnormalities of the lip, alveolus, or palate or a combination of those. Individuals with OFC often face difficulties with eating and speeking. Apart from that the anomaly also represents an aesthetic issue. In Slovenia, about 1,67 children are born with OFC per 1000 births. OFC are caused by complex genetic and environmental factors. In the case of the syndromic orofacial clefts, the identification of the causal genes is fairly successful. On the other hand, it is not so in the case of non-syndromic orofacial clefts, where a theory of complex etiology and multiple gene factoring with simultaneous environmental influences was established. Multiple studies in the past have shown a correlation of certain genes with OFC. The goal of this master’s thesis was to study the changes in the nucleotide sequence of the genes TBX22, IRF6 and GRHL3, and assess their influence on the incidence of OFC. For this purpose, DNA samples of 5 Slovenian families with the incidence of OFC were studied. 3 patients with OFC, positive familial history and suspected Van der Woude syndrome, and 2 patients with a non-syndromic OFC and no family history of OFC were included in the study. First, PCR conditions for nine pairs of oligonucleotide primers of the gene TBX22 were optimized. Next, choosen exons and nearby lying intron sequences of the genes TBX22, IRF6 and GRHL3 of the individuals with OFC were multiplied, under previously optimized PCR conditions. PCR products were sequenced with the Sanger sequencing method. Discovered changes in the nucleotide sequence of index cases were then looked for in their family members with and without OFC. Overall, we discovered 12 genetic variants; six in the gene GRHL3 (rs79338443, rs2486668, rs45511995, rs11576645, rs41268753 and rs545809), five in the gene IRF6 (rs121434229, rs7552506, rs2013162, rs2235375 and rs1553247595), and one in the gene TBX22 (rs1057515991). Looking at the pathogenic potential, one »pathogenic« and one »likely pathogenic« sequence variant were found that can confirm the suspicion of the Van der Woude syndrome in three families. Furthermore, one »variant of uncertain significance« and nine »benign« variants were found. According to the type of the variants, the following genetic variants were found: four mis-sense variants, two synonymous variants, one non-sense variant, one variant in the 3' UTR region, and four intronic variants, one of them being the splice site variant.
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