Genetics of Non-Syndromic Autosomal Recessive Mental Retardation

Non-syndromic mental retardation is one of the most serious neurodevelopmental disorders, which has a serious impact not only on the affected individuals and their families but also on the health care system and society. Previously research has been more focused on the X-linked mental retardation and only recently studies have shown that non-syndromic autosomal recessive mental retardation is extremely heterogeneous and contributes much more than the X-linked mental retardation. But very little is known about the genes and loci involved in nonsyndromic autosomal recessive mental retardation than the X-linked mental retardation. To date only thirty loci and ten genes have been established associated with the non-syndromic autosomal recessive mental retardation. This short review presents an overview of the current knowledge on clinical information available for the ten genes associated with this unexplored group of genetic disorder.