deCODE genetics: A sequence variant that increases risk of pregnancy loss

Study Findings - A low-frequency missense variant in the SYCE2 gene increases the risk of pregnancy loss by 22% [1] - The variant affects the stability of a protein complex essential for homologous chromosome alignment during recombination [2] - The variant's effect on recombination is proportional to chromosome length, with longer chromosomes experiencing a larger effect [3] - The association with pregnancy loss may underestimate the variant's impact, as it does not account for embryos lost before pregnancy detection [3] Research Methodology - Over 114,000 women from Iceland, Denmark, the UK, USA, and Finland who experienced pregnancy loss participated in a genome-wide association study [1] - The study tested 50 million sequence variants to identify genetic factors associated with pregnancy loss [1] Company Background - deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen, is a global leader in analyzing and understanding the human genome [4] - The company has discovered genetic risk factors for dozens of common diseases using its unique expertise and population resources [4]