A REMARKABLE pair of twins in Brazil have led to the discovery of a gene that may play a role in the most common forms of cleft lip and palate.
The twins were noticed by a doctor because one was born with a form of cleft lip and palate known as Van der Woude syndrome, while the other was not. This was puzzling because VWS is usually a hereditary condition. Yet genetic tests showed the twins were identical, meaning they both developed from the same fertilised egg. So the gene mutation responsible for VWS must have arisen after the egg…
