Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Impact Of Dyrk1a Haploinsufficiency On Facial Morphology Using Three-Dimensional Morphometric Analysis, Stefani Hammond

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Dual-specificity tyrosine-(Y)-phosphorylation regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A) is a gene present on human chromosome 21. Previous research suggests that this gene plays a developmental role in facial morphology. We hypothesize that individuals with DYRK1A haploinsufficiency have altered facial morphology with potentially unique patterns of facial variation. To assess this hypothesis, we acquired three-dimensional (3D) photogrammetric facial images of individuals with and without DYRK1A haploinsufficiency, and we measured anatomical landmarks to carry out Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis (EDMA) and to evaluate global and local morphological differences. Our results show unique patterns of variation between individuals with DYRK1A haploinsufficiency and normal siblings, as …