Paradominant inheritance, a hypothesis explaining occasional familial occurrence of sporadic syndromes.

Heterozygous individuals carrying a "paradominant" mutation, as a rule, are phenotypically normal. Therefore, the mutation can be transmitted unperceived through many generations. The trait becomes manifest when a somatic mutation occurs during embryogenesis giving rise to loss of heterozygosity and forming a mutant cell population, being either homozygous or hemizygous for the mutation. This concept explains the occasional familial occurrence of usually sporadic traits like the Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome and others. Copyright 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.