Dandy-Walker complex in a boy with a 5 Mb deletion of region 1q44 due to a paternal t(1;20)(q44;q13.33).

A 10-year-old boy with vermis hypoplasia, dilatation of the fourth ventricle, enlarged cisterna magna and aplasia of the corpus callosum, consistent with the Dandy-Walker complex (DWC), and slight facial dysmorphisms, severe motor and mental retardation is presented. By combining data obtained by karyotyping, array-CGH, FISH, and multiplex ligation-mediated probe amplification (MLPA) we identified a 5 Mb deletion of the 1q44 --> qter region resulting from a paternal t(1;20)(q44;q13.33). This smallest 1q44 deletion reported so far, enabled us to significantly narrow down the number of candidate genes for the DWC in this region. Since the ZNF124 transcription factor is strongly expressed in the fetal brain it may represent a candidate gene for the DWC at 1q44.