Used to describe a characteristic or condition that appears in an individual who is a heterozygote (ie a person who has one normal and one altered gene)
Examples of autosomal dominant conditions include some inherited forms of deafness, familial hypercholesterolemia, one form of polycystic kidney disease, Huntington's disease, Marfan syndrome and neurofibromatosis
Also used to describe one of the types of single gene inheritance - autosomal dominant inheritance. A person with an autosomal dominant condition can pass on to children either the usual gene or the altered gene for the condition. Therefore, each child has a one in two chance of inheriting the altered gene, and so developing the condition. .
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