Abstract: The method for genome analysis translates the clinical findings in the patient into a comprehensive test order for genes that can be causative of the patient's illness, delimits analysis of variants identified in the patient's genome to those that are “on target” for the patient's illness, and provides clinical annotation of the likely causative variants for inclusion in a variant warehouse that is updated as a result of each sample that is analyzed and that, in turn, provides a source of additional annotation for variants.

Abstract: The method for genome analysis translates the clinical findings in the patient into a comprehensive test order for genes that can be causative of the patient's illness, delimits analysis of variants identified in the patient's genome to those that are “on target” for the patient's illness, and provides clinical annotation of the likely causative variants for inclusion in a variant warehouse that is updated as a result of each sample that is analyzed and that, in turn, provides a source of additional annotation for variants.

Abstract: Recently, a new MECP2 isoform, which has an alternative N-terminus, transcribed from exon 1, was described. Since the incorporation of exon 1 into standard sequencing protocol for Rett syndrome, few patients with exon 1 mutations have been described and several groups have concluded that exon 1 mutations are a rare cause of Rett syndrome. The present invention provides an improved method of diagnosing Rett Syndrome by identifying two different mutations in exon 1 of the MECP2 gene, the first of which results in a switch from alanine to valine at the beginning of a polyalanine stretch, and the second of which results in a disruption of the ATG initiation codon of exon 1. Patients having either such mutation fit the clinical criteria for classic Rett syndrome, and further support previous reports that exon 1 mutations may be associated with a severe phenotype.