What is autosomal recessive inheritance?

Warburg Micro and Martsolf Syndrome are related rare autosomal recessive disorders. Autosomal recessive is one type of inheritance pattern by which genetic disorders can be passed from parent to child. Genes are found on structures called chromosomes of which humans have 23 pairs. 22 of the pairs of chromosomes are called autosomes which both males and females have equally, and the remaining pair is the sex chromosomes which determine if an individual is male or female. Autosomal inheritance means the gene with the change is located on one of the 22 non-sex chromosomes. Males and females are both equally likely to be affected by an autosomal recessive disorder. For a child to have an autosomal recessive disorder both copies of a particular gene must carry a disease-causing change. The child will usually inherit one copy of the gene with a disease-causing change from each parent. Usually the parents of a child with an autosomal recessive condition do not have the genetic disorder themselves and are called “carriers” of a given genetic disorder. In the case where both parents are carriers for a genetic disorder there is a 1 in 4 (25%) chance that a child will inherit two disease-causing alleles and have the inherited disorder.