Cleft chin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William McKinley
William McKinley
Human jaw front view
Human jaw front view

A cleft chin, chin cleft, dimple chin, chin dimple, or butt chin is a dimple on the chin. It is a Y-shaped fissure on the chin with the underlying bony peculiarity.[1] The chin fissure follows the fissure in the lower jaw bone resulted from the incomplete fusion of the left and right halves of the jaw during the embryonal and fetal development.[2]

This is an inherited trait in humans, where the dominant gene causes the cleft chin while the recessive geneotype presents without a cleft. However, it is also a classic example for variable penetrance[3] with environmental factors or a modifier gene possibly affecting the phenotypical expression of the actual genotype.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Online 'Mendelian Inheritance in Man' (OMIM) 119000
  2. ^ Mammalian Phenotype Browser:Cleft chin
  3. ^ Starr, Barry. Ask a Geneticist. Understanding Genetics. TheTech. Retrieved on 2007-07-01.
 This anatomy article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Languages