Author Description

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal disease which is one of the leading geneticcauses of infant deaths. The cause of the SMA is degeneration of motor neurons of spinal cord.The incidence of SMA is about one in 10, 000 live births with a carrier frequency of one in 50 toone in 35. The SMA's frequency in Caucasians is reported to be 1 in 18,000 births, in Japanese itis reported to be 1 in 10,000 births, in Americans it is reported to be 1 in 6000 births. This bookexplains well the underlying molecular mechanisms involve in inducing and modifying the SMA. This book is dedicated to all SMA patients and the researchers.The authors have been involved in ongoing research projects regarding genetics and epigenetics of SMA. The difficulties in understanding the basic pathogenesis and pathology of SMA makes the authors realize to write a chapter as a part of the doctorate thesis which is compiled in this present form.