Consanguinity

Consanguinity is the kinship of two individuals characterized by the sharing of common ancestor(s). Rare or very rare autosomal recessive diseases are more frequent in the offspring of such unions, compared to panmictic populations. These are, firstly, a dramatic problem at the personal, familial and public health levels. But, secondly, as shown with examples of very rare autozygosity and genetic diseases found in Tunisian and Lebanese consanguineous families, they represent invaluable fundamental research starting points, for identifying unknown genes and understanding physiopathology, according to the challenge “from the patients to the laboratory bench and, then, from bench to the patients”.