Mutations in the WWOX gene have been reported in a number of patients with various neurological disorders including spino-cerebellar ataxia, intellectual disability, epilepsy, and epileptic encephalopathy.
In this thematic issue, updated information has been collected regarding the structure, function and signaling of WWOX, along with its critical role as a tumor suppressor and participation in metabolism, neurodegeneration, ataxia, epilepsy, neural disorders, neuronal damages, and interactions with oncogenic viruses.
Moreover, we observed that the short-lived Wwox knock-out mouse display spontaneous and audiogenic seizures, a phenotype previously observed in the spontaneous Wwox mutant rat presenting with ataxia and epilepsy, indicating that homozygous WWOX mutations in different species causes cerebellar ataxia associated with epilepsy.