The SNORD116 locus lies in the 15q11-13 region of paternally expressed genes implicated in Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), a complex disease accompanied by obesity and severe neurobehavioural disturbances. Cases of PWS patients with a deletion encompassing the SNORD116 gene cluster, but preserving the expression of flanking genes, have been described. We report a 23-year-old woman who presented clinical criteria of PWS, including the behavioural and nutritional features, obesity, developmental delay and endocrine dysfunctions with hyperghrelinemia. We found a paternally transmitted highly restricted deletion of the SNORD116 gene cluster, the shortest described to date (118 kb). This deletion was also present in the father. This finding in a human case strongly supports the current hypothesis that lack of the paternal SNORD116 gene cluster has a determinant role in the pathogenesis of PWS. Moreover, targeted analysis of the SNORD116 gene cluster, complementary to SNRPN methylation analysis, should be carried out in subjects with a phenotype suggestive of PWS. European Journal of Human Genetics (2015) 23, 252-255; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2014.103; published online 11 June 2014 INTRODUCTION Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by the lack of expression of paternal alleles in 15q11-13. 1,2 The PWS phenotype includes neonatal hypotonia, early hyperphagia, morbid obesity, short stature, hypogonadism, cognitive impairment, and behavioural and psychiatric problems. Molecular mechanisms including large deletions, maternal uniparental disomy or imprinting defects explain 98% of cases which are easily diagnosed with a SNRPN methylation analysis. The study of rare cases resulting from reciprocal translocations and atypical 15q11q12 microdeletions without methylation abnormalities has defined a critical region containing the functional PWS gene locus. 3 This minimal region contains several snoRNAs gene clusters including SNORD116 and SNORD115. Mice lacking the SNORD116 orthologue display a partial PWS phenotype. 4,5 However, so far, all reported clinical cases of limited deletion of the SNORD116 cluster associated with PWS have also involved adjacent genes: SNURF-SNRPN or SNORD115. [6][7][8][9] We report the first case of a patient with the highly typical features of PWS who presented a restricted deletion of the SNORD116 region which did not affect the expression of SNURF-SNRPN and did not delete any portion of the SNORD115 locus.