Genomewide scan in families with schizophrenia from the founder population of Afrikaners reveals evidence for linkage and uniparental disomy on chromosome 1.

ABSTRACT: We report on our initial genetic linkage studies of schizophrenia in the genetically isolated population of the Afrikaners from South Africa. A 10-cM genomewide scan was performed on 143 small families, 34 of which were informative for linkage. Using both nonparametric and parametric linkage analyses, we obtained evidence for a small number of disease loci on chromosomes 1, 9, and 13. These results suggest that few genes of substantial effect exist for schizophrenia in the Afrikaner population, consistent with our previous genealogical tracing studies. The locus on chromosome 1 reached genomewide significance levels (nonparametric LOD score of 3.30 at marker D1S1612, corresponding to an empirical P value of.012) and represents a novel susceptibility locus for schizophrenia. In addition to

SUBMITTER: Abecasis GR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1182255 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature