Linkage studies of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH) cDNA expression levels.

ABSTRACT: The COMT and DBH genes are physically located at chromosomes 22q11 and 9q34, respectively, and both COMT and DBH are involved in catecholamine metabolism and are strong candidates for certain psychiatric and neurological disorders. Although the genetic determinants for both enzymes' activities have been widely studied, their genetic involvement on gene mRNA expression levels remains unclear. In this study we performed quantitative linkage analysis of COMT and DBH cDNA expression levels, identifying transcriptional regulatory regions for both genes. Multiple Haseman-Elston regression was used to detect both additive and interactive effects between two loci. We found that the master transcriptional regulatory region 20q13 had an additive effect on the COMT expression level. We also found tha

SUBMITTER: Xing C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2367604 | biostudies-literature | 2007

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature