Polymorphism analysis of the huntingtin gene in Italian families affected with Huntington disease

Two sources of variation in the huntingtin gene, the length of the CCG-rich segment downstream to the (CAG)n stretch undergoing expansion in Huntington disease (HD) and the deletion of 3 bp at codon positions 2642–2645(Δ2642), were analysed on the normal and HD chromosomes of 80 Italian families aff...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Human molecular genetics 1994-07, Vol.3 (7), p.1129-1132
Main Authors: Novelletto, Andrea, Persichetti, Francesca, Sabbadini, Guglielmo, Mandich, Paola, Bellone, Emilia, Ajmar, Franco, Squitieri, F., Campanella, G., Bozza, Angela, MacDonald, Marcy E., Gusella, James F., Frontali, Marina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age of Onset
Biological and medical sciences
Codon - genetics
Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases
Genes
Humans
huntingtin gene
Huntingtin Protein
Huntington Disease - epidemiology
Huntington Disease - genetics
Huntington's chorea
Italy - epidemiology
Linkage Disequilibrium
man
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Minisatellite Repeats
Nerve Tissue Proteins - genetics
Neurology
Nuclear Proteins - genetics
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Polymorphism, Genetic
restriction fragment length polymorphism
Sequence Deletion
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Summary:Two sources of variation in the huntingtin gene, the length of the CCG-rich segment downstream to the (CAG)n stretch undergoing expansion in Huntington disease (HD) and the deletion of 3 bp at codon positions 2642–2645(Δ2642), were analysed on the normal and HD chromosomes of 80 Italian families affected with HD. No instances of meiotic instability of the CCG-rich segment were detected. A strong linkage disequilibrium was found between the HD mutation and alleles at both polymorphic regions: CCG-rich length alleles different from 176 bp are underrepresented while Δ2642 is overrepresented on HD chromosomes. The presence of such alleles on HD chromosomes does not affect age at onset of the disease. Normal chromosomes displayed a non-random association, shorter (CAG)n segments being preferentially followed by longer CCG-rich segments. Finally, the finding, among normal subjects, of carriers of variants on both chromosomes denotes that variation at either of the two polymorphisms does not impair the function of the huntingtin gene product.
ISSN:0964-6906
1460-2083
DOI:10.1093/hmg/3.7.1129