FREQUENCIES OF THE ANGIOTENSINOGEN GENE AND ANGIOTENSIN-I CONVERTING-ENZYME (ACE) GENE POLYMORPHISMS IN AFRICAN-AMERICANS

The purpose of the present study was to characterize three polymorphis ms within the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in an African Ameri can population. A new mispairing primer polymerase chain reaction (PCR ) was developed to identify two polymorphisms (T174M, M235T) in the an giotensinogen gene. A previously described PCR method was used to iden tify an insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphism in the angiotensin I c onverting enzyme (ACE) gene. Forty healthy, unrelated African American s participated. The T174M mutation occurs less frequently (5.0%) than the M235T mutation (87.5%). The ACE D polymorphism occurs at a higher rate (70%) than the I. The data reveals that the two angiotensinogen m utation allele frequencies occur at similar rates regardless of the AC E gene allele. There appears to be no association between the mutation s, indicating the loci are not linked.