ORIGINS OF THE FRAGILE-X SYNDROME MUTATION

The fragile X syndrome is a common cause of mental impairment. In view of the low reproductive fitness of affected males, the high incidence of the syndrome has been suggested to be the result of a high rate of new mutations occurring exclusively in the male germline. Extensive f amily studies, however, have failed to identify any cases of a new mut ation. Alternatively, it has been suggested that a selective advantage of unaffected heterozygotes may, in part, explain the high incidence of the syndrome. Molecular investigations have shown that the syndrome is caused by the amplification of a CGG trinucleotide repeat in the F MR-1 gene which leads to the loss of gene expression. Further to this, genetic studies have suggested that there is evidence of linkage dise quilibrium between the fragile X disease locus and flanking polymorphi c markers. More recently, this analysis has been extended and has led to the observation that a large number of fragile X chromosomes appear to be lineage descendants of founder mutation events. Here, we presen t a study of the FRAXAC1 polymorphic marker in our patient cohort. We find that its allele distribution is strikingly different on fragile X chromosomes, confirming the earlier observations and giving further s upport to the suggestions of a fragile X founder effect.