BENIGN INFANTILE FAMILIAL CONVULSIONS ARE NOT AN ALLELIC FORM OF THE BENIGN FAMILIAL NEONATAL CONVULSIONS GENE

Benign infantile familial convulsions (BIFC) and benign familial neona tal convulsions (BFNC) are two forms of familial convulsions having an age of onset within the first year of life. The gene responsible for BFNC has been mapped to chromosome 20q in the close vicinity of D20S19 and D20S20 markers. We performed linkage analysis between BIFC and D2 0S19-D20S20 in eight families in order to know whether the BFNC gene i s also implicated in BIPC. Several apparent obligate crossovers betwee n affected members were detected. The data here presented demonstrate that the BFNC gene is not responsible for BIPC.