RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRINUCLEOTIDE REPEAT EXPANSION AND PHENOTYPIC VARIATION IN HUNTINGTONS-DISEASE

The molecular analysis of a specific CAG repeat sequence in the Huntin gton's disease gene in 440 Huntington's disease patients and 360 norma l controls reveals a range of 30-70 repeats in affected individuals an d 9-34 in normals. We find significant negative correlations between t he number of repeats on the HD chromosome and age at onset, regardless of sex of the transmitting parent, and between the number of repeats on the normal paternal allele and age at onset in individuals with mat ernally transmitted disease. This effect of the normal paternal allele may account for the weaker age at onset correlation between affected sib pairs with disease of maternal as opposed to paternal origin and s uggests that normal gene function varies because of the size of the re peat in the normal range and a sex-specific modifying effect.