Re. Ferrell et S. Iyengar, MOLECULAR STUDIES OF THE GENETICS OF NON-INSULIN-DEPENDENT DIABETES-MELLITUS, American journal of human biology, 5(4), 1993, pp. 415-424
Non-insulin-dependent mellitus (NIDDM) is a common, multi-factorial di
sease with a significant genetic component to disease susceptibility.
Biometrical analysis of family data has consistently found evidence of
the action of a major gene in determining susceptibility to NIDDM in
families. However, the identity of the gene or genes that contribute t
o NIDDM in the general population is still not known. Recent advances
in molecular biology have given investigators access to a number of pl
ausible candidate genes for NIDDM and these have been used as test loc
i in association and linkage studies with inconsistent results. A revi
ew of the candidate gene studies in NIDDM suggests that the failure of
these studies to identify specific loci involved in conferring suscep
tibility to NIDDM is, in part, due to failure to incorporate a number
of biological features of the disease. The frequency of NIDDM in the p
opulation suggests that the alleles involved in NIDDM are common and t
heir individual impact too small to be detected by simple single locus
methods of analysis. Studies of other phenotypic forms of diabetes me
llitus suggest that susceptibility to NIDDM is probably determined by
alleles at more than one locus acting independently or in concert. The
evolutionary history of certain populations may have isolated alleles
conferring susceptibility to NIDDM in ethnically defined populations
at high risk of NIDDM. These populations may provide a unique opportun
ity to identify specific genes involved in the complex etiology of NID
DM. (C) 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.