Identification of candidate genes for psychiatric disorders on 18P11

Linkage studies have suggested a locus for bipolar disorder as well as schi zophrenia in the pericentric region of chromosome 18. Several candidate gen es have been identified in the region including ACTH, IMP, and G(olf), howe ver no reports of mutations in families showing linkage to the 18p11 locus have been reported. Recently, mild linkage disequilibrium has been observed with a polymorphic marker that maps within the G(olf) gene and schizophren ia in families from Germany and Israel, suggesting that a gene mapping near G(olf) may be involved in psychiatric disorders. A BAC and cosmid contig a round the G(olf) locus has been generated and BAC clones were used for cDNA selection experiments. Several novel genes have been identified which are expressed in the brain. These genes may be possible candidate genes for psy chiatric illness.