Genome scan for susceptibility loci for schizophrenia

Objective: Schizophrenia is a relatively common, often chronic and debilita ting mental illness. Evidence from various studies has clearly demonstrated that genetic factors contribute substantially to the etiology, The goal of this study was to identify chromosomal regions likely to contain schizophr enia susceptibility genes. Methods: A genome-wide map of 388 microsatellite DNA markers was genotyped in 5 schizophrenia families. Nonparamet-ric link age analysis (Genehunter) was used to assess the pattern of allele sharing at each marker locus relative to the presence of disease. Results: Nonparam etric linkage scores did not reach a genome-wide level of statistical signi ficance <p < 0.00002 > or a p value suggestive of linkage (p < 0.007) for a ny marker; however, one p value suggested replicated linkage (p < 0.01) at chromosome 6p24 in region D6S309 (p = 0.0047). Furthermore, 11 markers resu lted in p < 0.05 at chromosomes 6p, 6q, 10q, 12q and 14q. Conclusions: Desp ite the differences in diagnostic schemes, in markers used and methods of a nalyses between studies published so far, we think that our result supports the notion that there is possibly some consistent evidence for replicated linkage of a schizophrenia susceptibility locus around the region of D6S309 at chromosome 6p24. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.