EVIDENCE OF LINKAGE TO 6P23 AND GENETIC-HETEROGENEITY IN NONSYNDROMICCLEFT-LIP WITH OR WITHOUT CLEFT-PALATE

Nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL+/-P) is a cong enital orofacial anomaly that derives from an embryopathy with failure of nasal process and palatal shelves fusion. CL+/-P is one of the mos t common malformations, affecting 1/700-1/1000 live births among Cauca sians. Early investigations have suggested that a clefting gene may be located on the short arm of chromosome 6 (6p), as well as in other re gions. In this study, we analyzed a large sample of families by using eight PCR markers that map on chromosome region 6p23-p24. The admixtur e test, as implemented in the HOMOG program, was significant when test ed against multipoint data (alpha = 0.60, P value 0.00004); the lod sc ore calculated, assuming heterogeneity, was 3.60 at 1 cM telomeric to D6S259. Taken together these data demonstrate the presence of a locus for CL+/-P in the 6p23 chromosome region. (C) 1997 Academic Press.