J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc.  2006 Sep;45(5):411-417.

No Evidence for Linkage of Chromosome 6p24-22, The Locus of Dysbindin Gene, to Schizophrenia in Korean Families

• Park DY
• Lee YS
• Jang YL
• Cho EY
• Jeun HO
• Park HJ
• Kim JW
• Kim CH
• Lee DS
• Hong KS

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Chromosome 6p24-22 has been identified as a disease locus with a high probability for schizophrenia based on several genomewide linkage scans with Caucasian families. The recent association studies suggest that the dysbindin gene located at chromosome 6p22.3 may be a candidate gene of schizophrenia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the linkage of chromosome 6p24.3-22.3 locus to schizophrenia in Korean families.
METHODS
We recruited one hundred fifty-seven family members from forty-six multiplex schizophrenia families. One hundred three of them were affected individuals. four microsatellite markers with 4.8 cM intervals on 6p24.3-22.3 were genotyped. Nonparametric linkage analysis was performed by evaluating the levels of allele sharing between the affected relative pairs.
RESULTS
In the single point analysis, no markers on chromosome 6p24.3-22.3 locus showed statistical evidence for linkage. Significant evidence for linkage was not found in the multi-point analysis.
CONCLUSION
These results do not support the previous evidence from Caucasian families for a locus predisposing to schizophrenia at 6p24.3-22.3, the locus of dysbindin gene. We conclude that if there is a susceptibility locus for schizophrenia in this region then its effect size is so small as to render our study insufficiently powerful to detect it and schizophrenia susceptibility loci in Korean families likey have different ethnicity-specific effects from Caucasian families.

Keyword

Schizophrenia; Linkage analysis; Chromosome 6p24.3-22.3 locus

MeSH Terms

Alleles
Humans
Microsatellite Repeats
Schizophrenia*