Trinucleotide Repeat Polymorphisms of Spinal and Bulbar Muscular Atrophy (SBMA) Gene in Asian Populations

Yee, Su Bog

Abstract

I previously reported the PCR-based Spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) region polymorphisms in the three northeast Asian populations (Chinese, Koreans, Japanese) and Caucasians. Here I update this analysis by including the data of the allele distribution in 378 unrelated individuals from four populations in Asia. In this study I investigated PCR-based CAG repeat polymorphism on the SBMA locus among four Asian populations (Mongolian, Evenki, Orochon, Negrito) and performed the statistical analysis on the eight populations including the previously analyzed data. Both statistical analyses of one-way ANOVA (F=3.284, P=0.002) and Kruskal-Wallis test (chi-square=21.542, DF=7, P=0.003) showed remarkable differences in CAG allele distributions among the populations. Post-hoc test showed that the difference between Negritos and Caucasians was especially significant (Scheffe: P=0.042; Bonferroni: P=0.004). Also a significant differences among Northeast Asians, Caucasians and Negritos (Southeast Asian) were detected by these two tests (ANOVA; F=8.132, P.0.000, Kruskal-Wallis; chi-square=16.614, DF=2, P.0.000). Post-hoc test showed that the differences between Negritos and Caucasias was also especially significant (Scheffe: P=0.001; Bonferroni: P=0.000) among these three groups. These data present that the CAG repeat polymorphism of SBMA gene has a useful information for studies of human population genetics.