Confirmation that the specific SSLP microsatellite allele 4qA161 segregates with fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) in a cohort of multiplex and simplex FSHD families.

The molecular defect in fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) has proved difficult to explain. Although contraction within a polymorphic tandem repeat located at 4q35.2 is unequivocally associated with disease expression, the specific biological mechanism involved in the phenotype has yet to be resolved.

Further evidence for the association of MMP9 with nephropathy in type 2 diabetes and application of DNA pooling technology to candidate gene screening.

Background: Diabetic nephropathy is characterised by extracellular matrix (ECM) expansion, a key modulator of which is TGF-b1. Glucose-stimulated transcriptional activation of the TGF-b1 gene is an important component of the pathogenesis of nephropathy, following which latent TGF-b1 protein is synthesised. Matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) remodels the ECM and has been implicated in TGF-b1 activation.

High-resolution DNA copy number profiling of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors using targeted microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization.

Purpose: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal dominant condition that predisposes to benign and malignant tumors. The lifetime risk of a malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST) in NF1 is approximately 10%. These tumors have a poor survival rate and their molecular basis remains unclear.

Genotype effects of CHRNA7, CNR1 and COMT in schizophrenia: interactions with tobacco and cannabis use.

Background: Genetic variations might modify associations between schizophrenia and cannabis or tobacco use.

Aims: To examine whether variants within the cannabinoid receptor (CNR1) and alpha(7) nicotinic receptor (CHRNA7) genes are associated with schizophrenia, and whether these effects vary according to cannabis or tobacco use. We also examined a putative interaction between cannabis and Val(158)Met within the catechol-O-methyltransferase gene (COMT).

Evidence that interaction between neuregulin 1 and its receptor erbB4 increases susceptibility to schizophrenia.

There is now strong evidence that Neuregulin 1 (NRG1) is a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia. NRG1 mediates some of its effects through the tyrosine kinase receptor erbB4, and analysis of gene knock-out animals suggests that the functional interaction of NRG1 and erbB4 mediates behaviors that may model some aspects of the schizophrenia phenotype in mice. Given these findings, we have sought evidence for association between schizophrenia and erbB4.

Support for RGS4 as a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia.

Background: The gene encoding the regulator of G-protein signaling 4 has recently been associated with susceptibility to schizophrenia. This finding is particularly interesting, because it was replicated within the same study and also because there are functional, positional, and expression data to support the regulator of G-protein signaling 4 as a schizophrenia candidate gene. Although the original report was highly suggestive, a limitation was that the study was conducted on rather small samples.

Universal, robust, highly quantitative SNP allele frequency measurement in DNA pools.

Detecting alleles that confer small increments in susceptibility to disease will require large-scale allelic association studies of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in candidate, or positional candidate, genes. However, current genotyping technologies are one to two orders of magnitude too expensive to permit the analysis of thousands of SNPs in large samples. We have developed and thoroughly validated a highly accurate protocol for SNP allele frequency estimation in DNA pools based upon the SNaPshot (Applied Biosystems) chemistry adaptation of primer extension.