A second large family with catatonic schizophrenia supports the region distally of chrna7 on chromosome 15q14–15

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe We agree with Leonard and Freedman1 that the gene encoding the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor _α_7 subunit (_CHRNA7_) may play a role in

schizophrenia, and that more than one gene from the chromosome 15q14 region could be involved in the pathogenesis of different forms of schizophrenia. However, our set of genetic data

derived from large families does not provide evidence that _CHRNA7_ causes hereditary catatonic schizophrenia (SCZD10, periodic catatonia, OMIM 605419). Leonard and Freedman present a

pedigree depicting a proband with three offsprings, all four affected with schizophrenia. These patients share polymorphic marker alleles centromeric of _CHRNA7_, thus excluding the genes

distally of _CHRNA7_ as candidates, whereas a schizophrenia-related gene located telomeric of _CHRNA7_ has recently been suggested by our group.2 Leonard and Freedman conclude that their

family is more informative than our three-generation family with seven affected members, and their criticism is mainly based on the observation that affected members of the informative

branch share the same 15q13–22 haplotype from the other parent (proband 0731), who has married into our extended family. Therefore, this individual could also be considered as a theoretical

source for a disease mutation in the branch. However, no cases of psychiatric disorders have been reported for any members of the family of proband 0731.3,4 Although a second vulnerability

gene may be localized in this region, cosegregation of chromosome 15 related markers and schizophrenia observed in the NIH family reported by Leonard and Freedman could also be due to

chance. Sharing of common markers of any chromosomal regions divided by only three meioses is expectable for one out of four of all chromosomal loci in such a small family, resulting in a

lod score of 0.6. In other words, one may expect cosegregation of markers of any chromosomal locus with a given disease coincidentally in one out of four families of this size. This is a

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during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support REFERENCES * Leonard S, Freedman R . _Mol Psychiatry_

2003; 8: 145–147. * Meyer J _et al_. _Mol Psychiatry_ 2002; 7: 220–223. * Stöber G _et al_. _Am J Hum Genet_ 2000; 67: 1201–1207. * Stöber G _et al_. _Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci_

2001 (Suppl 1): I/25–I/30. * Stöber G _et al_. _Hum Genet_ 2002; 111: 323–330. * Meyer J _et al_. _Am J Med Genet_ 2002; 114: 860 (Abstract). Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS

AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany J Meyer & K P Lesch * Institute of Medical Biometry, Informatics and

Epidemiology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, Bonn, D-53105, Germany F Rüschendorf Authors * J Meyer View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 

Google Scholar * F Rüschendorf View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * K P Lesch View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to J Meyer. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Meyer, J., Rüschendorf, F. &

Lesch, K. A second large family with catatonic schizophrenia supports the region distally of _CHRNA7_ on chromosome 15q14–15. _Mol Psychiatry_ 8, 259–260 (2003).

https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001222 Download citation * Published: 27 March 2003 * Issue Date: March 2003 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001222 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share

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