Linkage Mapping of Tourette Syndrome Gene(s) Using Microsatellite DNA Polymorphisms

Grant Type
Basic
Grant Year
1990
Institution Location
WI
Institution Organization Name
Marshfield Med. Research Fdn.
Investigators Name
Weber, James, MD

Our efforts are part of a large consortium project to map the gene(s) responsible for Tourette Syndrome. The mapping approach involves demonstration of coinheritance (linkage) of the disease gene to one or more polymorphic DNA markers within large multigenerational TS families. The consortium has already excluded much of the genome as a likely location for the Tourette gene(s). We will be searching preferentially those areas that have not yet been excluded: special attention will be paid to chromosome 9 because of a possible rearrangement of the DNA on the short arm of that chromosome which has been implicated in Tourette Syndrome. Two families, one from Wisconsin and one collected in Holland by our Dutch collaborators, will be used for the bulk of our experiments. A new class of especially informative markers called microsatellite DNA polymorphisms will be utilized. These markers can be analyzed at roughly twice the rate of markers developed earlier. Roughly one hundred new microsatellite markers will be tested with our two large families over the coming year. The results, especially when combined with those from the other consortium laboratories, should bring us much closer to the identification of a GTS gene. James L. Weber, Ph.D., Patricia Wilkie, Ph.D., Peter Ahmann, M.D. Marshfield Medical Research Fdn., Marshfield, WI Award $25,000 Tourette Association of America Inc. – Research Grant Award 1990