α-Catulin maps to the familial dysautonomia region on 9q31

Familial dysautonomia is a severe autosomal-recessive neurodegenerative disease that primarily affects the Ashkenazi Jewish population. We present the mapping of α-catulin and show that it maps precisely to the familial dysautonomia candidate region on 9q31. Patient sequence analysis identified two new sequence variants, which show linkage disequilibrium with this disease. A G to A transition at nucleotide 423 in exon 3 is a silent base change that does not alter the Val residue at position 141. A G to C transversion at nucleotide 1579 changes the Glu at postion 527 to Gln. These base changes were analyzed in several patients, unaffected Ashkenazi Jewish controls, and non-Jewish controls. Because of the presence of these sequence variants in several unaffected individuals, α-catulin is unlikely to be the causative gene in this disease.Key words: familial dysautonomia, α-catulin, sequence variant.