Journal
JOURNAL OF MEDICAL GENETICS
Volume 46, Issue 9, Pages 641-644Publisher
BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1136/jmg.2009.066969
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Genzyme Genetics
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background: Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the most common inherited lethal disease of children. Various genetic deletions involving the bi-allelic loss of SMN1 exon 7 are reported to account for 94% of affected individuals. Published literature places the carrier frequency for SMN1 mutations between 1 in 25 and 1 in 50 in the general population. Although SMA is considered to be a pan-ethnic disease, carrier frequencies for many ethnicities, including most ethnic groups in North America, are unknown. Objectives and methods: To provide an accurate assessment of SMN1 mutation carrier frequencies in African American, Ashkenazi Jewish, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic populations, more than 1000 specimens in each ethnic group were tested using a clinically validated, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay that measures exon 7 copy number. Results: The observed one-copy genotype frequency was 1 in 37 (2.7%) in Caucasian, 1 in 46 (2.2%) in Ashkenazi Jew, 1 in 56 (1.8%) in Asian, 1 in 91 (1.1%) in African American, and 1 in 125 (0.8%) in Hispanic specimens. Additionally, an unusually high frequency of alleles with multiple copies of SMN1 was identified in the African American group (27% compared to 3.3-8.1%). This latter finding has clinical implications for providing accurate adjusted genetic risk assessments to the African American population. Conclusions: Differences in the frequency of SMA carriers were significant among several ethnic groups. This study provides an accurate assessment of allele frequencies and estimates of adjusted genetic risk that were previously unavailable to clinicians and patients considering testing.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available