Case-control study of association between the functional candidate gene ERBB3 and schizophrenia in Caucasian population

Schizophrenia is a common psychiatric disorder with a complex genetic aetiology. Evidence shows that the oligodendrocyte and myelin-related genes including ERBB3 are closely related to schizophrenia. Two recent studies (Kanazawa et al. (Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 2007; 144: 113)) and Watanabe et al. (Neurosci Res 2007; 57: 574) reported there was no association between ERBB3 and schizophrenia in Japanese population. We investigated the ERBB3 gene given the putative functional nature of the gene and population heterogeneity between Asian and Caucasian. Scottish case and control samples were sequenced with four SNPs (rs705708 at intron 15, rs2271189, rs773123, rs2271188 at exon 27). We detected rs773123, which is a nonsynonymous Ser/Cys polymorphism located seven bases downstream of rs2271189, with P = 0.034. The subgroups of male patients and patients with age at onset <45 showed evidence of significant association with P values of 0.0046 and 0.0055, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first association study between ERBB3 and schizophrenia in the Caucasian population. Further investigation with large sample size should be helpful to clarify the nature of the gene.