Association Analysis of ULK1 with Crohn's Disease in a New Zealand Population

The gene ULK1 is an excellent candidate for Crohn's disease (CD) due to its role in autophagy. A recent study provided evidence for the involvement of ULK1 in the pathogenesis of CD (Henckaerts et al., 2011). We attempted to validate this association, using a candidate gene SNP study of ULK1 in CD. We identified tagging SNPs and genotyped these SNPs using the Sequenom platform in a Caucasian New Zealand dataset consisting of 406CD patients and 638 controls. In this sample, we were able to demonstrate an association between CD and several different ULK1 SNPs and haplotypes. Phenotypic analysis showed an association with age of diagnosis 17-40 years and inflammatory behaviour. The findings of this study provide evidence to suggest that genetic variation in ULK1 may play a role in interindividual differences in CD susceptibility and clinical outcome.