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Association of reading disability on chromosome 6p22 in the Afrikaner population
Author(s) -
Platko Jill V.,
Wood Frank B.,
Pelser Izelda,
Meyer Marianne,
Gericke George S.,
O'Rourke Julia,
Birns Julie,
Purcell Shaun,
Pauls David L.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
american journal of medical genetics part b: neuropsychiatric genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.393
H-Index - 126
eISSN - 1552-485X
pISSN - 1552-4841
DOI - 10.1002/ajmg.b.30774
Subject(s) - genetics , microsatellite , biology , reading disability , allele , population , genetic association , linkage (software) , gene , reading (process) , demography , genotype , single nucleotide polymorphism , dyslexia , linguistics , sociology , philosophy
Abstract The genetic basis of reading disability (RD) has long been established through family and twin studies. More recently genetic linkage studies have identified genomic regions that appear to harbor susceptibility genes for RD. Association studies have been shown to have greater power for detecting genes of modest effect, particularly in genetically isolated populations. Hence, a case control study of RD was undertaken in the Afrikaner population in South Africa. Sixty‐eight microsatellite markers in regions where linkages had been reported in previous studies were genotyped on 122 children with reading disability and 112 typically reading controls drawn from the same school population. A single allele of marker D6S299 showed a highly significant association with the RD phenotype (D6S299[229], P ‐value 0.000014). Other markers on other chromosomes also showed suggestive associations. Of particular interest were markers on chromosomes 1 and 15. These two regions have been implicated in studies of populations that formed the founding population in the Afrikaner population. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.