Oculopharyngeal MD among Bukhara Jews is due to a founder (GCG)9 mutation in the PABP2 gene.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether all cases of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) among Bukhara Jews share the same founder mutation.


BACKGROUND
Autosomal dominant OPMD is caused by a (GCG)8-13 repeat expansion in the polyadenylation binding protein 2 (PABP2) gene. The disease has a worldwide distribution but is particularly prevalent in Bukhara Jews and in French Canadians, in whom it was introduced by three sisters in 1648.


METHODS
We established the size of the PABP2 mutation in 23 Bukhara Jewish patients belonging to eight unrelated families. In all families, we constructed haplotypes for the carrying chromosomes composed of the alleles for eight chromosome 14q polymorphic markers.


RESULTS
All patients share a (GCG)9 PABP2 mutation and a four-marker haplotype. Furthermore, a shared intron single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the PABP2 gene 2.6Kb from the mutation was not observed in 22 families with (GCG)9 mutations from nine different countries. The smaller size of the chromosomal region in linkage disequilibrium around the mutation in Bukhara Jews, as compared with French Canadians, suggests a founder effect that occurred more than 350 years ago. Based on the Luria-Delbrück corrected "genetic clock," we estimate that the mutation appeared or was introduced once in the Bukhara Jewish population between AD 872 and 1512 (mean, AD 1243).


CONCLUSIONS
OPMD among Bukhara Jews is the result of a shared, historically distinct, PABP2 (GCG)9 mutation that likely arose or was introduced in this population at the time they first settled in Bukhara and Samarkand during the 13th or 14th centuries.
Blumen
S C
SC
Department of Neurology, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera, Israel. neurology@hillel-yaffe.health.gov.il
Korczyn
A D
AD
Lavoie
H
H
Medynski
S
S
Chapman
J
J
Asherov
A
A
Nisipeanu
P
P
Inzelberg
R
R
Carasso
R L
RL
Bouchard
J P
JP
Tomé
F M
FM
Rouleau
G A
GA
Brais
B
B
D008040:Genetic Linkage / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007585:Jews / Q000235:genetics*; D009136:Muscular Dystrophies / Q000235:genetics*; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D039102:Poly(A)-Binding Proteins; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D014610:Uzbekistan / Q000208:ethnology
D039102:Poly(A)-Binding Proteins; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins