title: Ancient origin of the CAG expansion causing Huntington disease in a Spanish population.
abstract: Huntington disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder characterized clinically by progressive motor impairment, cognitive decline, and emotional deterioration. The disease is caused by the abnormal expansion of a CAG trinucleotide repeat in the first exon of the huntingtin gene in chromosome 4p16.3. HD is spread worldwide and it is generally accepted that few mutational events account for the origin of the pathogenic CAG expansion in most populations. We have investigated the genetic history of HD mutation in 83 family probands from the Land of Valencia, in Eastern Spain. An analysis of the HD/CCG repeat in informative families suggested that at least two main chromosomes were associated in the Valencian population, one associated with allele 7 (77 mutant chromosomes) and one associated with allele 10 (two mutant chromosomes). Haplotype A-7-A (H1) was observed in 47 out of 48 phase-known mutant chromosomes, obtained by segregation analysis, through the haplotype analysis of rs1313770-HD/CCG-rs82334, as it also was in 120 out of 166 chromosomes constructed by means of the PHASE program. The genetic history and geographical distribution of the main haplotype H1 were both studied by constructing extended haplotypes with flanking short tandem repeats (STRs) D4S106 and D4S3034. We found that we were able to determine the age of the CAG expansion associated with the haplotype H1 as being between 4,700 and 10,000 years ago. Furthermore, we observed a nonhomogenous distribution in the different regions associated with the different extended haplotypes of the ancestral haplotype H1, suggesting that local founder effects have occurred.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Genetics and Medicine, Department of Genomics and Proteomics, Instituto de Biomedicina, CSIC, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: García-Planells
authors.forename: Juan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Burguera
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Solís
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Millán
authors.forename: Damián
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ginestar
authors.forename: Francesc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Palau
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Espinós
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D018703:Founder Effect; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D000071058:Huntingtin Protein; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020161:Physical Chromosome Mapping; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D019680:Trinucleotide Repeat Expansion
chemical_list: C086055:HTT protein, human; D000071058:Huntingtin Protein; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins