Abstract
An autosomal dominant distal form of spinal muscular atrophy mainly affecting the upper limbs with a mean age of onset of 17 years has been identified in a large Bulgarian family. Linkage of the above family to the spinal muscular atrophy type I, II and III locus on chromosome 5 has been excluded. In an attempt to map this disease gene we have analysed individuals of this family, with more than 140 microsatellite polymorphic markers of the human genome. A maximum lod score of 5.99 at theta = 0.007 has been obtained with locus D7S795. We have thus mapped the gene for this hereditary form of distal spinal muscular atrophy to chromosome 7p.
An autosomal dominant distal form of spinal muscular atrophy mainly affecting the upper limbs with a mean age of onset of 17 years has been identified in a large Bulgarian family. Linkage of the above family to the spinal muscular atrophy type I, II and III locus on chromosome 5 has been excluded. In an attempt to map this disease gene we have analysed individuals of this family, with more than 140 microsatellite polymorphic markers of the human genome. A maximum lod score of 5.99 at theta = 0.007 has been obtained with locus D7S795. We have thus mapped the gene for this hereditary form of distal spinal muscular atrophy to chromosome 7p.