Dysbindin linked to schizophrenia

Current evidence supports the theory that multiple susceptibility genes are involved in schizophrenia, but the identity of those genes has been difficult to ascertain. In July electronic edition of The American Journal of Human Genetics, Richard Straub and colleagues at the Virginia Commonwealth University show that schizophrenia is associated with a genetic variation in the dysbindin gene (Am J Hum Genet 2002, 71).

Straub et al. performed a family-based association analysis of 36 simple sequence-length polymorphism (SSLP) markers and of additional SNP markers localized to the chromosomal region 6p22.3. They observed that in this region single-nucleotide polymorphisms of the 140-kb gene DTNBP1 (dystrobrevin-binding protein 1 — the human ortholog of mouse dysbindin) are strongly associated with schizophrenia. In addition, they demonstrated that the pattern of linkage disequilibrium was consistent with the presence of more than one susceptibility allele.

In mice dysbindin has a role in neuromuscular synapse formation and maintenance. ...