Suggestive Evidence for a Schizophrenia Susceptibility Locus on Chromosome 6q and a Confirmation in an Independent Series of Pedigrees

We have investigated whether there is a locus on chromosome 6 that confers an increased susceptibility to schizophrenia using a two-stage approach and nonparametric linkage analysis. Allele sharing identical by descent (IBD) and multipoint maximum likelihood score (MLS) statistics were employed. Results from two tested data sets, a first data set, or genome scanning data set, and a second replication data set, show excess allele sharing for multiple markers in 6q, a chromosomal region not previously reported as linked to schizophrenia. In our genome scanning data set, excess allele sharing was found for markers on 6q13–q26. The greatest allele sharing was at interval 6q21–q22.3 at marker D6S416 (IBD percentage 69;P= 0.00024). The multipoint MLS values were greater than 2.4 in the 11.4-cM interval delimited by D6S301 and D6S303, with a maximum value of 3.06 close to D6S278 and of 3.05 at D6S454/D6S423. We did not confirm, however, the previously described linkage in 6p, when tested in the systematic genome scanning data set. The replication data set also showed excess allele sharing in chromosomal area 6q13–q26, which overlapped with the aforementioned positive linkage area of the genome scanning data set. The highest sharing of the second data set was at D6S424 (IBD percentage 64;P= 0.0004), D6S283 (IBD percentage 62;P= 0.0009), and D6S423 (IBD percentage 63;P= 0.0009). Multipoint MLS analysis yielded MLS values greater than 1 in an area of about 35 cM, which overlaps with the MLS multipoint area of linkage from the genome scanning data set. The multipoint MLS at the D6S454/D6S423 locus was 2.05. In the second data set, the maximum multipoint MLS was located about 10 cM centromeric from the maximum of the genome scanning data set, at the interval D6S424–D6S275 (2.35). Our results provide very suggestive evidence for a susceptibility locus for schizophrenia in chromosome 6q from two independent data sets.