Abstract
Myotonic dystrophy (DM) is a dominantly inherited neuromuscular disease, highly variable and multisystemic, which is caused by the expansion of a CTG repeat located in the 3´ untranslated region of the DMPK gene. Normal alleles show a copy number of 5–37 repeats on normal chromosomes, amplified to 50–3000 copies on DM chromosomes. The trinucleotide repeat shows a trimodal allele distribution in the majority of the examined population. The first class includes alleles carrying (CTG)5, the second class, alleles in the range 7–18 repeats, and the third class, alleles (CTG)≥ 19. The frequency of this third class is directly related to the prevalence of DM in different populations, suggesting that normal large-sized alleles predispose toward DM. We studied CTG repeat allele distribution and Alu insertion and/or deletion polymorphism at the myotonic dystrophy locus in two major Ethiopian populations, the Amhara and Oromo. CTG allele distribution and haplotype analysis on a total of 224 normal chromosomes showed significant differences between the two ethnic groups. These differences have a bearing on the out-of-Africa hypothesis for the origin of the DM mutation. In addition, (CTG)≥ 19 alleles were exclusively detected in the Amhara population, confirming the predisposing role of these alleles compared with the DM expansion-mutation.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Electronic Publication
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gennarelli, M., Pavoni, M., Cruciani, F. et al. CTG repeats distribution and Alu insertion polymorphism at myotonic dystrophy (DM) gene in Amhara and Oromo populations of Ethiopia. Hum Genet 105, 165–167 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s004399900091
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s004399900091