Mutation screening of the Homer gene family and association analysis in schizophrenia

N. Norton, H.J. Williams, Nigel Melville Williams, G. Spurlock, Stanley Zammit, G. Jones, S. Jones, R. Owen, Michael Conlon O'Donovan, Michael John Owen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

56 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Homer proteins are a group of proteins that regulate group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptor function. As altered glutamate function has been implicated in many neuro psychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia, we have screened all three known Homer genes for sequence variation for use under the candidate gene association paradigm. We found seven SNPs, including three in exons. Of these, none was non-synonymous. Allele frequencies of all the detected SNPs were estimated in DNA pools of 368 schizophrenics and 368 controls. Only one (Homer 1 IVS4 + 18A > G) was associated with schizophrenia in this sample, a finding confirmed by individual genotyping (P = 0.01). However, in our extended sample of 680 cases and 671 controls, the evidence for association diminished (P = 0.05). Our results suggest it is unlikely that sequence variants in the Homer genes contribute to the aetiology of schizophrenia, but the variants we identified are plausible candidates for other neuropsychiatric phenotypes.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)18-21
Number of pages4
JournalAmerican Journal of Medical Genetics, Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics
Volume120B
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2003

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