Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase mutations and haplotypes in Mexican Mestizos

In a screening for glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PD) deficiency in 1985 unrelated male subjects from the general population (Groups A and B) belonging to four states of the Pacific coast, 21 G-6-PD-deficient subjects were detected. Screening for mutations at the G-6-PD gene by PCR-restriction enzyme in these 21 G-6-PD-deficient subjects as well as in 14 G-6-PD-deficient patients with hemolytic anemia belonging to several states of Mexico showed two common G-6-PD variants: G-6-PD A-(202A/376G) (19 cases) and G-6-PD A-(376G/968C) (9 cases). In 7 individuals the mutations responsible for the enzyme deficiency remain to be determined. Furthermore, four silent polymorphic sites at the G-6-PD gene (PvuII, PstI, 1311, and NlaIII) were investigated in the 28 individuals with G-6-PD A- variants and in 137 G-6-PD normal subjects. As expected, only 10 different haplotypes were observed. To date, in our project aiming to determine the molecular basis of G-6-PD deficiency in Mexico, 60 unrelated G-6-PD-deficient Mexican males-25 in previous studies and 35 in the present work-have been studied. More than 75% of these individuals are from states of the Pacific coast (Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Chiapas). The results show that although G-6-PD deficiency is heterogeneous at the DNA level in Mexico, only three polymorphic variants have been observed: G-6-PD A-(202A/376G) (36 cases), G-6-PD A-(376G/968C) (13 cases), and G-6-PD Seattle(844C) (2 cases). G-6-PD A- variants are relatively distributed homogeneously and both variants explain 82% of the overall prevalence of G-6-PD deficiency. The variant G-6-PD A-(202A/376G) represents 73% of the G-6-PD A- alleles. Our data also show that the variant G-6-PD A-(376G/968C)-which has been observed in Mexico in the context of two different haplotypes-is more common than previously supposed. The three polymorphic variants that we observed in Mexico are on the same haplotypes as found in subjects from Africa, the Canary Islands, and Spain.