A genome screen for linkage in Australian sibling-pairs with multiple sclerosis

The role of genetic factors in determining susceptibility to multiple sclerosis is well established but, despite the global distribution of the disease, systematic efforts to locate susceptibility genes have concentrated exclusively on populations from the Northern Hemisphere. We performed a genome wide screen of linkage in the Australian population using a panel of 397 microsatellite markers in 54 affected sibling-pairs. Multipoint linkage analysis revealed four regions of suggestive linkage (on chromosomes 2p13, 4q26-28, 6q26 and Xp11) and 18 additional regions of potential linkage (at 1q43-44, 3q13-24, 4q24, 4q31-34, 5q11-13, 6q27, 7q33-35, 8p23-21, 9q21, 13q31-32, 16p13, 16p11, 16q23-24, 17p13, 18p11, 20p12-11, Xp21-11 and Xq23-28). Our results contribute to the available data adding new provisional regions of linkage as well as increasing support for areas previously implicated in genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis.