Screening of GLE1 mutations in Chinese amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a lethal neurological disease primarily involving the spinal cord, brainstem, and corticospinal tract. Recently, mutations in the GLE1 gene were reported in Caucasian ALS patients. To inquire whether Chinese ALS patients carried causal mutations in the gene, we screened all 16 coding exons of GLE1 with Sanger sequencing in a Han Chinese cohort of 250 ALS cases. No nonsynonymous coding variants were detected. Our results suggest that pathogenic variants in the GLE1 gene are rare in Chinese ALS patients.