Linkage studies in autosomal dominant facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy

Linkage studies were undertaken in 120 individuals from 10 kindreds with autosomal dominant facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy using 35 different marker genes. No linkage was found. The highest lod score was 1.438 for the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene cluster (IGH) at a recombination fraction of 0.2. IGH is located on the long arm of chromosome 14. Based on scores of other marker genes and on a recombination map of chromosome 14, the probability that the gene for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy is located on chromosome 14 is estimated to be approximately 6%.