Ataxia-telangiectasia and xeroderma pigmentosum: no evidence of linkage to HLA

Nine HLA-typed multiplex nuclear families segregating ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T), an autosomal recessive disorder, were studied. Linkage analysis performed by lod scores and by a previously published sib pair method revealed no evidence for linkage between A-T and HLA. An alternative method of linkage detection, previously applied to xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) and HLA, was reexamined and found to contain an error. As a consequence, neither of these "DNA repair disorders" appears to be linked to HLA.