Cystic fibrosis: Progress in mapping the disease locus using polymorphic DNA markers. I.

Abstract

The conventional approach to the identification of the affected gene in inherited diseases is through the demonstration of specific biochemical abnormalities in patients, their tissues, or cells. This approach has, unfortunately, been unsuccessful in the case of cystic fibrosis (CF), the most common severe autosomal recessive disorder in Causasians. An alternative approach is to locate the CF gene by linkage studies with chromosomal markers. We report here our results of testing 39 DNA restriction fragment length polymorphic (RFLP) markers using a panel of 45 two-generation Canadian families each with two or more affected children. The probability of linkage between each marker and CF was analyzed by the lod score method using the LIPED program. The results of these analyses show that none of the markers tested is closely linked to the disease locus.