Identification of 167 polymorphisms in 88 genes from candidate neurodegeneration pathways.

Catalogs of intra-gene polymorphisms are needed to facilitate wide-ranging candidate gene-based association studies in common complex diseases. With this in mind, we have scanned multiple alignments of expressed sequence tags and of genomic DNA sequences (PCR products from four to eight unrelated individuals) to find polymorphisms in 195 genes putatively involved in neurodegenerative illness (including components of oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, inflammation, apoptosis and aging). This led to the discovery of 167 polymorphisms in 88 genes. These comprised 163 single nucleotide polymorphisms, one insertion/deletion, and three other variations involving more than one base pair. The polymorphisms were distributed in the exons (87), introns (70), and gene flanking regions (10). Of the exonic polymorphisms, 17 would give rise to non-synonymous amino acid substitutions. These findings now provide a valuable resource for association studies in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

Concordant divergence in proteins and mitochondrial DNA between two vole species in the genus Clethrionomys.

The bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) and the northern red-backed vole (C. rutilus) are two closely related species where interspecific crosses result in fertile female but sterile male offspring. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from C. rutilus has passed the species barrier and is found in C. glareolus from northern Fennoscandia. The present report shows that the genetic distance between the two species, calculated from enzyme data (Nei's D), is 0.64. Isoelectric focusing of muscle proteins resolved around 55 bands, of which each species had 6 or 7 bands not present in the other species. Sequence divergence of mtDNA from the two species is 13.9%. A comparison between protein and mtDNA distances in other species pairs reveals a high correlation between the two measures, indicating that differences in mtDNA between taxa are not random when compared to divergence in protein-coding nuclear genes. The relationship between genetic divergence in proteins and that in mtDNA between Clethrionomys glareolus and C. rutilus is similar to that found in other species pairs. It is also shown that despite large differences on the protein level it is still, in some cases, possible for species pairs to produce fertile hybrid females.