1. ¹Columbia Genome Center, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
2. ²Department of Psychiatry, Division of Molecular Imaging and Neuropathology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
3. ³Department of Pathology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
4. ⁴School of Medicine, Ss Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
5. ⁵Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

Correspondence: Dr JJ Mann, Department of Neuroscience, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, Box 42, New York, NY 10032, USA. E-mail: jjm@columbia.edu

Received 2 May 2006; Revised 31 October 2007; Accepted 4 November 2007; Published online 8 January 2008.

Abstract

Impaired brain serotonin neurotransmission is a potential component of the diathesis of major depression. Tryptophan hydroxylase-2 (TPH2), is the rate limiting biosynthetic isoenzyme for serotonin that is preferentially expressed in the brain and a cause of impaired serotonin transmission. Here, we identify a novel TPH2 short isoform with truncated catalytic domain expressed in human brainstem, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. An exploratory study of 166 Caucasian subjects revealed association with major depression or suicide of a novel single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) g.22879A>G located in exon 6 of this short isoform. This SNP and additional SNPs were discovered through a systematic characterization of the genetic architecture of the TPH2 gene for further genetic and functional investigations of its relationship to major depression and other psychopathology.