Access

Letter

Nature Genetics 39, 1000–1006 (1 August 2007) | doi:10.1038/ng2099

Genome-wide association study of restless legs syndrome identifies common variants in three genomic regions

Juliane Winkelmann , Barbara Schormair , Peter Lichtner , Stephan Ripke , Lan Xiong , Shapour Jalilzadeh , Stephany Fulda , Benno P|[uuml]|tz , Gertrud Eckstein , Stephanie Hauk , Claudia Trenkwalder , Alexander Zimprich , Karin Stiasny-Kolster , Wolfgang Oertel , Cornelius G Bachmann , Walter Paulus , Ines Peglau , Ilonka Eisensehr , Jacques Montplaisir , Gustavo Turecki , Guy Rouleau , Christian Gieger , Thomas Illig , H-Erich Wichmann , Florian Holsboer , Bertram M|[uuml]|ller-Myhsok & Thomas Meitinger

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a frequent neurological disorder characterized by an imperative urge to move the legs during night, unpleasant sensation in the lower limbs, disturbed sleep and increased cardiovascular morbidity. In a genome-wide association study we found highly significant associations between RLS and intronic variants in the homeobox gene MEIS1, the BTBD9 gene encoding a BTB(POZ) domain as well as variants in a third locus containing the genes encoding mitogen-activated protein kinase MAP2K5 and the transcription factor LBXCOR1 on chromosomes 2p, 6p and 15q, respectively.