1. ¹Section of Human Neurogenetics, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD, USA
2. ²Psychiatry Research, Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, NY, USA
3. ³Psychiatry Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, New Jersey Health System, East Orange, NJ, USA

Correspondence: Dr CA Hodgkinson, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 5625 Fishers Lane, Room 3S32, MSC9412, Rockville, MD 20852, USA. Tel:+1 301 443 7633, Fax:+1 301 480 2839, E-mail: chodg@mail.nih.go

Received 6 December 2005; Revised 22 May 2006; Accepted 27 June 2006; Published online 16 August 2006.

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a complex psychiatric disorder with both genetic and environmental components and is thought to be in part neurodevelopmental in origin. The DISC1 gene has been linked to schizophrenia in two independent Caucasian populations. The DISC1 protein interacts with a variety of proteins including FEZ1, the mammalian homolog of the Caenorhabditis elegans unc-76 protein, which is involved in axonal outgrowth. Variation at the FEZ1 gene has been associated with schizophrenia in a large Japanese cohort. In this study, nine SNP markers at the FEZ1 locus were genotyped in two populations. A North American Caucasian cohort of 212 healthy controls, 178 schizophrenics, 79 bipolar disorder, and 58 with schizoaffective disorder, and an African American cohort of 133 healthy controls, 162 schizophrenics, and 28 with schizoaffective disorder. No association to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder was found for any of the nine markers typed in these populations at the allelic or the genotypic level. Additionally no association was found in either population between specific haplotypes and any of the psychiatric disorders. Variation at the FEZ1 locus does not play a significant role in the etiology of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder in North American Caucasian or African American populations.