Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Scientific Correspondence
  • Published:

Investigation of the DAOA/G30 locus in panic disorder

Molecular Psychiatry volume 10, pages 428–429 (2005)Cite this article

SIR—Recently, Hamilton et al1 performed a genome-wide scan in 60 multiplex pedigrees with a ‘panic disorder syndrome’ and found the most convincing linkage evidence on 13q32–q33. This chromosomal region has received strong attention in the study of schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder (BPAD), since genetic variants within or near to the overlapping genes D-amino-acid oxidase activator (DAOA) and G30 located on 13q33 were associated with both schizophrenia and BPAD.2, 3, 4 In this study, we hypothesized that the DAOA/G30 locus might also confer risk for the development of panic disorder (PD). Several lines of evidence support this hypothesis: firstly, DAOA/G30 is located within the linkage peak for panic disorder syndrome observed by Hamilton et al.1 Secondly, results of several clinical and epidemiological studies suggest a shared etiologic background between PD and schizophrenia, for example, Bayle et al,5 as well as between PD and BPAD, for example, MacKinnon et al.6 Thirdly, recent findings suggest the involvement of DAOA in the glutamatergic signaling pathway,2 a pathway that has been implicated in anxiogenesis.

We analyzed SNPs at the DAOA/G30 locus in a sample consisting of 152 patients with PD and 208 controls of German descent. Patients were diagnosed according to DSM-IIIR and DSM-IV on the basis of structured clinical interviews (SADS-LA7 and CIDI8) and/or a review of medical records. The control individuals were anonymous blood donors, who had been recruited independently from the controls used in our previous association study of schizophrenia and BPAD.4 We focused on SNPs rs2391191 (M15), rs3918342 (M23), and rs421292 (M24), as these had shown the strongest association in our previous work.4 Additionally, we typed two flanking SNPs, rs778293 (M22) and rs3916972 (M25), covering this chromosomal region. Genotyping was carried out using the MassARRAY system (Sequenom, San Diego, USA) according to the genotyping method described by Ding and Cantor,9 with minor modifications (see Supplementary table). We performed both single-marker and haplotype analyses with the program COCAPHASE 2.40.10

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Hamilton SP et al. Further genetic evidence for a panic disorder syndrome mapping to chromosome 13q. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2003; 100: 2550–2555.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Chumakov I et al. Genetic and physiological data implicating the new human gene G72 and the gene for D-amino acid oxidase in schizophrenia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2002; 99: 13675–13680.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hattori E et al. Polymorphisms at the G72/G30 gene locus, on 13q33, are associated with bipolar disorder in two independent pedigree series. Am J Hum Genet 2003; 72: 1131–1140.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Schumacher J et al. Examination of G72 and D-amino-acid oxidase as genetic risk factors for schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder. Mol Psychiatry 2004; 9: 203–207.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Bayle FJ et al. Clinical features of panic attacks in schizophrenia. Eur Psychiatry 2001; 16: 349–353.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. MacKinnon DF et al. Association of rapid mood switching with panic disorder and familial panic risk in familial bipolar disorder. Am J Psychiatry 2003; 160: 1696–1698.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Mannuzza S et al. Schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia—lifetime version modified for the study of anxiety disorders (SADS-LA): rationale and conceptual development. J Psychiatr Res 1986; 20: 317–325.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Robins LN et al. The composite international diagnostic interview. Arch Gen Psychiat 1988; 45: 1069–1077.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Ding C, Cantor CR . Direct molecular haplotyping of long-range genomic DNA with M1-PCR. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2003; 13: 7449–7455.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Dudbridge F . Pedigree disequilibrium tests for multilocus haplotypes. Genet Epidemiol 2003; 25: 115–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Human Genetics, University of Bonn, Germany

    J Schumacher, R Abou Jamra & P Propping

  2. Institute for Medical Biometry, Informatics and Epidemiology, University of Bonn, Germany

    T Becker

  3. Genome Analysis Center (GAC), GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Neuherberg, Germany

    N Klopp & T Illig

  4. Institute of Epidemiology, GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Neuherberg, Germany

    N Klopp & T Illig

  5. Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, Germany

    P Franke, S Ohlraun, T G Schulze & M Rietschel

  6. Department of Psychiatry, University of Würzburg, Germany

    C Jacob & P Sand

  7. Department of Psychiatry, University of Frankfurt, Germany

    J Fritze

  8. Central Institute of Mental Health, Division Genetic Epidemiology in Psychiatry, Mannheim, Germany

    S Ohlraun, T G Schulze & M Rietschel

  9. Life & Brain Center, University of Bonn, Germany

    S Cichon & M M Nöthen

  10. Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Germany

    J Deckert

Authors
  1. J Schumacher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. R Abou Jamra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. T Becker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. N Klopp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. P Franke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. C Jacob
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. P Sand
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. J Fritze
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. S Ohlraun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. T G Schulze
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. M Rietschel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. T Illig
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. P Propping
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. S Cichon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. J Deckert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. M M Nöthen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J Schumacher.

Additional information

Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on Molecular Psychiatry website (http://www.nature.com/mp).

Supplementary information

Supplementary table

Genotyping primers

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Schumacher, J., Abou Jamra, R., Becker, T. et al. Investigation of the DAOA/G30 locus in panic disorder. Mol Psychiatry 10, 428–429 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001598

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001598

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links