Short paper

Evidence for the association of the DAOA (G72) gene with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder but not for the association of the DAO gene with schizophrenia

Nicholas J Bass¹ , Susmita R Datta¹ , Andrew McQuillin¹ , Vinay Puri¹ , Khalid Choudhury¹ , Srinivasa Thirumalai² , Jacob Lawrence¹ , Digby Quested³ , Jonathan Pimm¹ , David Curtis^4,5 and Hugh MD Gurling¹

¹  Molecular Psychiatry Laboratory, Research Department of Mental Health Sciences, University College London Medical School, Windeyer Institute of Medical Sciences, 46 Cleveland Street, London, W1T 4JF, UK

²  West Berkshire NHS Trust, 25 Erleigh Road, Reading, RG3 5LR, UK

³  Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Headington, Oxford, UK

⁴  Queen Mary College, University of London, 327 Mile End Rd London, E1 4NS, UK

⁵  East London and City Mental Health Trust, Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, London, E1 1BB, UK

author email corresponding author email

Behavioral and Brain Functions 2009, 5:28doi:10.1186/1744-9081-5-28

Published:	8 July 2009

Abstract

Background

Previous linkage and association studies have implicated the D-amino acid oxidase activator gene (DAOA)/G30 locus or neighbouring region of chromosome 13q33.2 in the genetic susceptibility to both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the D-amino acid oxidase (DAO) gene located at 12q24.11 have also been found to show allelic association with schizophrenia.

Methods

We used the case control method to test for genetic association with variants at these loci in a sample of 431 patients with schizophrenia, 303 patients with bipolar disorder and 442 ancestrally matched supernormal controls all selected from the UK population.

Results

Ten SNPs spanning the DAOA locus were genotyped in these samples. In addition three SNPs were genotyped at the DAO locus in the schizophrenia sample. Allelic association was detected between the marker rs3918342 (M23), 3' to the DAOA gene and both schizophrenia (χ² = 5.824 p = 0.016) and bipolar disorder (χ² = 4.293 p = 0.038). A trend towards association with schizophrenia was observed for two other DAOA markers rs3916967 (M14, χ² = 3.675 p = 0.055) and rs1421292 (M24; χ² = 3.499 p = 0.062). A test of association between a three marker haplotype comprising of the SNPs rs778293 (M22), rs3918342 (M23) and rs1421292 (M24) and schizophrenia gave a global empirical significance of p = 0.015. No evidence was found to confirm the association of genetic markers at the DAO gene with schizophrenia.

Conclusion

Our results provide some support for a role for DAOA in susceptibility to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.