Genome-wide scan for type 2 diabetes loci in Hong Kong Chinese and confirmation of a susceptibility locus on chromosome 1q21-q25.

We conducted an autosomal genome scan to map loci for type 2 diabetes in a Hong Kong Chinese population. We studied 64 families, segregating type 2 diabetes, of which 57 had at least one member with an age at diagnosis of </=40 years. These families included a total of 126 affected sibpairs and 4 other affected relative pairs. Nonparametric linkage analysis revealed seven regions showing nominal evidence for linkage with type 2 diabetes (logarithm of odds [LOD] >0.59, P(pointwise) < 0.05): chromosome 1 at 173.9 cM (LOD = 3.09), chromosome 3 at 26.3 cM (LOD = 1.27), chromosome 4 at 135.3 cM (LOD = 2.63), chromosome 5 at 139.3 cM (LOD = 0.84), chromosome 6 at 178.9 cM (LOD = 1.91), chromosome 12 at 48.7 cM (LOD = 1.99), and chromosome 18 at 28.1 cM (LOD = 1.00). Simulation studies showed genome-wide significant evidence for linkage of the chromosome 1 region (P(genome-wide) = 0.036). We have confirmed the results of previous studies for the presence of a susceptibility locus on chromosome 1q21-q25 (173.9 cM) and suggest the locations of other loci that may contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes in Hong Kong Chinese.