Genetic analysis of the fused in sarcoma gene in Chinese Han patients with essential tremor.

We conducted genetic analysis of the fused in sarcoma gene (FUS) in Chinese Han patients with essential tremor (ET) in a case-control association study. One hundred eighty unrelated patients with ET were screened for mutations in the coding region and exon-intron boundaries of FUS. Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analysis was performed to evaluate if the c.1176G>A variant results in change of splice site. Two hundred seventy-three normal control subjects were also analyzed when DNA variants were identified in ET cohort. A novel missense mutation, c.1176G>A (p.M392I), in FUS was identified in a 62-year-old patient. Four known variants (c.52C>A, p.P18T; c.147C>A, p.G49G; c.291T>C, p.Y97Y; c.684C>T, p.G228G) were observed in the case-control study without statistically significant differences in genotype and allele distributions. Mutation(s) in FUS might be associated with a small subset of ET cases in the Chinese population.