Genetic heterogeneity among craniosynostosis syndromes: mapping the Saethre-Chotzen syndrome locus between D7S513 and D7S516 and exclusion of Jackson-Weiss and Crouzon syndrome loci from 7p.

Saethre-Chotzen, Crouzon, and Jackson-Weiss syndromes are craniosynostotic autosomal dominant conditions with a wide variability in expression. Saethre-Chotzen has been mapped to chromosome 7p by L. A. Brueton et al. (1992, J. Med. Genet. 29: 681-685), the Greig cephalopolysyndactyly gene was identified at 7p13 by A. Vortkamp et al. (1991, Nature 352: 539-540), and many cases of craniosynostosis have been associated with 7p deletions. We confirmed linkage of the Saethre-Chotzen syndrome locus to chromosome 7p. The tightest linkage was to locus D7S493 (Z = 5.04, theta = 0.00), and linkage and haplotype analyses refined the location of the gene to the region between D7S513 and D7S516. Jackson-Weiss and Crouzon syndrome loci were analyzed using markers spanning the entire 7p arm and were excluded, proving that they are nonallelic to Saethre-Chotzen, Greig cephalopolysyndactyly, and the del(7p) syndromes.