Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD)--report and genetic studies of an Australian kindred.

Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) is a late-onset autosomal dominant disease. Due to a founder effect, it is most commonly found in the French Canadian population. The gene has recently been mapped to chromosome 14q11.2-q13 in some of these families. Here we report an Australian kindred of German descent with OPMD. Linkage analysis supports its locus to chromosome 14q. Repeat expansion studies were also carried out, but a CAG trinucleotide repeat expansion detected did not cosegregate with the disease. We conclude that there is no evidence of genetic heterogeneity or involvement of repeat expansion in OPMD.