Towards identification of the gene for spinal muscular atrophy

The proximal spinal muscular atrophies (SMAs) are irreversible lower motor neuron diseases of unknown primary cause. According to age of onset and severity of illness, this group of disorders can be classified into three types: SMA types I, II, and III. All three types of autosomal recessive SMA have been localized to chromosome 5 in bands of q11.2-q13 by genetic analysis. The gene resides in a small genetic interval flanked by the markers D5S435 and D5S557. From a hybrid cell line containing 5q11-q14 as its only human chromosome 5 material we constructed a cosmid library. A cosmid clone mapped by FISH between D5S125 and D5S112 was used to isolate some YACs, from which cosmid libraries were constructed. cDNA libraries are screened by hybridization directly with the YACs and with cosmids that give Northern signals. At present we are analysing 7 different cDNA clones mapping between D5S435 and D5S557.