Candidate region linkage analysis in twins discordant or concordant for depression symptomatology

Genetic risk factors contribute considerably to both clinical affective disorders and subsyndromal mood level. There is moreover evidence to suggest that the genetic basis of bipolar disorder and unipolar depression overlap to some extent, and several linkage analyses have suggested evidence for a common susceptibility locus in affective disorders on chromosome 12q24. In this study we investigated the chromosome 12 candidate region for linkage to the mean level of depression symptomatology, over a 10-year follow-up, using a highly informative sample of concordant and discordant twin pairs selected from 4,731 participants of the Longitudinal Study of Ageing Danish Twins. Our results showed suggestive evidence of linkage to this region with a peak LOD score of 1.91 for marker D12S1634 located at 148 cM, and thus indicates that the previously identified disease locus at 12q24 is also a general vulnerability locus affecting the normal range of mood.