Absence of homozygosity for predominant mutations in PMM2 in Danish patients with carbohydrate-deficient glycoprotein syndrome type 1

Carbohydrate-deficient glycoprotein syndrome type 1 (CDG1; McKusick No. 212065) is an autosomal recessively inherited disease characterised clinically by central nervous system dysfunction and biochemically by hypoglycosylation of many serum proteins. Most patients with CDG1 have deficient activity of phosphomannomutase. The locus for this enzyme has been mapped to 16p13, and a gene, PMM2, encoding phosphomannomutase has been isolated. We identified 34 mutations on 36 disease chromosomes in 18 unrelated Danish patients with CDG1. All patients have less than 15% residual activity of phosphomannomutase. Two mutations account for 88% of all mutations: F119L and R141H were each found in 16 out of 36 CDG1 alleles. These two mutations were found to be in linkage disequilibrium with two different alleles of the marker D16S3020, suggesting that there is one ancestral origin for each mutation. Two new mutations, G117R and D223E, were identified also. Surprisingly, no patient was homozygous for either of the two common mutations, suggesting that homozygosity for these mutations is either lethal or so benign that such patients are not detected.