Failure to confirm NOTCH4 association with schizophrenia in a large population-based sample from Scotland

The NOTCH4 gene was recently reported to be associated with schizophrenia(1) based on TDT analysis of 80 British trios. The strongest evidence for association derived from two microsatellites. We genotyped both loci in a large sample of unrelated Scottish schizophrenics and controls, but failed to replicate the reported association, finding instead that each putative schizophrenia-associated allele had a somewhat lower frequency in schizophrenics than in controls.