Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase mutations and haplotypes in Mexican mestizos

In a screening for glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PD) deficiency in 1985 unrelated male subjects fi-om the general population (Croups A and B) belonging to four states of the Pacific coast, 21 G-6-PD-deficient subjects were detected. Screening for mutations at the G-6-PD gene by PCR-restriction enzyme in these 21 G-6-PD-deficient subjects as well as in 14 G-B-PD-deficient patients with hemolytic anemia belonging to several states of Mexico showed two common Gd-PD variants: G-6-PD A-(202A/376G) (19 cases) and G-6-PD A-(376G/968C) (9 cases). In 7 individuals the mutations responsible for the enzyme deficiency remain to be determined. Furthermore, four silent polymorphic sites at the G-6-PD gene (P nu uII, PstI, 1311, and NlaIII) were investigated in the 28 individuals with G-6-PD A- variants and in 137 G-6-PD normal subjects. As expected, only 10 different haplotypes were observed. To date, in our project aiming to determine the molecular basis of G-6-PD deficiency in Mexico, 60 unrelated G-6-PD-deficient Mexican males-25 in previous studies and 35 in the present work-have been studied. More than 75% of these individuals are from states of the Pacific coast (Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Michoacin, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Chiapas). The results show that although G-6-PD deficiency is heterogeneous at the DNA level in Mexico, only three polymorphic variants have been observed: G-6-PD A-(202A/376G) (36 cases), G-6-PD A(-376G/968C) (13 cases), and G-6-PD Seattle(844C) (2 cases). G-6-PD A- variants are relatively distributed homogeneously and both variants explain 82% of the overall prevalence of G-6-PD deficiency. The variant G-6-PD A-(202A/376G) represents 73% of the G-6-PD A- alleles, Our data also show that the variant G-6-PD A-(376G/968C)-which has been observed in Mexico in the context of two different haplotypes-is more common than previously supposed. The three polymorphic variants that we observed in Mexico are on the same haplotypes as found in subjects from Africa, the Canary Islands, and Spain. (C) 2000 Academic Press.