Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder caused by mutations of the gene encoding phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH). More than 500 different PAH mutations have been identified and about 90% of these are single base mutations. Although the identification rate of the PAH mutations is generally very high, some variants remain unidentified. A fraction of these mutations are the result of genomic deletions or duplications, which are not recognized with standard PCR-based methods. Here we present the results of exon deletion or duplication analysis in a total of 34 families, in which two mutations had not been identified using conventional diagnostic screening techniques. Using multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA), we found a deletion covering exon 1 and exon 2 (c.1-?_168+?del) in one patient, a deletion of exon 3 (c.169-?_352+?del) in four patients, and a deletion of exon 5 (c.442-?_509+?del) in two patients. A deletion was thus detected in about 20% (7/34) of the families tested. Out of a combined cohort of 570 independent PKU patients from Denmark and Germany, exon deletions were identified in a total of four patients. The estimated allelic frequency of exon deletions in PKU patients in these two populations is therefore below 0.5%.
(c) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.