A narcolepsy susceptibility locus maps to a 5 Mb region of chromosome 21q.

The genetic basis of human narcolepsy remains poorly understood. Multiplex families with full-blown narcolepsy-cataplexy are rare, whereas families with both narcolepsy-cataplexy and excessive daytime sleepiness without cataplexy are more common. We performed a genomewide linkage analysis in a large French family with four members affected with narcolepsy-cataplexy and 10 others with isolated recurrent naps or lapses into sleep. Only three regions showed logarithm of odds (LOD) scores greater than 1 in two-point linkage analysis (D6S1960, D11S2359, and D21S228). Genotyping additional markers provided support for linkage to 9 markers on chromosome 21 (maximum two-point LOD score, 3.36 at D21S1245). The multipoint linkage analysis using SimWalk2 provided further evidence for linkage to the same region (maximum parametric LOD score, 4.00 at 21GT26K). A single haplotype was shared by all affected individuals and informative crossovers indicated that the elusive gene that confers susceptibility to narcolepsy is likely to be located between markers D21S267 and ABCG1, in a 5.15 Mb region of 21q.