A Recurrent Homozygous Nonsense Mutation within the LAMA3 Gene as a Cause of Herlitz Junctional Epidermolysis Bullosa in Patients of Pakistani Ancestry: Evidence for a Founder Effect

The anchoring filament protein laminin 5 is abnormally expressed in the skin of patients with Herlitz junctional epidermolysis bullosa (H-JEB). In this study, we performed mutational analysis on genomic DNA from a H-JEB child of first-cousin Pakistani parents, and identified a homozygous C-to-T transition in the LAMA3 gene of laminin 5 resulting in a premature termination codon (CGA-TGA) on both alleles. This mutation, R650X, has been previously reported in two other seemingly unrelated H-JEB individuals of Pakistani ancestry. Although this mutation may represent a mutational hotspot within the LAMA3 gene, haplotype analysis based on a silent intragenic polymorphism (GCC/GCG, alanine 429; GenBank no. L34155), and on three flanking microsatellite polymorphisms (D18S45, D18S478, and D18S480), suggests that a common ancestral allele may be present in all three cases.