Autosomal recessive chronic granulomatous disease caused by deletion at a dinucleotide repeat

Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a rare inherited condition rendering neutrophils incapable of killing invading pathogens. This condition is due to the failure of a multicomponent microbicidal oxidase that normally yields a low-midpoint-potential b cytochrome (cytochrome b245). Although defects in the X chromosome-linked cytochrome account for the majority of CGD patients, as many as 30% of CGD cases are due to an autosomal recessive disease. Of these, greater than 90% have been shown to be defective in the synthesis of a 47-kDa cytosolic component of the oxidase. We demonstrate here in three unrelated cases of autosomal recessive CGD that the identical underlying molecular lesion is a dinucleotide deletion at a GTGT tandem repeat, corresponding to the acceptor site of the first intron-exon junction. Slippage of the DNA duplex at this site may contribute to the high frequency of defects in this gene.