A SINE Insertion in ATP1B2 in Belgian Shepherd Dogs Affected by Spongy Degeneration with Cerebellar Ataxia (SDCA2)

Spongy degeneration with cerebellar ataxia (SDCA) is a genetically heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder with autosomal recessive inheritance in Malinois dogs, one of the four varieties of the Belgian Shepherd breed. Using a combined linkage and homozygosity mapping approach we identified an ∼10.6 Mb critical interval on chromosome 5 in a Malinois family with four puppies affected by cerebellar dysfunction. Visual inspection of the 10.6 Mb interval in whole-genome sequencing data from one affected puppy revealed a 227 bp SINE insertion into the ATP1B2 gene encoding the β2 subunit of the Na+... Mehr ...