Determination of the frequencies of ten allelic variants of the Wilson disease gene (ATP7B), in pooled DNA samples

Wilson disease is an autosomal recessive disorder characterised by toxic accumulation of copper in liver, brain and other organs. The disorder is caused by mutations in the ATP7B gene, encoding a copper transporting P-type ATPase. Based on the number of known patients with this diagnosis in Sweden, the prevalence can be estimated to 1 in 250,000 to 300,000, whereas the prevalence of Wilson disease has been estimated to be 1 in 30,000 in other populations. We estimated the prevalence of Wilson disease by determining the Swedish population frequencies of two mutant alleles, making up approximately half the mutations in Swedish Wilson patients, in a large number of DNA samples. In addition we determined the allele frequencies of eight common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the ATP7B gene. For the analyses we devised two strategies for analysing pooled DNA samples using the quantitative minisequencing method. The two procedures allowed sensitive identification of rare mutant alleles present as a mixture with an excess of the normal allele, as well as accurate estimation of the frequencies of the common SNPs in a large pooled DNA sample.