:

–

Harding RM (

) VNTRs in review. Evol Anthropol

:

–

Hegele RA, Huang LS, Herbert RN, Blum CB, Buring JE, Hen-

The above results show differences between APOB al- lele pools from a long-lived (S) and a control (C) group that were not found by the analysis of diallelic polymor- phisms in French (Schachter et al. 1994) and Finnish (Louhija et al. 1994) centenarians. These contrasting find- ings can be explained by considering that the same phe- notype (longevity) may result from different genetic back- grounds, which express themselves in different environ- ments. However, in our case also differences between S and C gene pools were not revealed by analysing a single RFLP, but only by analysing multiallelic systems (VNTR markers and haplotypes).

Two conclusions can be drawn: (i) allele pools at the APOB locus are significantly different between S and C ¢ (the frequency of 3 APOB-VNTR alleles with low repeat number is significantly lower in S than in C; linkage dise- quilibrium between markers at the APOB locus is greater in S than in C); (ii) the analysis of multiallelic markers re- veals differences between centenarians (S) and controls (C) that are not revealed by the analysis of single diallelic polymorphisms. These findings show not only that the APOB locus plays a role in longevity, but also that multi- allelic systems are more informative than diallelic ones in identifying gene/longevity associations.

Elisworth DL, Shriver DM, Boerwinkle E (1995) Nucleotide se- quence analysis of the apolipoprotein B 3¢ VNTR. Hum Mol

Acknowledgements Work financed by Regione Calabria (Italy), Progetto Operativo Plurifondo 90/94; by Consiglio Nazionale Ricerche (CNR), Target Project on Aging (94.00408.PF40); by Angelo Bianchi Bonomi Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center, IR- CCS Maggiore Hospital and the Geriatric Unit, Institute of Internal Medicine, University of Milan, Italy.

effect of variation in the apolipoprotein B gene on plasma lipid and apolipoprotein B levels. Ann Hum Genet

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Harding RM (

) VNTRs in review. Evol Anthropol

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Hegele RA, Huang LS, Herbert RN, Blum CB, Buring JE, Hen- nekens CH, Breslow JL (

) Apolipoprotein B-gene DNA polymorphisms associated with myocardial infarction. New Engl J Med

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Hodges P, Scott J (

) Apolipoprotein B

NA editing: a new tier for the control of gene expression. Trends Biochem Sci

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Kervinen K, Savolainen MJ, Salokannen J, Hynninen A, Heikki- nen J, Ehnholm C, Koistinen MJ, Kesaniemi YA (

) Apo- lipoprotein E and B polymorphisms – longevity factors as- sessed in nonagenarians. Atherosclerosis

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Kirkwood TBL, Franceschi C (

) Is ageing as complex as it would appear? New perspectives in gerontological research. Ann N Y Acad Sci USA

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Louhija J, Miettinen HE, Kontula K, Tikkanen MJ, Miettinen TA, Tilvis RS (

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