Abstract
Neurodegenerative diseases may be caused by expansion of triplet repeats in human genes. To identify novel genes with CAG repeats, we screened a human brain cDNA library with an oligonucleotide probe. Four of the isolated cDNAs were sequenced, analyzed for polymorphisms, chromosomal localization, evolutionary conservation and expression. One of the repeats is bi-allelic with 10 triplets (80 % of chromosomes) and 7 triplets (20 % of chromosomes). In one of the genes two CAG repeats coding for 10 and 17 glutamines are localized in the same reading frame.