Classical galactosaemia is an autosomal recessive disease of galactose metabolism caused by a deficiency of the enzyme galactose-1-phosphate
uridyltransferase (GALT). Galactosaemia is not included in the neonatal screening programme in Mexico and it is necessary
to implement methodologies for prompt diagnosis of these patients to establish treatment. To date, more than 190 mutations
in the GALT gene have been reported, most in caucasian populations, but there have been no reports of mutations in Latin-American populations.
We report here the mutational spectrum in 19 Mexican galactosaemic patients. The most frequent mutations were p.Q188R, p.N314D
and IVS2-2A>G, which together represented 71% of detected mutations. The mutation IVS2-2A>G, which has been detected only
in Hispanics, was thought to generate a null allele; we identified one patient with a homozygous IVS2-2A>G mutation who showed
a mild deficiency of enzyme value in erythrocytes. One patient homozygous for Duarte 2 (p.N314D, IVS5+62G>A) is probably due
to a partial uniparental disomy of chromosome 9. In addition, a novel mutation c.336T>C (p.S112R) was detected in one patient
with severe enzymatic deficiency. Despite the small number of patients studied, our results suggest that classical galactosaemia
shows low allelic heterogeneity in Mexican patients, in contrast what is observed in other Mendelian disorders such as cystinosis
or autosomal dominant hypercholesterolaemia. This low allelic heterogeneity might be explained by a “population of origin”
effect in the central region of Mexico, as has been described for phenylketonuria.
Communicating editor: Alberto Burlina
Competing interests: None declared
References to electronic databases: Classical galactosaemia: OMIM 230400. Gene symbol: GALT (EntrezGeneID 2592). Galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase: E.C. 2.7.7.12.