Genome-wide linkage analyses for hypertension genes in two ethnically and geographically diverse populations*

We report the results of a genome-wide linkage scan for hypertension genes in 450 African American hypertensive sibpairs from Jackson, MS, and 539 non-Hispanic white hypertensive sibpairs from Rochester, MN. In the Jackson samples we identified one LOD score peak >1.0 on chromosome 1. In the Rochester sample, no genomic region had a LOD score >1.0. These analyses provide no appreciable evidence of hypertension genes with strong effects independent of other genetic and environmental contexts and suggest that stratified linkage analyses may be required to identify hypertension susceptibility genes in these populations.