WEDNESDAY, Dec. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have identified a novel gene linked to early-onset asthma, with different alleles causing the predisposition in children of European and African descent, according to a study published online Dec. 23 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Patrick M.A. Sleiman, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues carried out genome-wide association studies in two asthma populations and controls: 793 children of European descent in North America with asthma, and 1,988 matched controls, along with a replication group of 917 subjects of European descent with asthma, and 1,546 matched controls. The researchers also tested for an association between asthma and 20 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at chromosome 1q31 in a group of 1,667 North American children of African descent with asthma, and 2,045 matched controls.

The researchers found an association between asthma and SNPs at a locus on 17q21 (as previously reported) and at a new locus at chromosome 1q31. The SNP, rs2786098, had the strongest association with asthma. The researchers observed this association in the independent series of those of European ancestry, and an alternative allele was associated with asthma in the children of African descent.

"The variants appear to confer a predisposition to early-onset asthma, but we are not currently able to differentiate a genetic effect on the age at onset from a genetic effect on severity," the authors write.

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