Polymorphism and genetic mapping of the human oxytocin receptor gene on chromosome 3.

Centrally administered oxytocin has been reported to facilitate affiliative and social behaviours, in functional harmony with its well-known peripheral effects on uterine contraction and milk ejection. The biological effects of oxytocin could be perturbed by mutations occurring in the sequence of the oxytocin receptor gene, and it would be of interest to establish the position of this gene on the human linkage map. Therefore we identified a polymorphism at the human oxytocin receptor gene. A portion of the 3' untranslated region containing a 30 bp CA repeat was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), revealing a polymorphism with two alleles occurring with frequencies of 0.77 and 0.23 in a sample of Caucasian CEPH parents (n = 70). The CA repeat polymorphism we detected was used to map the the human oxytocin receptor to chromosome 3p25-3p26, in a region which contains several important genes, including loci for Von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) and renal cell carcinoma.