French researchers find gene linked to Kindler's syndrome.

PARIS -- Researchers at the French National Genotyping Center and other research establishments in France and Algeria localized and identified a new gene involved in a rare genetic disease--genodermatosis, or Kindler's syndrome.

The gene, which the research team propose to baptize "kindlerin," is located on chromosome 20.

Kindler's syndrome, which affects both men and women, is an infection of the skin and the digestive and urinary mucous membranes that results in a detachment of the skin and erythemas following exposure to the sun.

To induce the disease, which is recessive, both copies of the gene (the father's and the mother's) have to be mutated. The …