The present invention is intended to elucidate the cause of severe
cardiomyopathy in subline (T) not manifesting the macroscopic cardiac
hypertrophy, which has been separated from a hamster (B) with
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and clarify the pathogenic cause of dilated
cardiomyopathy, thereby establishing a method of detecting and
identifying dilated cardiomyopathy and a method of preventing and
treating the same. The present invention relates to a desmin gene having
a point mutation at the site corresponding to the 571-position of the
base sequence in the cDNA translation region of Syrian hamster; a
polypeptide thereof; and an oligonucleotide consisting of 5 to 250 bases
including the point mutation site or an oligonucleotide having a sequence
complementary thereto. Moreover, the present invention relates to a
method of detecting and identifying the point mutation at the site
corresponding to the 571-position of the base sequence in the cDNA
translation region of Syrian hamster to judge whether or not it is a gene
causative of hereditary cardiomyopathy.
