Muscle & nerve. Supplement最新文献

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is located on chromosome 4q35, close to the telomere. FSHD patients carry deletions within a cluster of tandemly repeated DNA. Although expression of a functional FSHD gene will be altered in patients, the sequence itself may be unaffected by this deletion. Hence, the FSHD gene could lie outside of the deleted region. This study employs fluorescent in situ hybridization using chromosome 4-specific cosmid and YAC clones to rapidly saturate chromosome 4 with new markers. Some 250 cosmids and 26 YACs were regionally mapped, of which 5 YACs and 55 cosmids mapped to the distal portion of 4q. Only one of these clones (D4S1454) mapped telomerically to a translocation breakpoint specified by D4S187. Using two-color interphase mapping, the following marker order was obtained: Cen-D4S187-D4S1454-HSPCAL2-D4S163-D4S139-D4F35S1. Absence of additional markers mapping distal to D4F35S1 indicates that the linkage group containing the FSHD gene lies extremely close to the 4q telomere.

Large-scale deletions of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have been associated with a subgroup of mitochondrial encephalomyopathies, usually characterized by progressive external ophthalmoplegia (PEO) and mitochondrial proliferation in muscle fibers. We and others have shown that muscle from patients with mtDNA deletions have variable cytochrome c oxidase (COX) deficiency and reduction of mitochondrially-synthesized polypeptides in affected muscle fibers. The present work summarizes the phenotype-genotype correlations observed in patients' muscle. In situ hybridization revealed that, while most COX-deficient fibers had increased levels of mutant mtDNA, they almost invariably had reduced levels of normal mtDNA. PCR quantitation of both deleted and wild-type mtDNAs in normal and respiration-deficient muscle fibers from patients with the "common deletion" showed that deleted mtDNAs were present in normal fibers (31 +/- 26%), but their percentages were much higher in affected fibers (95% +/- 2%). Absolute levels of deleted mtDNA were also increased in affected fibers, whereas absolute levels of wild-type mtDNA were significantly reduced. Taken together, our results suggest that although a specific ratio between mutant and wild-type mitochondrial genomes is probably the major determinant of the respiratory chain deficiency associated with mtDNA deletions, the reduction in the absolute amounts of wild-type mtDNA may also play a significant pathogenetic role.

Inherited deficiency of acid alpha-glucosidase (acid maltase, GAA) leads to glycogen storage disease type II. Clinical manifestations and prognosis of the disease depend on the age of onset and tissue involvement. GAA deficiency is extremely heterogeneous, ranging from a rapidly progressive fatal infantile-onset form to a slowly progressive adult-onset myopathy associated with respiratory insufficiency. Biochemical and immunochemical studies of the biosynthesis of the enzyme in GAA-deficient patients established the molecular diversity of the disease. Cloning and sequencing of the cDNA and the gene provided the basis for genetic analysis of the patients with different phenotypes. In this article, we summarize the data on mutations in the GAA gene and discuss the correlation between the genotype and phenotypic expression of the disease.

The heteroplasmic tRNA(Lys) mutation in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is responsible for the phenotypic expression and the transmission of MERRF syndrome. However, the genetic behaviors of the mutant and wild-type mtDNA molecules within a cell are still unknown. We demonstrated a clear genetic complementation of the mutant and wild-type mtDNAs, with a sharp threshold around 10% in the wild-type, in the MERRF transformants, and in their subclones by a cytoplast transfer of the mitochondria into an mtDNA-less cell line, rho o cell. By contrast, no interaction was observed between the two functionally complementary mtDNAs that were originally located in distinct organelles and sequentially introduced into a rho o cell line (genetic independence). These results imply that the sorting of the mtDNA molecules among mitochondria plays a crucial role in the phenotypic expression and transmission of the disease.

Mutations occur in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in a strand-asymmetric manner. The suppressed usage of cysteine residues in the H-strand-encoded subunits can be ascribed to the mutational instability of the codon for cysteine. The usage of cysteine was suppressed even in the L-strand-encoded ND6 subunit in which the codon for cysteine was stable. Survey of the entire sequences of mtDNA from 43 individuals revealed three amino acid replacements creating cysteine residues. A patient with fatal infantile cardiomyopathy carried a mutation causing a Tyr-->Cys replacement along with three tRNA mutations. A patient with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy carried two mutations causing a Ser-->Cys replacement and a Tyr-->Cys replacement besides two tRNA mutations. The gain of cysteine residues might accelerate the inactivation of the subunits either by reactive oxygen species or by lipid-peroxidation products, and this gain, possibly in association with tRNA mutations, can be a genetic risk factor for degenerative diseases.

Defects of the mitochondrial respiratory chain in cardiac muscle are an important, yet still overlooked cause of heart failure. In 16 of 32 endocardial biopsies from infants affected by "idiopathic" hypertrophic cardiomyopathy we demonstrated a remarkable decrease of activity of either complex I, or complex IV, or both, relative to complex II + III activity which was taken as an index of mitochondrial proliferation. At the molecular level, several mtDNA mutations have been associated with cardiomyopathy. For instance, MIMyCa is a maternally inherited syndrome presenting with a variable combination of skeletal and heart muscle failure associated with a heteroplasmic A3260G transition in the tRNALeu(UUR) gene. To study the effects of the mutation in a controlled system, we prepared clones of transmitochondrial cybrids by fusing mutant cytoplasts with mtDNA-less tumor cells. Two groups of clones were identified: nearly 100% mutant (M group) and nearly 100% wild-type (WT group). The means of complex I and IV in the M group were 63% and 67% relative to the WT group. The O2 consumption in the M group was 36%, and the lactate production was 218% of that in the WT group. MtDNA-specific translation was defective in M clones. The study of transmitochondrial cybrids is an important clue to test the pathogenicity of mtDNA mutations.

Glycogen phosphorylase catalyzes the first step of glycogen catabolism. Hereditary defects of muscle phosphorylase lead to a myopathy characterized by exercise intolerance, cramps, and myoglobinuria (McArdle's disease). We have identified ten mutations in the myophosphorylase gene in patients with McArdle's disease. Relatively common mutations include: a nonsense mutation, CGA(Arg) to TGA at codon 49, observed in 30 of 40 American patients; deletion of a single codon 708/709, observed in 4 of 7 Japanese patients; and a missense mutation, GGC(Gly) to AGC(Ser) at codon 204, observed in 5 of 40 American patients. Apparently rare mutations include: a splice-junction mutation, G to A, at the first nt of intron 14; a deletion of G at codon 510; a mutation, ATG to CTG, in the translation initiation codon; and missense mutations, AAG(Lys) to ACG(Thr) at codon 542, CTG(Leu) to CCG(Pro) at codon 396, CTG(Leu) to CCG(Pro) at codon 291, and GAG(Glu) to AAG(Lys) at codon 654. As most mutations can be screened for using genomic DNA, patients can now be diagnosed reliably using peripheral blood cells, thus avoiding muscle biopsy. Although these findings define the wide spectrum of genetic lesions causing McArdle's disease, the clinical heterogeneity of this disorder remains to be explained.

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) has recently been shown to be associated with deletions that are detectable using probe p13E-11 (D4F104S1). Although these deletions reside within large, highly polymorphic restriction fragments (20-300 kb), the "mutant" fragment is usually shorter than 28 kb and can routinely be detected using conventional agarose gel electrophoresis. Yet, the complete visualization of the alleles requires pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Family studies showed that p13E-11 detects two nonallelic loci in this size range, only one of which originates from chromosome 4q35. We have assigned the other p13E-11 locus to chromosome 10qter by linkage analysis in CEPH pedigrees. Knowing the location of both loci improves the diagnostic reliability, as the exact origin of "small" EcoRI fragments can be determined by haplotyping. Since FSHD shows genetic heterogeneity, this 10qter locus became an interesting candidate to be the second FSHD locus. However, analysis of a large chromosome 4-unlinked FSHD family did not provide evidence for linkage on chromosome 10qter.

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is an autosomal dominant disorder with a frequency of 1 in 20,000. The report in 1992 of a DNA polymorphism that occurred both in familial and sporadic cases led to the pronouncement that the FSHD defect had been identified. Unfortunately, 2 years have passed without the isolation of a gene or definitive proof of the mutation. Over this time it has become clear that the region of the human genome containing the FSHD gene is a complex assemblage of mildly repetitive sequences that includes the suspected polymorphic fragment. We have employed molecular and cytogenetic techniques to initiate the structural analysis of terminal 4q35 in an effort to facilitate the isolation of the gene responsible for FSHD. As a result of these efforts and our inability to identify expressed sequences unique to 4q35 we have begun to consider alternate hypotheses for a molecular mechanism resulting in FSHD other than a simple coding sequence disruption.