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At least 253 records · Page 14Linked to original sources

Mutation screen of the brain derived neurotrophic factor gene (BDNF): identification of several genetic variants and association studies in patients with obesity, eating disorders, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Several lines of evidence indicate an involvement of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in body weight regulation and activity: heterozygous Bdnf knockout mice (Bdnf(+/-)) are hyperphagic, obese, and hyperactive; furthermore, central infusion of BDNF leads to severe, dose-dependent appetite suppression and weight loss in rats. We searched for the role of BDNF variants in obesity, eating disorders, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A mutation screen (SSCP and DHPLC) of the translated region of BDNF in 183 extremely obese children and adolescents and 187 underweight students was performed. Additionally, we genotyped two common polymorphisms (rs6265: p.V66M; c.-46C > T) in 118 patients with anorexia nervosa, 80 patients with bulimia nervosa, 88 patients with ADHD, and 96 normal weight controls. Three rare variants (c.5C > T: p.T2I; c.273G > A; c.*137A > G) and the known polymorphism (p.V66M) were identified. A role of the I2 allele in the etiology of obesity cannot be excluded. We found no association between p.V66M or the additionally genotyped variant c.-46C > T and obesity, ADHD or eating disorders. This article contains supplementary material, which may be viewed at the American Journal of Medical Genetics website at http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/0148-7299:1/suppmat/index.html.

Adolescent↗

Identification of a frequent variant in ALG6, the cause of Congenital Disorder of Glycosylation-Ic.

Congenital Disorder of Glycosylation (CDG) type Ic is caused by mutations in ALG6. This gene encodes an alpha1,3 glucosyltransferase used for synthesis of the lipid linked oligosaccharide (LLO) precursor of the protein N-glycosylation pathway. CDG-Ic patients have moderate to severe psychomotor retardation, seizures, hypotonia, strabismus, and feeding difficulties. We previously identified a typical patient with a heterozygous point mutation, c.391T>C (p.Tyr131His) in ALG6. Using complementation analysis of ALG6-deficient yeast, we show that this alteration is as severe as the most common disease-causing mutation, c998C>T (p. Ala333Val), which occurs in over half of all known CDG-Ic patients. The frequency of c.391T>C (p.Tyr131His) in the US population, is 0.0214, suggesting that homozygotes would occur at a rate of& tilde;1:2,200. We identified one patient with typical CDG-Ic symptoms and a homozygous p.Tyr131His alteration in ALG6. However, in contrast to most CDG patients, her LLO and plasma transferrin glycosylation appeared normal. Thus, it is unclear whether c.391T>C causes CDG-Ic or contributes to the symptoms. Genotyping additional patients with CDG-like symptoms will be required to resolve this issue.

Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins↗

Identification of rare polymerase variants of hepatitis B virus using a two-stage PCR with peptide nucleic acid clamping.

Emergence of lamivudine-resistant variants, with amino acid substitutions in the Tyr-Met-Asp-Asp (YMDD) motif of hepatitis B virus (HBV) reverse transcriptase, is a serious problem in antiviral therapy. Presence of YMDD motif variants in patients who had never been treated with lamivudine has been reported recently. However, no analysis of nucleotide and amino acid sequences of these variants has been performed. In the present study, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with peptide nucleic acid (PNA) clamping, we detected many new variants, such as Tyr-Arg-Asp-Asp (YRDD), Tyr-Met-Asp-Asn (YMDN). Many of them had stop codon(s) in overlapping HBs gene. Although the biological activity of these HBV polymerase variants remains to be determined, our results showed that numerous quasispecies are created during virus replication. A typical lamivudine-resistant Tyr-Val-Asp-Asp (YVDD) variant was detected in only one of 62 (1.6%) anti-HBe patients with HBV infection before administration of lamivudine. This variant did not have the L528M mutation, which is often associated with YVDD variants, and lamivudine therapy in this patient suppressed HBV replication. Thus, care should be taken when interpreting the results of detection of YMDD variants, especially when the sensitivity of the assay is very high. Amplification of rare variants by PCR with PNA seems a useful tool to examine the emergence of drug-resistant variants as well as naturally occurring mutants, such as the hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) stop codon and vaccine escape mutants. Examination of rare variants should enhance the understanding of the mechanism for emergence of drug-resistant HBV variants and help in developing strategies for new antiviral drugs.

Adult↗

Identification of alternatively spliced variants of type II procollagen in vitreous.

Adult and foetal bovine vitreous were analyzed for the presence of unprocessed and partially processed forms of type II procollagen. Type II procollagen can exist in two alternatively spliced forms: a short form which lacks a large part of the N-propeptide due to the splicing out of exon 2 and a long form in which exon 2 is expressed and which has a full-sized N-propeptide. Both splice variants were demonstrated and analyses of type II pN-collagen demonstrated that the long form predominated, the ratio of the long form to the short form being 5:1 in foetal vitreous and 1.5:1 in adult vitreous. In foetal vitreous 35% of the type II collagen extracted was in the pN form, but there was very little unprocessed type II procollagen or type II pC-collagen. In contrast, adult vitreous extracts contained relatively less type II pN-collagen, but contained larger amounts of type II pC-collagen and unprocessed type II procollagen.

Alternative Splicing↗

Human dermal fibroblasts express eotaxin: molecular cloning, mRNA expression, and identification of eotaxin sequence variants.

Recently we discovered and purified a novel beta-chemokine with eosinophil specific chemotactic activity from supernatants to long-term TNF-alpha stimulated dermal fibroblasts. Using degenerated specific oligonucleotides based on partial amino acid sequence data and a PCR protocol, we obtained different clones sharing high sequence homology with this novel chemokine and with human eotaxin cDNA. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR experiments using eotaxin-specific primers indicate low constitutive eotaxin mRNA expression in human dermal fibroblasts which is upregulated by IL-1 alpha and TNF-alpha within 6 hrs and modulated by IFN-gamma. While IL-1 alpha-induced eotaxin mRNA accumulation is transient, long-term stimulation with TNF-alpha resulted in a further increase of eotaxin mRNA.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

cDNA cloning and tissue-specific expression of a novel basic helix-loop-helix/PAS protein (BMAL1) and identification of alternatively spliced variants with alternative translation initiation site usage.

Basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH)/PAS proteins, such as Sim, act as transcriptional factors, playing a critical role in the control of central nervous system (CNS) development. To isolate novel bHLH/PAS factors in the CNS an iterative search of a database for expressed sequence tags (ESTs) resulted in the location of several bHLH/PAS protein-like sequences. The rapid amplification of cDNA end (RACE) method was applied to isolate full-length cDNAs of these ESTs. Several 5' and 3' terminal sequences were isolated using primers derived from an EST from the human brain cDNA library. The predicted novel factor polypeptide had bHLH and PAS domains that were highly homologous with those of Ah receptor nuclear translocator (Arnt) and Arnt2. Combination of the isolated cDNA fragments revealed the existence of several alternatively spliced variants. The distribution of the novel bHLH/PAS factor message was analyzed by Northern blot hybridization. This detected only one transcript, which was 2.9 kb in size. Strong hybridization was found in the brain, skeletal muscle and heart. Expression of the novel bHLH/PAS factor, brain and muscle Arnt-like protein 1 (BMAL1), was different from that of Arnt and Arnt2, suggesting that BMAL1 has a different function in the CNS and muscle than Arnt and Arnt2.

ARNTL Transcription Factors↗

Identification of an EDG7 variant, HOFNH30, a G-protein-coupled receptor for lysophosphatidic acid.

We have identified a cDNA, designated HOFNH30, which encodes a 354 amino acid G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). This receptor has 96% amino acid identity to the Jurkat-T cell-derived EDG7 and could be a splice variant. RT-PCR analysis demonstrated that HOFNH30 mRNA is expressed in placenta whereas EDG7 mRNA shows highest expression in prostate. The HOFNH30 gene is localized to human chromosome 1p22. 3-1p31.1. When HOFNH30 was expressed in RBL-2H3 cells, LPA and phosphatidic acid (PA) induced a calcium mobilization response with EC(50) values of 13 nM and 3 microM, respectively. LPA also induced phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (p42(MAPK) and p44(MAPK)) in HOFNH30-transfected but not vector-transfected RBL-2H3 cells. In the present study, we have identified a novel variant from the EDG receptor family, a GPCR for which LPA is a high-affinity endogenous ligand.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Identification of a nuclear variant of MGEA5, a cytoplasmic hyaluronidase and a beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase.

MGEA5 was originally identified to be a novel human hyaluronidase, which is immunogenic in meningioma patients. Recently an N-acetylglucosaminidase was reported with identical sequence. Here, we define the origin of a splice variant by determining the genomic organization of the mgea5 gene. We find the splice variant missing a putative acetyltransferase domain of MGEA5. As for evolutionary analysis, we show that the MGEA5 is highly conserved in higher eukaryotes. As for expression analysis, we find both mRNA variants ubiquitously expressed in various human tissues and throughout mouse development. We generated polyclonal antibodies against MGEA5s/5 and identified proteins of 75 and 130 kDa, indicating posttranslational modifications of the larger protein. Cell fractionation revealed the cytoplasmic/cytoskeletal localization of the 130-kDa protein and the nuclear localization of the 75-kDa protein. We propose a model in which MGEA5 functions both as a hyaluronidase and an N-acetylglucosaminidase.

Acetylglucosaminidase↗

Mutation screening for Japanese Lafora's disease patients: identification of novel sequence variants in the coding and upstream regulatory regions of EPM2A gene.

The progressive myoclonus epilepsy of Lafora type (LD) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the EPM2A gene. We demonstrated recently that EPM2A encodes a dual-specificity phosphatase that is primarily associated with polyribosomes. In the present study, we screened for mutations in the EPM2A gene in 4 Japanese LD families and identified a novel mis-sense mutation, Ala46Pro (136G-->C), in heterozygous condition in one patient. In addition, sequence analyses in the patient and control DNA samples identified 4 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (75G/A, 120G/T, 159C/G, 171C/T) in the coding region and a novel insertion/deletion polymorphic site (-483[T](11/10)[A](2/3)) and a SNP (-547A/G) in the putative regulatory region of the EPM2A gene. None of the sequence variants, however, co-segregated with the LD phenotype. Haplotype analysis for the 6q24 region in the affected families revealed lack of homozygosity at the EPM2A locus. Our studies suggest that EPM2A is not involved in the disease phenotype of the 4 families studied and that locus heterogeneity for LD may exist in Japanese population also. A simple test described for the detection of Ala46Pro mutation present heterozygously in Japanese population (allele frequency 0.026) can be used for screening this novel allele in a larger sample size.

Adolescent↗

Identification of inherited protein variants in individual erythrocytes.

Inherited electrophoretic variations of hemoglobin, carbonic anhydrase, and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in individual erythrocytes were separated by electrophoresis in ultrathin agar gels. By staining the electropherograms with specific fluorescein-conjugated antibodies against hemoglobins, relative proportions of two hemoglobins within individual erythrocytes can be estimated. The findings suggested that the intracellular proportions of HbA and HbS in heterozygotes are heterogeneous within a given population of cells. By this method cells containing hemoglobin F (F cells) as well as a minor variant of hemoglobin F were identified. This tool potentially offers an approach to monitoring distribution of inherited variants in individual erythrocytes for a large number of proteins.

Animals↗

Identification of an allelic variant of isoform MLC1-V/sB (human myosin light chain).

A study of 250 specimens of human myocardium by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis revealed an allelic variant of isoform MLC1-V/sB, which was identified by immunoblotting with monoclonal antibody against MLC1-V/sB and peptide mapping after in situ tryptic digestion of electroblotted proteins. The substitution Asn-144 for His-144 was found in this new allelic variant of MLC1-V/sB.

Alleles↗

Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 mRNA and identification of its splice variant in human myometrium obtained from women in labor.

In order to investigate the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in human lower segments of myometrium obtained from women in labor and those not in labor and identify the splicing variant of COX-2, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of COX-2. The primers were designed and synthesized according to the sequence of rat COX-2 splice variant which was discovered firstly by us. Then the splicing variant of COX-2 in human myometrium from woman in labor was identified, cloned into vector and sequenced. The results showed that the expression of COX-2 mRNA was lower in human myometrium obtained from women who were not in labor than that in labor women and a new band of COX-2 was obtained in myometrium from labor woman. The fragment included an unspliced intron, which pitched between exons 7 and 8. It was suggested that COX-2 gene was not only expressed highly in human myometrium from woman in labor, but also produced splicing variant by alternative splicing.

Adult↗

Cloning and identification of a novel variant of human vascular endothelial growth factor.

A novel variant of human vascular endothelial growth factor (h'VEGF165) cDNA was amplified by nested PCR method from the HL601 cells and was cloned into a eukaryotic expressing vector pcDNA3 to construct a recombinant plasmid pCD-h'VEGF165. The amplified h'VEGF165 cDNA fragment was identified by enzyme digestion and DNA sequencing methods. Also, wild-type hVEGF165 cDNA was obtained, identified and cloned into a eukaryotic expressing vector pcDNA3 by using the same methods. The results of DNA sequencing showed that h'VEGF165 cDNA cloned from HL601 was 600 bp in size with 8% of the base sequence in h'VEGF165 cDNA being changed as compared with the base sequence in the wild-type hVEGF165 cDNA. The results of sequencing of hVEGF165 which was cloned from HL60 by us were consistent with the reports completely.

Base Sequence↗

Characterization of the HMW glutenin subunits from Aegilops searsii and identification of a novel variant HMW glutenin subunit.

High molecular weight (HMW) glutenin subunits are conserved seed storage proteins in wheat and related species. Here we describe a more detailed characterization of the HMW glutenin subunits from Aegilops searsii, which is diploid and contains the S(s) genome related to the S genome of Aegilops speltoides and the A, B and D genomes of hexaploid wheat. SDS-PAGE experiments revealed two subunits (one x and one y) for each of the nine Ae. searsii accessions analyzed, indicating that the HMW glutenin subunit gene locus of Ae. searsii is similar to the Glu-1 locus found in wheat in containing both x and y genes. The primary structure of the four molecularly cloned subunits (from two Ae. searsii accessions) was highly similar to that of the previously reported x and y subunits. However, in one accession (IG49077), the last 159 residues of the x subunit (1S(s)x49077), which contained the sequence element GHCPTSPQQ, were identical to those of the y subunit (1S(s)y49077) from the same accession. Consequently, 1S(s)x49077 contains an extra cysteine residue located at the C-terminal part of its repetitive domain, which is novel compared to the x-type subunits reported so far. Based on this and previous studies, the structure and expression of the Glu-1 locus in Ae. searsii is discussed. A hypothesis on the genetic mechanism generating the coding sequence for the novel 1S(s)x49077 subunit is presented.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Molecular screening of the human melanocortin-4 receptor gene: identification of a missense variant showing no association with obesity, plasma glucose, or insulin.

Disruption of the melanocortin-4 (MC-4) receptor gene in mice results in maturity-onset obesity, hyperinsulinaemia and hyperglycaemia. These phenotypes are characteristic of human obesity that frequently accompanies non-insulin-dependent diabetes. It is therefore possible that human MC-4 receptor gene mutations contribute to human obesity. To test this possibility, we examined by DNA sequencing the entire coding region of the human MC-4 receptor gene in 40 morbidly obese (BMI > 35 kg/m2) white British males and examined the 5'- and 3'-flanking regions in 20 out of these obese subjects. We also sequenced all these regions in 10 lean (BMI < 18 kg/m2) white British males for a reference. We identified a single nucleotide substitution that replaces valine with isoleucine at codon 103, in two obese subjects in the heterozygous state. No other nucleotide alterations were found. The prevalence of this missense variant was studied in 322 white British males (190 with BMI > 28 kg/m2 and 132 with BMI < 22 kg/m2) selected from a population-based epidemiological survey. In these subjects, no homozygotes for the isoleucine allele were found. The frequency of heterozygotes was similar (4.2 vs 4.5%) in the two groups and there was no significant difference in BMI, total skinfold thickness, plasma insulin and glucose levels between heterozygotes and codon-103 valine homozygotes in either group. These results suggest that coding sequence mutations in the MC-4 receptor gene are unlikely to be a major cause of human obesity, at least in white British males.

Adult↗

Identification of four allelic variants of the dog IGHA gene.

Multiple IgA subclasses have been identified in humans, primates and lagomorphs, whereas in mice, cattle and dogs only a single subclass has been identified. The two human subclasses (IgA1 and IgA2) are defined by a difference in the length of the hinge region of the alpha chains between the CH1 and CH2 domains. The single IgA subclass so far identified in dogs has an alpha-chain hinge region with a predicted amino-acid sequence similar to that of the human alpha1 chain. Allelic variants that differ in the coding sequence of the hinge region have been identified in mice and pigs. In order to investigate whether allelic variants are present in dogs, a portion of the IGHA gene from eight individual dogs was cloned and sequenced. Four sequence variants were identified, and these differed in the coding region of their hinge. A major difference between the variants was the presence of a base polymorphism in the splice acceptor site for the second exon, which resulted in shortening of the hinge in two of the variants. Individuals expressed one or two of the variants identified, suggesting they may be heterozygous or homozygous. Further work is required to determine the effect of the variation on the biological activity of dog IgA and any relationship to susceptibility to mucosal disease.

Alleles↗

Molecular cloning, gene expression, and identification of a splicing variant of the mouse parkin gene.

We have isolated mouse cDNA clones that are homologous to human Parkin gene, which was recently found to be responsible for the pathogenesis of autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism (AR-JP). One of these cDNA clones had the 1,392-bp open reading frame encoding a protein of 464 amino acids with presumed molecular weight of 51,615. The amino acid sequence of mouse parkin protein exhibits 83.2% identity to human Parkin protein, including the ubiquitin-like domain at the N-terminus (identity = 89.5%) and the RING finger-like domain at the C-terminus (identity = 90.6%). Two other clones had the 783-bp open reading frame encoding a truncated protein of 261 amino acids without RING finger-like domain. It was proved to be a novel splicing variant by 3'-RACE method. Northern blot analysis revealed that mouse parkin gene is expressed in various tissues including brain, heart, liver, skeletal muscle, kidney, and testis. It is notable that mouse parkin gene expression appears evident in 15th day mouse embryo and increases toward the later stage of development. These mouse parkin cDNA clones will be useful for elucidating the essential physiological function of parkin protein in mammals.

Alternative Splicing↗