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High-frequency microsatellite instability is associated with defective DNA mismatch repair in human melanoma.

Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancers and a steadily increasing number of sporadic tumors display microsatellite instability. In colorectal tumors, high-frequency microsatellite instability is strictly associated with inactivation of the DNA mismatch repair genes hMSH2, hMLH1, or hPMS2, whereas mutations in the mismatch repair gene hMSH6 have been identified in a subset of tumors with low-frequency microsatellite instability. In addition to epithelial tumors of the colon, endometrium, and ovary, microsatellite instability has been reported to occur also in sporadic melanoma. The relationship between microsatellite instability and mismatch repair in melanoma cells, however, has not been investigated so far. In this study, we analyzed microsatellite instability, mismatch repair activity, and expression of the hMSH2, hMSH6, hMLH1, and hPMS2 proteins in five melanoma cell lines and in tumor specimens from which the cells were derived. Four cell lines displayed normal levels of mismatch repair activity and expressed all the mismatch repair proteins. The extracts of the fifth cell line lacked the hMLH1 and hPMS2 proteins, and were correspondingly deficient in the repair of DNA mismatches. This line displayed high-frequency microsatellite instability, whereas the four mismatch-repair-proficient cell lines displayed either no or low-frequency microsatellite instability. These findings could be confirmed in the tumor specimens, in that only the tumor that did not express hMLH1 and hPMS2 displayed high-frequency microsatellite instability. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that in melanoma, similarly to epithelial tumors, only the high-frequency microsatellite instability phenotype is strictly dependent on a defective mismatch repair system. Further studies on a large series of tumor specimens are required to establish the frequency of mismatch repair loss in human melanoma.

Base Pair Mismatch↗

Frequency of microsatellite instability in unselected sebaceous gland neoplasias and hyperplasias.

Sebaceous gland neoplasias are the cutaneous manifestation of the Muir-Torre syndrome, which is known to be a phenotypical variant of hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer. Both hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer and Muir-Torre syndrome are caused by inherited DNA mismatch repair defects. As a prominent molecular genetic feature, all tumors associated with a DNA mismatch repair defect exhibit high microsatellite instability. So far, the frequency of DNA mismatch repair defects in patients selected solely on the basis of a sebaceous gland tumor has never been determined. In order to estimate this frequency, we assessed microsatellite instability with up to 10 microsatellite markers in a newly collected unselected series of 25 sebaceous gland neoplasias (six sebaceous adenomas, 16 sebaceous epitheliomas, three sebaceous carcinomas) in comparison to 32 sebaceous gland hyperplasias from unrelated patients. As many as 15 of the 25 sebaceous gland neoplasias (60%), but only one of the 32 sebaceous gland hyperplasias (3%), exhibited high microsatellite instability. Thus, in our study, the majority of patients with a sebaceous gland neoplasia in contrast to patients with a sebaceous gland hyperplasia are highly suspicious for an inherited DNA mismatch repair defect. On the basis of the subsequently collected tumor histories, nine of the 15 patients with a high microsatellite unstable sebaceous gland neoplasia were identified to have Muir-Torre syndrome. In none of these cases, however, were the clinical Amsterdam criteria for diagnosing hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer fulfilled. In the sebaceous tumors of the remaining six patients, high microsatellite instability was an incidental finding. In two of these six patients, single relatives were known to be affected with internal cancer; however, their family histories were not suggestive of Muir-Torre syndrome or hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer. In comparison with microsatellite instability screening studies in a variety of other randomly selected tumors, our study identifies sebaceous gland neoplasias as tumors with the highest frequency of high microsatellite instability reported so far, whereas sebaceous gland hyperplasia rarely exhibits high microsatellite instability. Therefore, screening for microsatellite instability in sebaceous gland neoplasias will be of great value in the detection of an inherited DNA mismatch repair defect, which predisposes to various types of internal cancers.

Adult↗

Long microsatellite alleles in Drosophila melanogaster have a downward mutation bias and short persistence times, which cause their genome-wide underrepresentation.

Microsatellites are short tandemly repeated DNA sequence motifs that are highly variable in most organisms. In contrast to mammals, long microsatellites (>15 repeats) are extremely rare in the Drosophila melanogaster genome. To investigate this paucity of long microsatellites in Drosophila, we studied 19 loci with exceptionally long microsatellite alleles. Inter- and intraspecific analysis showed that long microsatellite alleles arose in D. melanogaster only very recently. This lack of old alleles with many repeats indicated that long microsatellite alleles have short persistence times. The size distribution of microsatellite mutations in mutation-accumulation lines suggests that long alleles have a mutation bias toward a reduction in the number of repeat units. This bias causes the short persistence times of long microsatellite alleles. We propose that species-specific, size-dependent mutation spectra of microsatellite alleles may provide a general mechanism to account for the observed differences in microsatellite length between species.

Alleles↗

Upper tract urothelial carcinoma: a clinicopathologic study including microsatellite instability analysis.

Urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis and ureter may develop as a manifestation of the hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer syndrome that is characterized by mutations in a number of DNA mismatch repair genes and detectable as microsatellite instability. In this study, we examined microsatellite instability and the clinicopathologic features of urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis (n = 61) and ureter (n = 53) from 114 consecutive patients surgically treated from 1985-1992. Clinical data were obtained through chart review. Matched normal and tumor DNA was extracted from paraffin-embedded tissue, and a panel of six microsatellite loci was analyzed. The male-female ratio was 2.8:1 with a median age of 70 years (range, 28 to 92 y). Microsatellite analysis was successful in 67 tumors, and 21 (31.3%) patients had tumors that exhibited microsatellite instability. Patients with microsatellite-unstable tumors were significantly more likely to have additional nonurologic cancers (P =.015) including colorectal carcinoma (P =.001) compared with patients with tumors that did not exhibit microsatellite instability. In addition, patients with microsatellite-unstable tumors showed more colorectal cancers in their family (P =.026) and were more likely to have higher grade urothelial carcinoma of the upper tract (P =.028). Grade and stage, but not microsatellite status, were the strongest predictors of cancer-specific survival. This study found the highest frequency of microsatellite instability in upper urothelial tract carcinomas reported to date and highlights upper tract urothelial carcinoma as a marker of the hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer syndrome in some patients. These findings reinforce the importance of obtaining cancer histories in patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma to subsequently identify individuals with the hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer syndrome and at-risk relatives for surveillance and management programs.

Adult↗

Tissue microarray immunohistochemical expression analysis of mismatch repair (hMLH1 and hMSH2 genes) in endometrial carcinoma and atypical endometrial hyperplasia: relationship with microsatellite instability.

Alterations in the mismatch repair genes (hMLH1 and hMSH2) play an important role in the development of microsatellite instability in sporadic endometrial cancer. Tissue microarray technology allows molecular profiling of tumor samples at the DNA, RNA, and protein levels. We analyzed hMLH1 and hMSH2 expression by immunohistochemistry in a group of atypical endometrial hyperplasias (n = 10), endometrioid endometrial carcinomas (n = 58), and nonendometrioid endometrial carcinomas (n = 27) on tissue microarray. The results were correlated with microsatellite instability status as evaluated by BAT-25 and BAT-26. Overall, 29.4% of lesions showed microsatellite instability. Loss of nuclear hMLH1 and hMSH2 protein expression was seen in 22.3% and 6.5% of cases, respectively. Immunohistochemistry for hMLH1 and hMSH2 showed lack of protein expression in 64% and 16.6% of microsatellite instability-positive endometrial lesions, respectively. Taken together, hMLH1 or hMSH2 protein expression was absent in 18 of 24 microsatellite instability-positive cases (75% sensitivity). A high level of concordance was found between immunohistochemistry for hMLH1 and hMSH2 and microsatellite instability status evaluated by BAT-25 and BAT-26 (kappa value of 0.7). Of the 57 cases found to be microsatellite instability negative, 53 showed normal expression of both proteins (93% specificity). The observed predictive value of absence of expression of hMLH1 for predicting microsatellite instability-positive status was 82%. The predictive value of normal expression of both proteins for predicting microsatellite instability-negative status was 90%. These results are consistent with those previously reported in whole tissue sections. Therefore, immunohistochemical analysis of hMLH1 and hMSH2 expression on tissue microarray provides an accurate technique for screening for tumors with microsatellite instability. Tissue microarrays represent an ideal approach for comparing different diagnostic or predictive markers with one another in consecutive tissue microarray sections.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗

Association of polymorphic MHC microsatellites with GVHD, survival, and leukemia relapse in unrelated hematopoietic stem cell transplant donor/recipient pairs matched at five HLA loci.

In order to determine whether matching/mismatching for microsatellite polymorphism provides useful information on acute graft-vs-host disease (GVHD), survival, and leukemia relapse in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation, we genotyped for polymorphisms at 13 microsatellite loci within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) of 100 unrelated HSC transplant donor-recipient pairs who were matched at five classical human leukocyte antigen (HLA) loci. A high percentage of allele matching was obtained for five microsatellite loci, DQCARII (96%), MICA (93%), MIB (89%), C1-3-1 (93%), and D6S510 (97%), that are localized within 100 kb of the HLA-DR, HLA-DQ, HLA-B, HLA-C, or HLA-A locus. In contrast, the other eight microsatellites are located farther away from the HLA classical loci and have much lower percentages of allele matching [e.g. tumor necrosis factor a (TNFa) (73%), TNFd (74%), D6S273 (64%), C3-2-11 (46%), C5-3-1 (50%), C5-4-5 (63%), C5-2-7 (68%), and D6S265 (81%)]. Therefore, there were at least eight microsatellite markers with relatively high percentages of mismatches in the donor/recipient pairs with acute or chronic GVHD, poor graft survival, and leukemia relapse. However, there were no statistically significant associations between mismatched donor-recipient pairs at the 13 microsatellite loci and acute or chronic GVHD, graft survival, and leukemia relapse. Nevertheless, allele matching at the microsatellite TNFd locus near the TNFa gene was found by the Fisher's exact double-sided test to be significantly associated with decreased survival in the grade III/IV acute GVHD group. Overall, these results suggest that the matching of microsatellite polymorphisms within the HLA region, especially the ones farthest from the classical HLA loci, was not useful indicator for the outcome of HSC transplantation from unrelated donors. In this regard, the future determination of the genome-wide microsatellite genotypes in HLA-matched donor-recipient pairs, outside the MHC, may be a better possibility for identifying minor histocompatibility genes in linkage disequilibria with microsatellites as potential predictive markers for the occurrence of acute GVHD and survival rate in HSC transplantation.

Adolescent↗

Characterization of rabbit DNA microsatellites extracted from the EMBL nucleotide sequence database.

Microsatellite polymorphisms are invaluable for mapping vertebrate genomes. In order to estimate the occurrence of microsatellites in the rabbit genome and to assess their feasibility as markers in rabbit genetics, a survey on the presence of all types of mononucleotide, dinucleotide, trinucleotide and tetranucleotide repeats, with a length of about 20 bp or more, was conducted by searching the published rabbit DNA sequences in the EMBL nucleotide database (version 323). A total of 181 rabbit microsatellites could be extracted from the present database. The estimated frequency of microsatellites in the rabbit genome was one microsatellite for every 2-3 kb of DNA. Dinucleotide repeats constituted the prevailing class of microsatellites, followed by trinucleotide, mononucleotide and tetranucleotide repeats, respectively. The average length of the microsatellites, as found in the database, was 26, 23, 23 and 22 bp for mono-, di-, tri- and tetranucleotide repeats, respectively. The most common repeat motif was AG, followed by A, AC, AGG and CCG. This group comprised about 70% of all extracted rabbit microsatellites. About 61% of the microsatellites were found in non-coding regions of genes, whereas 15% resided in (protein) coding regions. A significant fraction of rabbit microsatellites (about 22%) was found within interspersed repetitive DNA sequences.

Animals↗

Use of polymorphic short and clustered coding-region microsatellites to distinguish strains of Candida albicans.

We describe the identification of polymorphic microsatellite loci in the pathogenic yeast, Candida albicans. A search for all coding-region microsatellites with more than four repeats that can be found in Candida sequences in GenBank was conducted. Nine such microsatellite sequences consisting of trinucleotide motifs were found. Three of these were perfect microsatellites while the remaining six sequences were found in one imperfect microsatellite and two compound microsatellites. Because of the close proximity of some of these repeats, all could be assayed with six PCR primer pairs. All of these microsatellite sequences were found in five nuclear genes, ZNF1, CCN1, CPH1, EFG1, and MNT2. Except for a single (CTT)5 serine tract, all coded for polyglutamine tracts. Another locus with seven alleles, a region of the ERK1 protein kinase gene, was also examined, and may be a representative of a new class of highly polymorphic "clustered' microsatellites. Such loci, in which several non-contiguous but closely linked microsatellites are clustered together, may be a useful source of DNA polymorphisms in microorganisms in which long microsatellite sequences are unavailable. All seven regions amplified were polymorphic, having between two and seven variable length alleles in the 11 strains of Candida albicans examined. The results of this and similar searches will facilitate epidemiological and evolutionary studies of Candida and other microorganisms.

Alleles↗

Analysis of the frequency of microsatellite instability and p53 gene mutation in splenic marginal zone and MALT lymphomas.

AIMS: Studies of the genetic characteristics of splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) have failed to identify genetic changes specific to this tumour. Microsatellite instability is a type of genomic instability associated with different types of human cancer. Although microsatellite instability is rare in B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, it has been found in some specific subsets, such as marginal zone lymphomas arising in mucosa associated lymphoid tissue (MALT), where an association with p53 mutation has been described. Because it has been proposed that SMZL and MALT are close in histogenetic terms, this study investigated the comparative frequency of microsatellite instability and p53 mutation in patients with SMZL and MALT lymphomas. METHODS: Microsatellite instability was investigated using seven microsatellite marker loci in 14 patients with SMZL and 20 patients with MALT lymphomas. In an attempt to clarify the role of p53 gene mutation in the pathogenesis of SMZL, exons 5-8 were also investigated by polymerase chain reaction single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) and direct sequencing in a total of 20 patients with SMZL and 22 patients with MALT lymphomas. RESULTS: Microsatellite instability was not detected in patients with SMZL, although five of 20 patients with MALT lymphomas had microsatellite instability. The frequency of p53 mutation was low in both series (two of 20 patients with SMZL and one of 22 patients with MALT lymphomas). No significant association was found between p53 mutation and microsatellite instability. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that microsatellite instability is not associated with the molecular pathogenesis of SMZL, confirming the relatively increased frequency of microsatellite instability in MALT lymphomas, and perhaps suggesting that MALT and SMZL have different mechanisms of tumorigenesis.

Genes, p53↗

Undermethylated DNA as a source of microsatellites from a conifer genome.

Developing microsatellites from the large, highly duplicated conifer genome requires special tools. To improve the efficiency of developing Pinus taeda L. microsatellites, undermethylated (UM) DNA fragments were used to construct a microsatellite-enriched copy library. A methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme, McrBC, was used to enrich for UM DNA before library construction. Digested DNA fragments larger than 9 kb were then excised and digested with RsaI and used to construct nine dinucleotide and trinucleotide libraries. A total of 1016 microsatellite-positive clones were detected among 11 904 clones and 620 of these were unique. Of 245 primer sets that produced a PCR product, 113 could be developed as UM microsatellite markers and 70 were polymorphic. Inheritance and marker informativeness were tested for a random sample of 36 polymorphic markers using a three-generation outbred pedigree. Thirty-one microsatellites (86%) had single-locus inheritance despite the highly duplicated nature of the P. taeda genome. Nineteen UM microsatellites had highly informative intercross mating type configurations. Allele number and frequency were estimated for eleven UM microsatellites using a population survey. Allele numbers for these UM microsatellites ranged from 3 to 12 with an average of 5.7 alleles/locus. Frequencies for the 63 alleles were mostly in the low-common range; only 14 of the 63 were in the rare allele (q < 0.05) class. Enriching for UM DNA was an efficient method for developing polymorphic microsatellites from a large plant genome.

DNA Methylation↗

Genome scan linkage analysis comparing microsatellites and single-nucleotide polymorphisms markers for two measures of alcoholism in chromosomes 1, 4, and 7.

BACKGROUND: We analyzed 143 pedigrees (364 nuclear families) in the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) data provided to the participants in the Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 (GAW14) with the goal of comparing results obtained from genome linkage analysis using microsatellite and with results obtained using SNP markers for two measures of alcoholism (maximum number of drinks -MAXDRINK and an electrophysiological measure from EEG -TTTH1). First, we constructed haplotype blocks by using the entire set of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in chromosomes 1, 4, and 7. These chromosomes have shown linkage signals for MAXDRINK or EEG-TTTH1 in previous reports. Second, we randomly selected one, two, three, four, and five SNPs from each block (referred to as Rep1 - Rep5, respectively) to conduct linkage analysis using variance component approach. Finally, results of all SNP analyses were compared with those obtained using microsatellite markers. RESULTS: The LOD scores obtained from SNPs were slightly higher but the curves were not radically different from those obtained from microsatellite analyses. The peaks of linkage regions from SNP sets were slightly shifted to the left when compared to those from microsatellite markers. The reduced sets of SNPs provide signals in the same linkage regions but with a smaller LOD score suggesting a significant impact of the decrease in information content on linkage results. The widths of 1 LOD support interval of linkage regions from SNP sets were smaller when compared to those of microsatellite markers. However, two linkage regions obtained from the microsatellite linkage analysis on chromosome 7 for LOG of TTTH1 were not detected in the SNP based analyses. CONCLUSION: The linkage results from SNPs showed narrower linkage regions and slightly higher LOD scores when compared to those of microsatellite markers. The different builds of the genetic maps used in microsatellite and SNPs markers or/and errors in genotyping may account for the microsatellite linkage signals on chromosome 7 that were not identified using SNPs. Also, unresolved map issues between SNPs and microsatellite markers may be partly responsible for the shifted linkage peaks when comparing the two types of markers.

Alcoholism↗

Analyses of carnivore microsatellites and their intimate association with tRNA-derived SINEs.

BACKGROUND: The popularity of microsatellites has greatly increased in the last decade on account of their many applications. However, little is currently understood about the factors that influence their genesis and distribution among and within species genomes. In this work, we analyzed carnivore microsatellite clones from GenBank to study their association with interspersed repeats and elucidate the role of the latter in microsatellite genesis and distribution. RESULTS: We constructed a comprehensive carnivore microsatellite database comprising 1236 clones from GenBank. Thirty-three species of 11 out of 12 carnivore families were represented, although two distantly related species, the domestic dog and cat, were clearly overrepresented. Of these clones, 330 contained tRNALys-derived SINEs and 357 contained other interspersed repeats. Our rough estimates of tRNA SINE copies per haploid genome were much higher than published ones. Our results also revealed a distinct juxtaposition of AG and A-rich repeats and tRNALys-derived SINEs suggesting their coevolution. Both microsatellites arose repeatedly in two regions of the interspersed repeat. Moreover, microsatellites associated with tRNALys-derived SINEs showed the highest complexity and less potential instability. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that tRNALys-derived SINEs are a significant source for microsatellite generation in carnivores, especially for AG and A-rich repeat motifs. These observations indicate two modes of microsatellite generation: the expansion and variation of pre-existing tandem repeats and the conversion of sequences with high cryptic simplicity into a repeat array; mechanisms which are not specific to tRNALys-derived SINEs. Microsatellite and interspersed repeat coevolution could also explain different distribution of repeat types among and within species genomes.Finally, due to their higher complexity and lower potential informative content of microsatellites associated with tRNALys-derived SINEs, we recommend avoiding their use as genetic markers.

Animals↗

Population study and validation of paternity testing for Thoroughbred horses by 15 microsatellite loci.

Microsatellite 15 TKY System was characterized for parentage verification of horse registry. The Microsatellite 15 TKY System was constructed by using 15 microsatellites, TKY279, TKY287, TKY294, TKY297, TKY301, TKY312, TKY321, TKY325, TKY333, TKY337, TKY341, TKY343, TKY344, TKY374, and TKY394, to provide stringent PCR-based microsatellite typing specifically optimized for multicolor fluorescence detection. The Microsatellite 15 TKY System showed good resolutions for 250 unrelated Thoroughbred horses, and the probability of exclusion (PE) at each microsatellite ranged from 0.437 to 0.621, resulting in a total PE value of 99.998% for Thoroughbred horses. These results indicated that the Microsatellite 15 TKY System is useful for paternity testing of Thoroughbred horses. A paternity testing case for a Thoroughbred horse family, in which candidate sires had close relations, was analyzed using the Microsatellite 15 TKY System. In this case, the Microsatellite 15 TKY System excluded paternity of a false sire. We concluded that the Microsatellite 15 TKY System can give sufficient and reliable information for paternity testing.

Animals↗

Survey and analysis of microsatellites in the silkworm, Bombyx mori: frequency, distribution, mutations, marker potential and their conservation in heterologous species.

We studied microsatellite frequency and distribution in 21.76-Mb random genomic sequences, 0.67-Mb BAC sequences from the Z chromosome, and 6.3-Mb EST sequences of Bombyx mori. We mined microsatellites of >/=15 bases of mononucleotide repeats and >/=5 repeat units of other classes of repeats. We estimated that microsatellites account for 0.31% of the genome of B. mori. Microsatellite tracts of A, AT, and ATT were the most abundant whereas their number drastically decreased as the length of the repeat motif increased. In general, tri- and hexanucleotide repeats were overrepresented in the transcribed sequences except TAA, GTA, and TGA, which were in excess in genomic sequences. The Z chromosome sequences contained shorter repeat types than the rest of the chromosomes in addition to a higher abundance of AT-rich repeats. Our results showed that base composition of the flanking sequence has an influence on the origin and evolution of microsatellites. Transitions/transversions were high in microsatellites of ESTs, whereas the genomic sequence had an equal number of substitutions and indels. The average heterozygosity value for 23 polymorphic microsatellite loci surveyed in 13 diverse silkmoth strains having 2-14 alleles was 0.54. Only 36 (18.2%) of 198 microsatellite loci were polymorphic between the two divergent silkworm populations and 10 (5%) loci revealed null alleles. The microsatellite map generated using these polymorphic markers resulted in 8 linkage groups. B. mori microsatellite loci were the most conserved in its immediate ancestor, B. mandarina, followed by the wild saturniid silkmoth, Antheraea assama.

Animals↗

Bethesda guidelines: relation to microsatellite instability and MLH1 promoter methylation in patients with colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Microsatellite instability is a hallmark of mismatch repair deficiency in hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer and results from mutations in the mismatch repair genes MLH1 or MSH2 or from gene inactivation associated with DNA methylation. The Bethesda guidelines were established to identify patients with colorectal cancer who should be tested for microsatellite instability. OBJECTIVE: To assess the Bethesda guidelines for detection of microsatellite instability and to determine the role of MLH1 promoter methylation in colorectal cancer. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Tertiary care referral center in Frankfurt, Germany. PATIENTS: 125 consecutive patients with colorectal cancer. MEASUREMENTS: Patients were assessed according to the Bethesda guidelines, and tumor specimens were analyzed for microsatellite instability. Patients with microsatellite instability were tested for MLH1 promoter methylation and MLH1 and MSH2 germline mutations. RESULTS: Microsatellite instability was detected in 17 of 58 patients who fulfilled and 5 of 67 patients who did not fulfill criteria of the Bethesda guidelines. In 11 of 17 patients with microsatellite instability who fulfilled Bethesda guidelines, an MLH1 (n = 3), MSH2 (n = 7), or combined MLH1 and MSH2 (n = 1) mutation was found. Among the patients with microsatellite instability who did not fulfill Bethesda guidelines, no mutations were observed; MLH1 promoter methylation was observed in 6 of 11 patients with an MLH1 or MSH2 mutation and 5 of 11 patients without an MLH1 or MSH2 mutation. CONCLUSIONS: The Bethesda guidelines are useful for selecting patients for microsatellite instability testing. MLH1 and MSH2 testing should be recommended in all patients with colorectal cancer and microsatellite instability who fulfill at least one Bethesda criterion. MLH1 promoter methylation may accompany rather than initiate carcinogenesis in patients with colorectal cancer who have mismatch repair gene defects.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗

Instability of short tandem repeats (microsatellites) in human gliomas.

OBJECTIVE: Microsatellite instability implying multiple replication errors (RER) characterizes a proportion of familial and sporadic carcinomas. The purpose of this report is to analyze whether microsatellite instability occurred during the development of human gliomas. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We checked prospectively 16 central nervous system tumors, including 10 glioblastomas and 6 astrocytomas of different malignancy grades, for genetic microsatellite instability. Fifteen different microsatellites, located on 6 different chromosomes, were investigated. All microsatellites are dinucleotide CA, repeats except for D11S956,P23 (CTAT) and CYP 19, which are tetranucleotide repeats and P23 (GTTTT) which is a pentanucleotide repeat. The repeats were analysed by PCR amplification, followed by electrophoresis on denaturing 6% polyacrylamide gels. MEASURES: We looked for all kinds of microsatellite alterations. Only microsatellite shifts were considered to represent microsatellite instability. RESULTS: Three out of 10 glioblastomas showed mobility shifts on gel electrophoresis in tumor, compared to corresponding normal DNA samples. In contrast, no microsatellite instability was found in any of the astrocytomas. Besides the presence of larger or smaller alleles, an imbalance in the ratio between alleles was noticed in one astrocytoma and in one glioblastoma multiforme. In addition, loss of heterozygosity (LOH) is observed without a fixed pattern in 3 glioblastomas. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that genetic instability of microsatellites may be demonstrated in high grade gliomas rather than in their low grade precursors and should be regarded as an evolution in tumor progression rather than as a new mechanism for tumor initiation in gliomas.

Astrocytoma↗

Microsatellite instability and p53 mutations in sporadic right and left colon carcinoma: different clinical and molecular implications.

BACKGROUND: Left and right colon carcinomas can display different clinical, pathologic, and genetic characteristics. The purpose of this study was to characterize multiple molecular genetic alterations in sporadic colon carcinoma and to correlate them with the location of the tumors and with lymph node metastasis. METHODS: One hundred and twenty-five cases of sporadic colon carcinoma (50 in the right colon and 75 in the left colon in patients with no family history of colon carcinoma) were studied. Status of the p53 gene was assessed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), single strand conformation polymorphism, and sequencing at exons 5-8. Microsatellite instability was analyzed with five microsatellite markers at chromosome 18. The mismatch repair genes hMLH1 and hMSH2 were studied in tumors found to have microsatellite instability by PCR and sequencing. RESULTS: In the 125 cases studied, there were 53 tumors with mutations of the p53 gene. p53 mutations correlated with lymph node metastases from right colon carcinoma cases (61%), and all cases with p53 mutations and microsatellite instability were AJCC/UICC Stage III (Dukes Stage C). In the right colon carcinoma cases the rate of microsatellite instability was related to the tumor size (19% in tumors measuring < 4 cm, and 34% in tumors measuring > 4 cm). No correlation between microsatellite instability and p53 mutations was detected. In the left colon carcinoma cases, p53 mutations were detected in 41% of tumors and microsatellite instability in 14%; neither finding was related to the tumor size. Mutations of the hMLH1 and hMSH2 mismatch repair genes were detected in 7 of 24 cases with marked microsatellite instability. CONCLUSIONS: Microsatellite instability is prone to occur in sporadic right colon carcinoma during tumor growth and is not associated significantly with mutations in the hMLH1 and hMSH2 mismatch repair genes or in the p53 gene. Concomitant detection of microsatellite instability and p53 mutations in right colon carcinoma is associated with the presence of lymph node metastases.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗

Abundance, polymorphism and genetic mapping of microsatellites in rice.

Dinucleotide microsatellites have been characterized and used as genetic markers in rice. Screening of a rice genomic library with poly(dG-dA).(dC-dT) and poly(dG-dT).(dC-dA) probes indicated that (GA)n repeats occurred, on average, once every 225 kb and (GT)n repeats once every 480 kb. DNA sequencing of ten randomly selected microsatellites indicated that the numbers of repeats ranged from 12 to 34 and that the patterns of microsatellites in rice were similar to those of humans and other mammals. Primers to these microsatellite loci as well as to four published microsatellite-containing sequences have been designed and degrees of polymorphism has been examined with 20 rice accessions. Multiple alleles, ranging from 5 to 11, have been observed at all the microsatellite loci in 20 rice accessions. Alleles specific to two cultivated subspecies, indica and japonica, were found in some microsatellite loci. Heterozygosity values of all the microsatellite markers were significantly higher than those of RFLP markers, based upon a parallel comparison. Ten microsatellite loci have been genetically mapped to four rice chromosomes. The genomic distribution of microsatellites appears to be random in rice.

Base Sequence↗