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Title: A familial {open_quotes}balanced{close_quotes} 3;9 translocation with cryptic 8q insertion leading to deletion and duplication of 9p23 loci in siblings

Journal Article · · American Journal of Human Genetics
OSTI ID:133778
;  [1]
  1. Children`s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States)

Families in which a balanced translocation has been transmitted from a normal parent to a child with a phenotypic abnormality have been a longstanding puzzle for human geneticists. A child with phenotypic features of the 9p- syndrome, including metopic craniosynostosis, small ears, abdominal wall defect, and mental retardation, was found to have a cytogenetically balanced 3;9 translocation, with breakpoints at 3p11 and 9p23, inherited from his normal father. He also exhibited marked hypopigmentation of hair and skin. Analysis with a cDNA probe from the TYRP1 (tyrosinase-related protein 1) gene in 9p23 showed heterozygous deletion in the child but in neither parent. This submicroscopic deletion also included loci D9S157, D9S274, D9S268, and D9S267. FISH analysis of the proband`s father indicated the 9p23 loci deleted in his son were present on neither the der(3) nor the der(9) translocation product, but had been inserted into the long arm of chromosome 8. Therefore, the apparent deletion of these loci in the proband was the result of meiotic segregation of the father`s 3;9 translocation chromosomes together with his normal chromosome 8. Neither the deletion from the translocation chromosomes nor the insertion into 8q was detectable by standard chromosome banding techniques. The proband`s sister exhibited speech delay, mild facial dysmorphism, and renal malformation, and her karyotype was 46,XX. Molecular analysis of this sister showed 3 copies of 9p23 sequences, indicating that she had inherited normal chromosomes 3 and 9 from her father as well as the chromosome 8 with the insertion from 9p23. This analysis illustrates a new mechanism to explain cases of phenotypic discordance in familial balanced translocations: submicroscopic deletion of material from the translocation breakpoint and insertion into a third chromosome in the balanced parent, with meiotic segregation leading to loss of the inserted material in the child.

OSTI ID:
133778
Report Number(s):
CONF-941009-; ISSN 0002-9297; TRN: 95:005313-0511
Journal Information:
American Journal of Human Genetics, Vol. 55, Issue Suppl.3; Conference: 44. annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, Montreal (Canada), 18-22 Oct 1994; Other Information: PBD: Sep 1994
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English