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Somatic intragenic recombination within the mutated locus BLM can correct the high sister-chromatid exchange phenotype of Bloom syndrome cells

Journal Article · · American Journal of Human Genetics
OSTI ID:209892
; ;  [1]
  1. Temple Univ. School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA (United States); and others
Cells from persons with Bloom syndrome feature an elevated rate of sister-chromatid exchange (SCE). However, in some affected persons a minority of blood lymphocytes have a normal SCE rate. Persons who inherit the Bloom syndrome gene BLM identical by descent from a common ancestor very rarely exhibit this high-SCE/low-SCE mosaicism; conversely, mosaicism arises predominantly in persons who do not share a common ancestor. These population data suggested that most persons with Bloom syndrome in whom the exceptional low-SCE cells arise are not homozygous for a mutation at BLM but instead are compound heterozygotes. Following this clue, we carried out a genotype analysis of loci syntenic with BLM in 11 persons who exhibited mosaicism. In five of them, polymorphic loci distal to BLM that were heterozygous in their high-SCE cells had become homozygous in their low-SCE cells, whereas heterozygous loci proximal to BLM remained heterozygous. These observations are interpreted to mean that intragenic recombination between paternally derived and maternally derived mutated sites within BLM can generate a functionally wild-type gene and that low-SCE lymphocytes are progeny of a somatic cell in which such intragenic recombination had occurred. 30 refs., 3 figs., 3 tabs.
OSTI ID:
209892
Journal Information:
American Journal of Human Genetics, Journal Name: American Journal of Human Genetics Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 57; ISSN AJHGAG; ISSN 0002-9297
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English