Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C Desmaze.
In a series of ten patients affected by DiGeorge syndrome, we screened, by high resolution banding and fluorescent in situ hybridization of a cosmid probe, for microdeletions associated with this syndrome. In the ten patients, a microdeletion was demonstrated by in situ hybridization, but suspected only in two patients by high resolution banding.
The genes involved in the t(12;22)(q13;q12) translocation found recurrently in malignant melanoma of soft parts have been characterized and shown to form, in four cases studied, hybrid transcripts. The deduced chimaeric protein encoded by the der(22) chromosome consists of the N-terminal domain of EWS linked to the bZIP domain of ATF-1, a transcription factor which may normally be regulated by cAMP. ATF-1 has not previously been implicated in oncogenesis. EWS was first identified as forming a hybrid transcript in Ewing's sarcoma, which links its N-terminal domain to the DNA binding domain of the FLI-1 gene. Thus the oncogenic conversion of EWS follows a common scheme of activation, exchanging its putative RNA binding domain with different DNA binding domains that appear to be tumour-specific.
DiGeorge syndrome is a human developmental disorder resulting in hypoplasia of the thymus and parathyroids, and conotruncal heart defects. We recently isolated four genes with zinc finger DNA binding motifs mapping to chromosome 22q11.2 DiGeorge critical region. We now report that one of them, ZNF74 gene, is hemizygously deleted in 23 out of 24 DiGeorge syndrome patients tested. ZNF74 mRNA transcripts are detected in human and mouse embryos but not in adult tissues. Sequence analysis of a corresponding cDNA reveals an an open reading frame encoding 12 zinc finger motifs of the Kruppel/TFIIIA type as well as N-terminal and C-terminal non-zinc finger domains. These results suggest that changes in the dosage of a putative transcription factor through ZNF74 hemizygous deletion may be critical for DiGeorge developmental anomalies.
The proximal portion of human chromosome 22q appears to carry genes implicated in the pathogenesis of various developmental disorders, including the cat eye syndrome (CES) and the DiGeorge syndrome (DGS). A cosmid library was prepared from a radiation hybrid selected for its content in chromosome 22 fragments. A large fraction of cosmids containing human DNA were found to derive from the juxtacentromeric region of chromosome 22, as shown by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) performed using individual cosmids or cosmid pools as probes. Finer mapping was obtained for individual cosmids by hybridization to a somatic cell hybrid mapping panel which splits the long arm of the chromosome into 14 bins numbered 1 to 14 from the centromere to the telomere. Of the 10 cosmids mapped, eight belonged to group 1, the other two to group 14, in agreement with FISH data. Rare endonuclease sites and fragments conserved between species were searched in single cosmids, resulting in the selection of seven cosmid fragments which were used to screen a human fetal brain cDNA library. Three cDNAs were identified, encoded from two chromosome 22 genes which appeared to be novel, as determined from partial end sequence and comparison with the database entries. Fine localization of the 30.9 cDNA indicated that the corresponding gene was located in a segment of proximal 22q overlapping with the critical DGS region.
Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) is an autosomal dominant disease which predisposes to the development of schwannomas, meningiomas, ependymomas, and juvenile cataracts. The NF2 gene (NF2) has recently been isolated and maps to chromosome 22q12 between the loci D22S212 and D22S32. Deletion studies in sporadic and NF2 associated schwannomas and meningiomas, and the presence of inactivating mutations in NF2 in patients suggest that it acts as a tumor suppressor gene. A candidate meningioma gene (MEN) has also been isolated from the same interval. A new highly polymorphic (CA)n marker, D22S268, which maps very near to NF2, has allowed us to identify a kindred with three living affected individuals, where the disease is presumably caused by a large germline deletion. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and pulsed field gel electrophoresis confirm the presence of a 700kb deletion which includes the neurofilament heavy chain subunit gene locus (NEFH), D22S268, NF2 and the putative MEN gene. The absence of meningiomas in this pedigree raises doubts as to the existence of a separate MEN locus in this region. These results support the hypothesis that NF2 results from the inactivation of a tumor suppressor gene on chromosome 22q.
We describe the relative ordering, by fluorescence in situ hybridization, of cosmid loci and translocation breakpoints in the DiGeorge syndrome (DGS) critical region of chromosome 22. This physical map enables us to define a large region, commonly deleted in a majority of affected patients, and the smallest deleted region which, when lost, is sufficient to produce DGS. In four instances, a similar large deleted region is observed in a familial context. In these pedigrees, the deletion is encountered in one parent with mild features of the disease.
Ewing's sarcoma and related subtypes of primitive neuroectodermal tumours share a recurrent and specific t(11;22) (q24;q12) chromosome translocation, the breakpoints of which have recently been cloned. Phylogenetically conserved restriction fragments in the vicinity of EWSR1 and EWSR2, the genomic regions where the breakpoints of chromosome 22 and chromosome 11 are, respectively, have allowed identification of transcribed sequences from these regions and has indicated that a hybrid transcript might be generated by the translocation. Here we use these fragments to screen human complementary DNA libraries to show that the translocation alters the open reading frame of an expressed gene on chromosome 22 gene by substituting a sequence encoding a putative RNA-binding domain for that of the DNA-binding domain of the human homologue of murine Fli-1.
The chromosome 22 breakpoint of the t(11;22) translocation of peripheral neuroepithelioma has been located, by fluorescence in situ hybridization, in the proximity of the interface between 22q12.1 and 22q12.2. Use of single cosmids or pools of cosmids of the flanking regions enables the monitoring of the translocation in interphase and in metaphase chromosomes. This method can now be routinely applied for the diagnosis of this translocation in mixed round cell tumors.
Ewing's sarcoma (ES) and peripheral neuroepithelioma (PN) are related tumors, possibly of neural crest origin, which are cytogenetically characterized by the specific translocation t(11;22)(q24;q12). The cos5 locus, previously identified in the vicinity of the chromosome 22 breakpoint of this translocation, was shown by in situ hybridization on interphase nuclei to lie between VIIIF2 and LIF, two loci located on either side of the breakpoint and at a distance of less than 2,000 kb. The progressive expansion of this locus by chromosome walking led to the construction of a 300 kb contig, which finally crossed the breakpoint. The subsequent cloning of the two translocation junction fragments of a PN, followed by the molecular characterization of the translocation breakpoints of 20 ES and PN, showed that most chromosome 22 breakpoints are clustered within a small, 2 kb region. In contrast, the chromosome 11 breakpoints are scattered over a region of at least 40 kb. The translocation leads to the synthesis of chimeric transcript that links sequences from chromosomes 22 and 11. Finally, no evidence was found of any specific difference in the position of ES and PN translocation breakpoints.
Polymerase chain reaction amplified products promoted by oligonucleotides complementary to the highly repetitive human Alu sequence can be used for in situ hybridization on metaphase chromosomes to investigate the human content of a hybrid cell line. The TC65 primer, which combines the advantages of promoting the amplification of large inter-Alu sequences together with only small flanking Alu sequences, enables a simple and precise characterization to be made, with a high signal to noise ratio. Total human DNA is an efficient competitor in the removal of non-specific signals. The use of this oligonucleotide should be considered in the characterization of the human content of hybrids or in the generation of specific reagents for chromosome decoration.
A method based on the differential screening of a chromosome-specific cosmid library with amplified inter-Alu sequences obtained from a set of somatic cell hybrids has been developed to target the isolation of probes from predefined subchromosomal regions. As a model system, we have used a chromosome 22-specific cosmid library and four cell hybrids containing different parts of this chromosome. The procedure has identified cosmids that demonstrate differential hybridization signals with Alu-PCR products from these cell hybrids. We show, by in situ hybridization or individual mapping, that their hybridization pattern is indicative of their sublocalization on chromosome 22, thus resulting in a large enrichment factor for the isolation of probes from specific small chromosome subregions. Depending on the local Alu-sequence density, from 3 to 10 independent loci per megabase of genome can thus be identified.
We report a cytogenetic and molecular study of a series of patients with Alagille syndrome. All 14 patients were studied with high resolution banding techniques and eight of them were also analysed with non-radioactive in situ hybridisation of the cosmid probe D20S6. Seven of these eight patients were also studied for allelic losses at the D20S6 locus. No microdeletion of chromosome 20 was found in this series.
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