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D C Sigurdson

Publications and source records attributed to D C Sigurdson.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Genotype-to-phenotype analysis: search for clinical characteristics of a missense change in the GABAA-beta 1 receptor gene.

Genotype-to-phenotype analysis reverses the classical approach to genetic disease in which an unknown genotype is sought for a known phenotype. This paper provides an example of genotype-to-phenotype analysis for the possible psychiatric effects of a missense mutation (H396Q) at a highly conserved residue of the beta 1 subunit gene of the gamma aminobutyric acid type A receptor. DNA samples from 1,507 Caucasians of Western European descent were screened, and 10 heterozygotes for H396Q were identified. These individuals were matched to homozygous normal individuals by age, gender, and length of available medical records. The complete medical records of these 20 individuals were reviewed blindly by two psychiatrists (D.C.S., L.L.H.) to assess psychiatric symptomatology, with an emphasis on anxiety and related disorders. However, no association was found between this missense change at a conserved amino acid and a dominant neuropsychiatric disease phenotype. Thus, this missense change may be neutral or only mildly deleterious, may only cause recessive disease in rare individuals, or may interact epistatically with some other gene(s).

Aged↗
PubMed1995

The D5 dopamine receptor gene in schizophrenia: identification of a nonsense change and multiple missense changes but lack of association with disease.

To determine whether mutations in the D5 dopamine receptor gene (DRD5) are associated with schizophrenia, the gene was examined in 78 unrelated schizophrenic individuals (156 DRD5 alleles). After amplification by the polymerase chain reaction, products were examined by dideoxy fingerprinting (ddF), a screening method related to single strand conformational polymorphism analysis that detects essentially 100% of mutations. All samples with abnormal ddF patterns were sequenced. Nine different sequence changes were identified. Five of these were sequence changes that would result in protein alterations; of these, one was a nonsense change (C335X), one was a missense change in an amino acid conserved in all dopamine receptors (N351D), two were missense changes in amino acids that are identical in only some dopamine receptors and in only some species (A269V; S453C), and one was a missense change in a non-conserved amino acid (P330Q). To investigate whether the nonsense change (C335X), predicted to prematurely truncate the receptor protein and result in a 50% diminution of functional protein, was associated with schizophrenia, other neuropsychiatric diseases, or specific neuropsychological, psychophysiological, or personality traits, both case-control and family analyses were performed. No statistically-significant associations were detected with schizophrenia or other neuropsychiatric disease. There also were no significant associations between any one measure of neuropsychological function. However, a post-hoc analysis of combined measures of frontal lobe function hinted that heterozygotes for C335X may have a vulnerability to mild impairment, but these findings must be interpreted with caution.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1986

An X-autosome fusion chromosome of Caenorhabditis elegans.

The translocation mnT12(IV;X) is a fusion of holocentric chromosomes IV and X, the breakpoints occurring near the left end of IV and the right end of X. Animals homozygous for mnT12 are viable and fertile; they contain five pairs of chromosomes rather than the normal set of six pairs. The mnT12 chromosome is larger than all wild-type chromosomes and thus identifies linkage groups IV and X cytologically. Hermaphrodites heterozygous for mnT12 show high frequency meiotic nondisjunction both between mnT12 and the X chromosome, which results in a high incidence of male self progeny (27% compared to the wild-type incidence of 0.2%), and between mnT12 and chromosome IV, which results in a high incidence of self progeny essentially trisomic for chromosome IV (karyotype IV/mnT12/mnT12). The viability of chromosome IV trisomics has been confirmed by constructing animals trisomic for only normal copies of chromosome IV; these animals are morphologically wild type. Meiotic chromosome disjunction in mnT12 homozygotes appears to be normal, although the frequency of recombination between markers that are normally X-linked is significantly reduced. Males of genotype IV/mnT12/0 are fertile. They can be thought of as having a neo-X(mnT12) neo-Y(normal IV) karyotype since it is possible to maintain a male-hermaphrodite stock of C. elegans consisting of such males and hermaphrodites carrying two neo-X chromosomes and no neo-Y; the organism is thus converted from an XO:XX type of sex determination to an XY:XX system.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Caenorhabditis elegans deficiency mapping.

Six schemes were used to identify 80 independent recessive lethal deficiencies of linkage group (LG) II following X-ray treatment of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Complementation tests between the deficiencies and ethyl methanesulfonate-induced recessive visible, lethal and sterile mutations and between different deficiencies were used to characterize the extents of the deficiencies. Deficiency endpoints thus helped to order 36 sites within a region representing about half of the loci on LG II and extending over about 5 map units. New mutations occurring in this region can be assigned to particular segments of the map by complementation tests against a small number of deficiencies; this facilitates the assignment of single-site mutations to particular genes, as we illustrate. Five sperm-defective and five oocyte-defective LG II sterile mutants were identified and mapped. Certain deficiency-by-deficiency complementation tests allowed us to suggest that the phenotypes of null mutations at two loci represented by visible alleles are wild type and that null mutations at a third locus confer a visible phenotype. A segment of LG II that is about 12 map units long and largely devoid of identified loci seems to be greatly favored for crossing over.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Characterization of the transmission during cytoductant formation of the 2 micrometers DNA plasmid from Saccharomyces.

The transmission of the yeast 2 micrometers DNA plasmid has been examined in heterokaryons formed between a haploid donor cell containing the plasmid and a haploid recipient cell lacking the plasmid. Strains lacking the plasmid were mated to donor strains and cytoductants, haploid exconjugants arising from heterokaryons, were selected. The cytoductants bearing the genotype of the recipient cells were then tested for the presence of 2 micrometers DNA. The frequency with which the recipient received plasmid copies varied between 0 and 46%. This frequency depended on the recipient strain but was not highly dependent on whether or not the donor strain carried a kar1 mutation. Exceptional cytoductants, which had acquired a chromosome from the mating partner, were examined and found to have a much greater probability of acquiring plasmid DNA than cytoductants in general. This correlation supports the contention that plasmid copies are associated with the nucleus. In one mating the donor strain contained nearly equal amounts of two physically distinct plasmid types. Of the cytoductants bearing the recipient genotype which had acquired the plasmid during mating, most contained only one of the two plasmid types present in the donor. Analysis of this result using a Poisson distribution indicates that the average number of plasmid copies transmitted between nuclei of a heterokaryon is 0.2.

Cell Nucleus↗