Narrowed abrogation of the Angelman syndrome critical interval on human chromosome 15 does not interfere with epigenotype maintenance in somatic cells

J Hum Genet. 2005;50(3):124-132. doi: 10.1007/s10038-005-0231-2. Epub 2005 Mar 3.

Abstract

Human chromosome 15q11-q13 involves a striking imprinted gene cluster of more than 2 Mb that is concomitant with multiple neurological disorders manifested by Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) and Angelman syndrome (AS). PWS and AS patients with imprinting mutation have microdeletions, which share a 4.3 kb short region of overlap (SRO) at the 5' end of the paternal SNURF-SNRPN gene in PWS, or on the maternal allele, which shares a 880 bp SRO located at the 35 kb upstream of the SNURF-SNRPN promoter in AS. Recent studies have revealed an essential role of PWS-SRO in the postzygotic maintenance of the appropriate epigenotype on the paternal chromosome. For AS-SRO, however, there is insufficient experimental evidence exists to determine the direct functions. Here we show that the complete deletion of AS-SRO does not cause any anomalies of imprinted gene expression or DNA methylation on the mutated human chromosome 15, further supporting the idea that AS-SRO is dispensable for post implantation imprint maintenance. This implies that AS-SRO is not essential for the robust epigenotype preservation in somatic cells.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Angelman Syndrome / genetics*
  • Animals
  • Blotting, Southern
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Chromosomes, Human, Pair 15 / genetics*
  • Cytogenetic Analysis
  • DNA Methylation
  • DNA Primers
  • Gene Deletion
  • Gene Expression Regulation*
  • Gene Transfer Techniques
  • Genomic Imprinting / genetics*
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Mutation / genetics
  • Nuclear Proteins / genetics*
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

Substances

  • DNA Primers
  • Nuclear Proteins
  • SNURF protein, human