Objective To study the human dystrophin gene molecular deletion mechanism, we analyzed breakpoint regions within junction fragments of deletion-type patients and investigated whether the dystrophin gene's intron s...Objective To study the human dystrophin gene molecular deletion mechanism, we analyzed breakpoint regions within junction fragments of deletion-type patients and investigated whether the dystrophin gene's intron structure might be related to intron instability.Methods Junction fragments corresponding to exon 46 and 51 deletions were cloned. The breakpoint regions were sequenced, and the features of introns with available Genebank sequences were analyzed.Results An analysis of junction fragment sequences corresponding to exon 46 and 51 deletions showed that all 5' and 3' breakpoints are located within repeat sequences. No small insertions, small deletions, or point mutations are located near the breakpoint junctions. By analyzing the secondary structure of the junction fragments, we demonstrated that all junction fragment breakpoints are located in non-matching regions of single-stranded hairpin loops. A high concentration of repetitive elements is found to be a key feature of many dystrophin introns. In total, 34. 8% of the overall dystrophin intron sequences is composed of repeat sequences.Conclusion Repeat elements in many dystrophin gene introns are the key to their structural bases and reflect intron instability. As a result of the primary DNA sequences, single-stranded hairpin loops form, increasing the instability of the gene, and forming the base for breaks in the DNA. The formation of the single-stranded hairpins can result in reattachment of two different breakpoints, producing a deletion.展开更多
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( Nos. 39700048 and 30271378) the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 980066, 021866 and 974151)+1 种基金and as a key project of the Guangdong Provincial Committee on Science Technology (No. 2002C306
文摘Objective To study the human dystrophin gene molecular deletion mechanism, we analyzed breakpoint regions within junction fragments of deletion-type patients and investigated whether the dystrophin gene's intron structure might be related to intron instability.Methods Junction fragments corresponding to exon 46 and 51 deletions were cloned. The breakpoint regions were sequenced, and the features of introns with available Genebank sequences were analyzed.Results An analysis of junction fragment sequences corresponding to exon 46 and 51 deletions showed that all 5' and 3' breakpoints are located within repeat sequences. No small insertions, small deletions, or point mutations are located near the breakpoint junctions. By analyzing the secondary structure of the junction fragments, we demonstrated that all junction fragment breakpoints are located in non-matching regions of single-stranded hairpin loops. A high concentration of repetitive elements is found to be a key feature of many dystrophin introns. In total, 34. 8% of the overall dystrophin intron sequences is composed of repeat sequences.Conclusion Repeat elements in many dystrophin gene introns are the key to their structural bases and reflect intron instability. As a result of the primary DNA sequences, single-stranded hairpin loops form, increasing the instability of the gene, and forming the base for breaks in the DNA. The formation of the single-stranded hairpins can result in reattachment of two different breakpoints, producing a deletion.
