Lw. Burke et al., FAMILIAL CRYPTIC TRANSLOCATION RESULTING IN ANGELMAN SYNDROME - IMPLICATIONS FOR IMPRINTING OR LOCATION OF THE ANGELMAN GENE, American journal of human genetics, 58(4), 1996, pp. 777-784
Angelman syndrome (AS) is associated with a loss of maternal genetic i
nformation, which typically occurs as a result of a deletion at 15q11-
q13 or paternal uniparental disomy of chromosome 15. We report a patie
nt with AS as a result of an unbalanced cryptic translocation whose br
eakpoint, at 15q11.2, falls within this region. The proband was diagno
sed clinically as having Angelman syndrome, but without a detectable c
ytogenetic deletion, by using high-resolution G-banding. FISH detected
a deletion of D15S11 (IR4-3R), with an intact GABRB3 locus. Subsequen
t studies of the proband's mother and sister detected a cryptic recipr
ocal translocation between chromosomes 14 and 15 with the breakpoint b
eing between SNRPN and D15S10 (3-21). The proband was found to have in
herited an unbalanced form, being monosomic from 15pter through SNRPN
and trisomic for 14pter to 14q11.2. DNA methylation studies showed tha
t the proband had a paternal-only DNA methylation pattern at SNRPN, D1
5S63 (PW71), and ZNF127. The mother and unaffected sister, both having
the balanced translocation, demonstrated normal DNA methylation patte
rns at all three loci. These data suggest that the gene for AS most li
kely lies proximal to D15S10, in contrast to the previously published
position, although a less likely possibility is that the maternally in
herited imprinting center acts in trans in the unaffected balanced tra
nslocation carrier sister.