EXCLUSION OF UNIPARENTAL INHERITANCE OF CHROMOSOME-15 IN A FETUS WITHA FAMILIAL DICENTRIC (Y-15) TRANSLOCATION

We present a prenatal case with a 45,X,dic(Y;15) (q11.23;p11.1) karyot ype and describe the inheritance pattern of the chromosome 15s. Chromo some 15 has an imprinted region and inheritance of both chromosome 15 from one parent results in either Angelman syndrome (AS) (paternal inh eritance) or Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) (maternal inheritance). paren tal chromosome studies revealed that the father carried the same dicen tric (Y;15) translocation. Since familial chromosome rearrangements ca n result in aberrant chromosomal segregation during meiosis, we wanted to exclude paternal uniparental inheritance of chromosome 15. By usin g DNA microsatellite markers at several 15q11q13 loci, we determined t hat the fetus had inherited his normal non-translocated chromosome 15 from his mother. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.