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Oral-facial-digital type I syndrome (OFDI) is characterised by an X-linked dominant mode of inheritance with lethality in males. Clinical features include facial dysmorphism with oral, dental and distal abnormalities, polycystic kidney disease and central nervous system malformations. Considerable allelic heterogeneity has been reported within the OFD1 gene, but DNA bi-directional sequencing of the exons and intron-exon boundaries of the OFD1 gene remains negative in more than 20% of cases. We hypothesized that genomic rearrangements could account for the majority of the remaining undiagnosed cases. Thus, we took advantage of two independent available series of patients with OFDI syndrome and negative DNA bi-directional sequencing of the exons and intron-exon boundaries of the OFD1 gene from two different European labs: 13/36 cases from the French lab; 13/95 from the Italian lab. All patients were screened by a semiquantitative fluorescent multiplex method (QFMPSF) and relative quantification by real-time PCR (qPCR). Six OFD1 genomic deletions (exon 5, exons 1-8, exons 1-14, exons 10-11, exons 13-23 and exon 17) were identified, accounting for 5% of OFDI patients and for 23% of patients with negative mutation screening by DNA sequencing. The association of DNA direct sequencing, QFMPSF and qPCR detects OFD1 alteration in up to 85% of patients with a phenotype suggestive of OFDI syndrome. Given the average percentage of large genomic rearrangements (5%), we suggest that dosage methods should be performed in addition to DNA direct sequencing analysis to exclude the involvement of the OFD1 transcript when there are genetic counselling issues., ((c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

Lesch-Nyhan (LN) disease is a severe X-linked recessive neurological disorder associated with a loss of hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyltransferase activity (HPRT, EC 2.4.2.8). We have studied the second example of a female patient with LN disease. The molecular basis of HPRT deficiency in this patient was a previously undescribed nucleotide substitution in exon 6. In this gene, designated HPRT PARIS, a single nucleotide substitution from T to G at base position 558 changed a tyrosine (TAT) to a codon STOP (TAG) (Y153X). Analysis of the mother revealed a normal sequence of the HPRT cDNA and demonstrated that this mutation arose through a de novo gametic event. Allele-specific amplification of exon 6 from the patient's genomic DNA confirmed the single base substitution and showed that the patient was heterozygous for this mutation. Investigation of X-chromosomal inactivation by comparison of methylation patterns of patient's DNA isolated from fibroblasts, T lymphocytes, and polymorphonuclear cells digested with PstI and BstXI, with or without HpaII, and hybridized with M27 beta probe indicated a nonrandom pattern of X-chromosomal inactivation in which there was preferential inactivation of the maternal allele. The data indicate that nonrandom X-inactivation leading to selective inactivation of the maternal gene and a de novo point mutation in the paternal gene were responsible for the lack of HPRT activity in this patient.