Paternal reciprocal translocation t(11;16)(p13;q24.3) in a Silver-Russel syndrome patient

We describe a 7-month-old male child with Silver-Russel syndrome (SRS) phenotype, presented with two major clinical features: low birth weight, short stature, and minor features, such as macrocephaly, clinodactyly, essential for the diagnosis of SRS. Routine cytogenetic studies with GTG-banding showed 46,XY,t(11;16)(p13;q24.3). Fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) with single copy probes BAC (11p13) and PAC (16q24.3), showed a reciprocal translocation. Chromosomal analysis of the mother was normal and the phenotypically normal father had apparently identical translocation t(11;16)(p13;q24.3). The disruption of growth factor genes at 11p and 16q breakpoint regions due to reciprocal translocation in the father might have caused SRS phenotype in the child.     

An azoospermic male with reciprocal translocation t(1;15)(q11;p11)

Summary The authors report on a case of 1;15 translocation and request contact with any colleagues who have observed similar cases.     

Balanced familial translocation t(5;19)(q12;p or q11) with phenotypical abnormalities in a girl.

Human diploid fibroblasts cultured in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's medium (DME) were exposed to different concentrations of 15 antibiotics to determine the limiting toxic concentration. The number of cells surviving after antibiotic treatment was given as the index of toxicity. No visible chromosomal damage could be detected when half the maximal toxic concentration was applied. The maximum limiting concentration was found to be the same for both the preconfluent and postconfluent phases.     

Unbalanced 1q whole-arm translocation resulting in der(14)t(1;14)(q11-12;p11) in myelodysplastic syndrome

Unbalanced whole-arm translocations (WATs) of the long arm of chromosome 1, resulting in complete trisomy 1q, are chromosomal abnormalities detectable in both solid tumors and hematologic neoplasms. Among the WATs of 1q to acrocentric chromosomes, a few patients with der(1;15) described as a dicentric chromosome have been reported so far, whereas cases of der(1;14) are much rarer. We report on a case of der(1;14) detected as single anomaly in a patient with myelodysplastic syndrome. The aim of our work was to investigate the breakpoints of the (1;14) translocation leading to the der(1;14). Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) experiments have been performed on chromosome preparations from bone marrow aspirate, using specific centromeric probes of both chromosomes, as well as a probe mapping to 1q11 band. FISH results showed that in our patient the derivative chromosome was monocentric with a unique centromere derived from chromosome 14. The breakpoints of the translocation were located in the short arm of chromosome 14 and in the long arm of chromosome 1, between the alphoid D1Z5 and the satellite II domains. The 1q breakpoint was within the pericentromeric region of chromosome 1, which is notoriously an unstable chromosomal region, involved in different chromosomal rearrangements.     

Complex translocation t(9;21)(9;22)(q12p13)(q12q11) in the family of a child with 9p trisomy syndrome

Summary Leukocyte peroxidase activity was estimated in 5 patients with the juvenile form of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (Spielmeyer-Vogt's disease) and in 15 healthy controls. In contradiction to recent reports normal activity of p-phenylene diamine mediated peroxidase was found in the patients. The possible role of contamination of the white cell preparation with hemoglobin is discussed.     

47,XY,+der(11;22)(q23;q12) following balanced translocation t(11;22)(q23;q12)mat

Summary Report of a supernumerary extra chromosome der(11;22)(q23; q12) resulting from a balanced translocation in the mother. The propositus suffers from mental deficiency, deafness and extreme muscular weakness and exhibits cleft palate, a labial lymphangioma and an atrial septum defect. Since the features of partial trisomy 11q23 frequently associated with a translocation t(11q;22q) bear similarities with the cases of so called trisomy 22 one might conjecture that some of these observations are in fact products of translocations including partial 11q.     

A maternal inherited translocation t(1;22)(q11;p11) in two infertile brothers

We report two infertile brothers presenting with azoospermia and oligozoospermia. Cytogenetic studies using G-banding and FISH analysis on lymphocyte cultures revealed an autosomal balanced reciprocal translocation t(1;22)(q11;p11) in both males. The same translocation was found in their mother, but not in a third fertile brother and maternal uncle suggesting that this translocation might compromise the male but not the female gametogenesis in this family.     

Trisomy 4q26--4qter by t(4;18)(q26;q23)mat translocation]

Partial trisomy 4q and perhaps monosomy 8qter was observed in a malformed girl, due to malsegregation of a t(4;18)(q26;q23)mat. Her phenotype was in agreement with the partial trisomy 4q syndrome, and she died 5 months after birth.     

Familial unbalanced translocation t(8;15)(p23.3;q11) with uniparental disomy in Angelman syndrome

A 29-year-old male with Angelman syndrome and an unbalanced reciprocal translocation, 45,XY,-8,-15,+der(8),t(8;15)(p23.3;q11)pat, was evaluated with DNA studies. These showed the underlying mechanism to be paternal uniparental disomy. This is the second case reported of Angelman syndrome that has resulted from a familial unbalanced reciprocal translocation.     

Partial trisomy 4q: Two cases resulting from a familial translocation t(4;18)(q27;p11)

Summary Partial trisomy of the long arm of chromosome 4 was observed in two related patients, a child aged 2 years and a woman aged 42. Cytogenetic investigation revealed that their chromosome anomalies were due to segregation of a familial balanced translocation t(4;18)(q27;p11). Some clinical and cytogenetic considerations are noted.     

Familial translocation t(1p-;21q+) associated with Down's syndrome

Summary Familial occurrence of 1/21 translocation in connection with trisomy 21 was described. The possibilities of inheritance of further chromosome rearrangements arising during the gametogenesis of persons with this translocation were considered.     

Familial aniridia and translocation t(4;11)(q22;p13) without Wilms' tumor

A family with dominantly inherited aniridia in three generations is presented. All three patients had an apparently balanced chromosome translocation t(4;11)(q22;p13). The patients were otherwise clinically normal and without signs of Wilms' tumor; their erythrocyte catalase activities were within the normal range. We suggest that in this family aniridia is caused either by a submicroscopic deletion at the translocation breakpoint 11p13 or by a position effect on the same chromosome segment. Furthermore, the loci for aniridia and Wilms' tumor susceptibility are separate. It follows that the WAGR complex is caused by a mutation of more than one gene located at 11p13. The theoretical implications of a presumably defective allele causing a mendelian dominant phenotype are discussed.     

Trisomy 9p in a girl whose mother has a translocation t(9;20)(q12;p13)

Summary R banding of the fine structure of the chromatids has enabled us to study a new case of trisomy for the short arm of chromosome 9. The syndrome+9p was due to nondisjunction of a maternal translocation t(9;20)(q12;p13).     

Partial trisomy 2q and familial translocation t(2;18)(q31;p11)

Summary This report describes a malformed infant with distal 2q trisomy/ distal 18p monosomy due to adjacent segregation of a familial t(2;18). The rearrangement was present in four generations, and linkage studies were performed.     

First trimester abortions associated with a translocation t(1;20)(p36;p11)

Summary A large family with a high rate of spontaneous abortions was found also to have a high incidence of a reciprocal translocation.     

Molecular analysis of a reciprocal translocation t(5;11)(q11;p13) in a WAGR patient

Summary Most patients with the complex association aniridia — predisposition to Wilms' tumor (WAGR syndrome) present with a de novo constitutional deletion of band 11p13. We report a patient with WAGR syndrome and a reciprocal translocation between chromosomes 5 and 11 t(5;11)(q11;p13). High resolution banding cytogenetic analysis and molecular characterization using 11p13 DNA markers showed a tiny deletion encompassing the gene for CAT but sparing the gene for FSHB. This suggests that syndromes associated with apparently balanced translocations may be due to undetectable loss of material at the breakpoint(s) rather than to breakage in the gene itself.     

Interchange trisomy 21 by t(1;21)(p22;q22)mat

Interchange trisomy 21 by t(1:21)(p22:q22)mat: Interchange trisomy 21 by t(1;21)(p22;q22)mat was identified in a sporadic patient with Down syndrome. With a 21q22 specific probe, we observed signals on both normal 21 chromosomes and on the der. We reviewed the 23 published reports of families with reciprocal translocations leading to viable offspring with interchange trisomy 21. The breakpoints in chromosome 21 were mainly located in 21q (19/24 instances, including the present report) and in 19/23 cases the other chromosome involved in the translocation was (pairs 1-12). The underlying 3:1 segregation occurred mainly in carrier mothers; only one patient presented a de novo imbalance and in another case the father was the carrier. In addition, there were 4 instances of concurrence with another unbalanced segregation (adjacent-1 or tertiary trisomy) and 3 families with recurrence of interchange trisomy 21. The mean age of 14 female carriers at birth of interchange trisomy 21 offspring (24.8 yr) was lower that the mean (28.3 yr) found in a larger sample of mothers of unbalanced offspring due to 3:1 segregation (mostly tertiary trisomics) and was not increased with respect to the general population average. Overall, these data agree with previous estimates regarding recurrence risk (9-15%) and abortion rate (about 28%) in female carriers ascertained through an interchange trisomic 21 child.     

Fine mapping of the constitutional translocation t(11;22)(q23;q11)

Translocation t(11;22)(q23;q11) is the most common constitutional reciprocal translocation in man. Balanced carriers are phenotypically normal, except for decreased fertility, an increased spontaneous abortion rate and a possible predisposition to breast cancer in some families. Here, we report the high resolution mapping of the t(11;22)(q23;q11) breakpoint. We have localised the breakpoint, by using fluorescence in situ hybidisation (FISH) walking, to a region between D11S1340 and WI-8564 on chromosome 11, and D22S134 and D22S264 on chromosome 22. We report the isolation of a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clone spanning the breakpoint in 11q23. We have narrowed down the breakpoint to an 80-kb sequenced region on chromosome 11 and FISH analysis has revealed a variation of the breakpoint position between patients. In 22q11, we have sequenced two BACs (BAC2280L11 and BAC41C4) apparently mapping to the region; these contain low copy repeats (LCRs). Southern blot analysis with probes from BAC2280L11 has revealed different patterns between normal controls and translocation carriers, indicating that sequences similar/identical to these probes flank the translocation breakpoint. The occurrence of LCRs has previously been associated with genomic instability and "unclonable" regions. Hence, the presence of such repeats renders standard translocation breakpoint cloning techniques ineffective. Thus, we have used high resolution fiber-FISH to study this region in normal and translocation cases by using probes from 22q11, LCRs and 11q23. We demonstrate that the LCR containing the gap in 22q11 is probably substantially larger than the previous estimates of 100 kb. Using fiber-FISH, we have localised the breakpoint in 22q11 to approximately 20-40 kb from the centromeric border of the LCR (i.e. the telomeric end of AC006547) and have confirmed the breakpoint position on 11q23.