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Molecular and Cellular Biology, June 1999, p. 4153-4158, Vol. 19, No. 6
0270-7306/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Increased Instability of Human CTG Repeat Tracts on Yeast Artificial Chromosomes during Gametogenesis

Haim Cohen,1 Dorothy D. Sears,2 Drora Zenvirth,1 Philip Hieter,2,dagger and Giora Simchen1,*

Department of Genetics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel,1 and Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 212052

Received 25 November 1998/Returned for modification 6 January 1999/Accepted 15 March 1999

Expansion of trinucleotide repeat tracts has been shown to be associated with numerous human diseases. The mechanism and timing of the expansion events are poorly understood, however. We show that CTG repeats, associated with the human DMPK gene and implanted in two homologous yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs), are very unstable. The instability is 6 to 10 times more pronounced in meiosis than during mitotic division. The influence of meiosis on instability is 4.4 times greater when the second YAC with a repeat tract is not present. Most of the changes we observed in trinucleotide repeat tracts are large contractions of 21 to 50 repeats. The orientation of the insert with the repeats has no effect on the frequency and distribution of the contractions. In our experiments, expansions were found almost exclusively during gametogenesis. Genetic analysis of segregating markers among meiotic progeny excluded unequal crossover as the mechanism for instability. These unique patterns have novel implications for possible mechanisms of repeat instability.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Genetics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. Phone: 972-2-658-5106. Fax: 972-2-658-6975. E-mail: simchen{at}vms.huji.ac.il.

dagger Present address: Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 4H4, Canada.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, June 1999, p. 4153-4158, Vol. 19, No. 6
0270-7306/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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