title: Direct detection of more than 50% of the Duchenne muscular dystrophy mutations by field inversion gels.
abstract: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked disorder affecting about 1 in 3,500 males. It is allelic with the milder Becker muscular dystrophy. The biochemical basis for both diseases is unknown and no effective treatment is available. Long-range physical mapping has shown that the DMD gene, localized in Xp21, is extremely large, exceeding 2 million base pairs. Until now, carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis has involved the use of linked restriction fragment length polymorphism markers which detect muscular dystrophy-associated deletions in about 10% of the cases. Field inversion gel electrophoresis (FIGE) allows the detection of structural rearrangements in 21 out of 39 of the DMD patients studied (54%), of which 14 (65%) were not detected by conventional methods. Large deletions seem to make up a much higher fraction of the DMD mutations than so far indicated by other methods. A region prone to deletion was located in the distal half of the gene. FIGE analysis could provide a valuable extension of information for carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis. The technique should be generally applicable to the study of diseases involving structural chromosomal rearrangements.
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations / Q000175:diagnosis; D025063:Chromosome Disorders; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D004586:Electrophoresis / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009136:Muscular Dystrophies / Q000235:genetics*; D009154:Mutation; D010375:Pedigree; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
chemical_list: D004247:DNA