title: Functional analysis of a new splice site mutation, c.605-3C>A, in the cystinuria gene SLC7A9 leading to exon skipping.
abstract: Cystinuria is a hereditary disorder of cystine and dibasic amino acid transport across the luminal membrane of renal tubules and intestine, resulting in recurrent nephrolithiasis. While mutations in the SLC3A1 gene cause type I cystinuria, patients with non-type I cystinuria carry mutations in the SLC7A9 gene. Up to now, more than 80 mutations in SLC3A1 and 50 in SLC7A9 have been reported in the literature. While deletions, duplications, and truncating mutations can often unambiguously classified to be pathogenic, the functional relevance of base pair substitutions is often difficult to predict. To determine the functional relevance of a new splice site mutation in intron 5 of SLC7A9, c.605-3C>A, we transfected COS7 cells with expression constructs containing the wild-type and mutant allele, respectively. cDNAs derived from the resulting SLC7A9 mRNAs were sequenced. By this approach we could demonstrate that the mutant allele c.605-3A causes exon skipping and therefore represents a splice site mutation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first splice site mutation in a cystinuria gene with a proven functional consequence.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital, Technical University of Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Christa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lahme
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zerres
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eggermann
mesh_terms: D026923:Amino Acid Transport Systems, Basic / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D019556:COS Cells; D003555:Cystinuria / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D012326:RNA Splicing; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D026923:Amino Acid Transport Systems, Basic; C499489:SLC7A9 protein, human