title: Analysis of eighteen deletion breakpoints in the parkin gene.
abstract: Parkin mutations are responsible for the pathogenesis of autosomal-recessive juvenile parkinsonism (AR-JP). On initial screening of Japanese patients with AR-JP, we had found that approximately half of the parkin mutations are deletions occurring between exons 2 and 5, forming a deletion hot spot. In this study, we investigated the deletion breakpoints of the parkin mutations in 22 families with AR-JP and examined the possible association between these deletion events and meiotic recombinations. We identified 18 deletion breakpoints at the DNA nucleotide sequence level. Almost all these deletions were different, indicating that the deletion hot spot was generated by recurrent but independent events. We found no association between the deletions and specific DNA elements. Recent copy number variation (CNV) data from various ethnic groups showed that the deletion hot spot is overlapped by a highly polymorphic CNV region, indicating that the recurrent deletion mutation or CNV is observable worldwide. By comparing Marshfield and deCODE linkage maps, we found that the parkin deletion hot spot may be associated with a meiotic recombination hot spot, although such association was not found on comparison with recent high-resolution genetic maps generated from the International HapMap project. Here, we discuss the possible mechanisms for deletion hot spot formation and its effects on human genomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan.
authors.forename: Shuichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Asakawa
authors.forename: Nobutaka
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hattori
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Yoshiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Shinsei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Minoshima
authors.forename: Yoshikuni
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mizuno
authors.forename: Nobuyoshi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shimizu
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D018628:Gene Dosage; D006801:Humans; D008540:Meiosis / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020734:Parkinsonian Disorders / Q000235:genetics*; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases; C111567:parkin protein