Prader-willi And Angelman Flashcards
What are imprinted genes and how many known are there?
Expressed from only one parental chromosome - tissue specific or in all cells
~80 known
Give another example of imprinted disorders
Beckwith-Widemann syndrome (11p15) and silver Russel syndrome (11p15)
How do imprinting control elements/imprinting centres (IC) work?
They are cis acting and can act over a long distance
Control expression of a cluster of imprinted genes
Are maternally and paternally imprinted genes specific to on parental chromosome?
Yes, OR expression can be specific to one parental chromosome
What epigenetic modification usually creates imprinting?
Methylation of cytosine in CpG dinucleotides
What happens methylation status during germ cell formation?
Methylation is maintained throughout development and re-set during germ cell formation to develop new sex-specific imprint
PWAS region?
15q11-q13
What genes are only expressed from the maternal chromosome in the brain?
UBE3A and ATP10C
What genes are only expressed from the paternal chromosome?
SNURF-SNRPN, NDN,MAGEL2& MKRN3 all others are snoRNAs
Describe SNORD116&115
116 is Cluster of 29 copies and 115 is a cluster of 48 copies
Methylation status of paternal 15q11-13?
Generally unmethylated
True or false : there is a single promoter that controls all the protein coding genes of paternal 15q11-13
False: the protein coding genes have their own promotors
Describe transcription of SNURF-SRPN
Has several tissue specific promotors and alternatively spliced transcripts including one v.long brain specific transcript with UBE3A-AS
Why is paternal ube3a not expressed in the brain?
V. Long brain specific spur-SNrpn with ube3a at end
UBE3A is an antisense rna at the end of the UBE3A gene that prevents UBE3A expression in cis
Maternal allele methylation?
CpG islands associated with paternally expressed protein coding genes are methylated
UBE3A is expressed
How does methylation effect transcription?
Methylation of promoter regions prevents transcription factor binding and assembly of the transcription machinery
Where is the maternal and paternal IC?
Paternal IC is at the 5’ end of SNURf-SNRPN
Maternal IC is about 35kb upstream of the male/pws IC
What is the proposed method of methylation during oogenesis and spermatogenesis?
During oogenesis factors bind to the maternal IC and promote methylation of the paternal IC which spreads to the CpG islands in the region
During spermatogenesis maternal factors not there so paternal IC remains unmethylated
Cause and frequency of PWS?
Loss f the paternal contribution from 15q11-q13
1 in 15-20,000
Features of PWS?
Mild to moderate mental retardation Hypotonia Feeding problems in early life Hyerphagia and obesity in later development Male hypogonadism Short stature Small hands and feet
Cause and frequency of AS?
Loss of maternal contribution of 15q11-13
1 in 15-20,000
Clinical features of angelman?
Severe mental retardation Lack of speech Hyperactivity Happy demenanour and inappropriate laughter Gait ataxia Seizures Microcephaly