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Cytogenetic and immuno-FISH analysis of the 4q subtelomeric region, which is associated with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy

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Abstract

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is caused by the shortening of a copy-number polymorphic array of 3.3 kb repeats (D4Z4) at one allelic 4q35.2 region. How this contraction of a subtelomeric tandem array causes FSHD is unknown but indirect evidence suggests that a short array has a cis effect on a distant gene or genes. It was hypothesized that the length of the D4Z4 array determines whether or not the array and a large proximal region are heterochromatic and thereby controls gene expression in cis. To test this, we used fluorescence in situ hybridization probes with FSHD and control myoblasts to characterize the distal portion of 4q35.2 with respect to the following: intense staining with the chromatin dye 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole; association with constitutively heterochromatic foci; extent of binding of heterochromatin protein 1α; histone H3 methylation at lysine 9 and lysine 4; histone H4 lysine 8 acetylation; and replication timing within S-phase. Our results indicate that 4q35.2 does not resemble constitutive heterochromatin in FSHD or control myoblasts. Furthermore, in these analyses, the allelic 4q35.2 regions of FSHD myoblasts did not behave differently than those of control myoblasts. Other models for how D4Z4 array contraction causes long-distance regulation of gene expression in cis need to be tested.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Luis Marrero for help with the deconvolution microscope and Drs. Guanchao Jiang, Petra G. van Overveld, and Silvere van der Maarel for help with characterizing the copy numbers of samples. This research was supported in part by NIH Grant R21 AR48315, FSH Society Grant FSHS-MB-06, and MDA Grant 3551.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Genetics Program and Department of Biochemistry, Tulane Medical School, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA

    Fan Yang, Chunbo Shao & Melanie Ehrlich

  2. Department of Neurology, University of Mississippi Medical School, Jackson, MS 39216, USA

    Vettaikorumakankav Vedanarayanan

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  1. Fan Yang
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  2. Chunbo Shao
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Correspondence to Melanie Ehrlich.

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Communicated by S. Gerbi

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Yang, F., Shao, C., Vedanarayanan, V. et al. Cytogenetic and immuno-FISH analysis of the 4q subtelomeric region, which is associated with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. Chromosoma 112, 350–359 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00412-004-0280-x

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