Filamin (FLN1), plexin (SEX), major palmitoylated protein p55 (MPP1), and von-Hippel Lindau binding protein (VBP1) are not involved in incontinentia pigmenti type 2

Presence of filamin in the astrocytic inclusions of Aicardi syndrome

Aicardi syndrome affects only females and has been hypothesized to be an X-linked dominant male-lethal disorder. Because no familial cases can be studied for genetic linkage analysis, the mutated gene has remained elusive. With the goal of selecting genes for mutation analysis by a functional candidate approach, a detailed pathologic analysis of two brains from deceased Aicardi syndrome patients was performed. The presence of micrencephaly, absent or hypoplastic corpus callosum, polymicrogyria, heterotopia, ventriculomegaly, intracerebral cyst, and intracytoplasmic eosinophilic inclusions was confirmed in glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive astrocytes in the cortex and heterotopias, but not in white matter. The inclusions demonstrated strong immunolabeling with antibodies to filamin and vimentin but weak labeling with antibodies to proteins S100 and microtubule-associated protein 1. These findings suggested that an underlying defect in the cytoskeleton, which involves filamin, may cause this condition. Because the filamin A gene in Xq28 is mutated in another disorder with heterotopia, familial bilateral periventricular heterotopia, mutation analysis of filamin A in Aicardi syndrome patients was pursued. No mutations were found, and the full-length protein was expressed in both brain samples. Future studies will focus on investigation of X-linked genes that may affect function of filamin or other cytoskeletal proteins.

Physical and genetic characterization reveals a pseudogene, an evolutionary junction, and unstable loci in distal Xq28

A large portion of human Xq28 has been completely characterized but the interval between G6PD and Xqter has remained poorly understood. Because of a lack of stable, high-density clone coverage in this region, we constructed a 1.6-Mb bacterial and P1 artificial chromosome (BAC and PAC, respectively) contig to expedite mapping, structural and evolutionary analysis, and sequencing. The contig helped to reposition previously mismapped genes and to characterize the XAP135 pseudogene near the int22h-2 repeat. BAC clones containing the distal int22h repeats also demonstrated spontaneous rearrangements and sparse coverage, which suggested that they were unstable. Because the int22h repeats are involved in genetic diseases, we examined them in great apes to see if they have always been unstable. Differences in copy number among the apes, due to duplications and deletions, indicated that they have been unstable throughout their evolution. Taking another approach toward understanding the genomic nature of distal Xq28, we examined the homologous mouse region and found an evolutionary junction near the distal int22h loci that separated the human distal Xq28 region into two segments on the mouse X chromosome. Finally, haplotype analysis showed that a segment within Xq28 has resisted excessive interchromosomal exchange through great ape evolution, potentially accounting for the linkage disequilibrium recently reported in this region. Collectively, these data highlight some interesting features of the genomic sequence in Xq28 and will be useful for positional cloning efforts, mouse mutagenesis studies, and further evolutionary analyses.