Aicardi-Goutières syndrome: monogenic recessive disease, genetically heterogeneous disease, or multifactorial disease?

Aicardi-Goutières syndrome (AGS) is a severe progressive familial encephalopathy, which is usually diagnosed shortly after birth. Using the principle of homozygosity mapping, genome-wide screening of five consanguineous families was performed to search for a homozygous region shared by all affected individuals. A total of 364 markers with an average spacing of 9.9 cM were genotyped, but no homozygous region common to all affected individuals could be found. Regions of homozygosity in affected sibs could only be identified within each family individually. This may reflect genetic heterogeneity, possibly related to clinical heterogeneity, since several syndromes are clinically difficult to distinguish from AGS. Involvement of a small number of genes and/or of an external factor, such as infection, may also explain the absence of a homozygous region common to all affected individuals.

Analysis of major repetitive DNA sequences in the dog (Canis familiaris) genome

A systematic screening and analysis of repeated DNA sequences from a dog genomic library composed of small DNA inserts enabled us to characterize abundant canine repetitive DNA families. Four main families were identified: i) a group of highly repeated tRNA-derived short interspersed repetitive DNA elements (tRNA-SINEs); ii) another type of SINE-like element that was mainly found inserted into long interspersed repetitive elements (LINEs); iii) LINEs of the L1 type; and iv) satellite or satellite-like DNA. Surprisingly, no SINEs derived from 7SL RNA were found in the dog genome. These data should help in the analysis of canine DNA sequences and in the design of canine genome mapping reagents.