Roles of the Bloom's syndrome helicase in the maintenance of genome stability.

The RecQ family of DNA helicases is highly conserved in evolution from bacteria to humans. Of the five known human RecQ family members, three (BLM, WRN and RECQ4, which cause Bloom's syndrome, Werner's syndrome and Rothmund-Thomson syndrome respectively) are mutated in distinct clinical disorders associated with cancer predisposition and/or premature aging. BLM forms part of a multienzyme complex including topoisomerase IIIalpha, replication protein A and a newly identified factor called BLAP75. Together, these proteins play a role in the resolution of DNA structures that arise during the process of homologous recombination repair. In the absence of BLM, cells show genomic instability and a high incidence of sister-chromatid exchanges. In addition to a DNA structure-specific helicase activity, BLM also catalyses Holliday-junction branch migration and the annealing of complementary single-stranded DNA molecules.

A simple and efficient method for PCR amplifiable DNA extraction from ancient bones.

A simple and effective modified ethanol precipitation-based protocol is described for the preparation of DNA from ancient human bones. This method is fast and requires neither hazardous chemicals nor special devices. After the powdering and incubating of the bone samples Dextran Blue was added as a carrier for removing the PCR inhibitors with selective ethanol precipitation. This method could eliminate the time-consuming separate decalcification step, dialysis, application of centrifugation-driven microconcentrators and the second consecutive PCR amplification. The efficiency of this procedure was demonstrated on ten 500-1200-year-old human bones from four different Hungarian burial sites. A mitochondrial specific primer pair was used to obtain sequence information from the purified ancient DNA. The PCR amplification, after our DNA extraction protocol, was successful from each of the 10 bone samples investigated. The results demonstrate that extraction of DNA from ancient bone samples with this new approach increases the success rate of PCR amplification.

Mammalian S-phase checkpoint integrity is dependent on transformation status and purine deoxyribonucleosides.

In eukaryotic cells arrested in S-phase, checkpoint controls normally restrain mitosis until after replication. We have identified an array of previously unsuspected factors that modulate this restraint, using transformed hamster cells in which cycle controls are known to be altered in S-phase arrest. Arrested cells accumulate cyclin B, the regulatory partner of the mitotic p34(cdc2) kinase, which is normally not abundant until late G(2) phase; treatment of arrested cells with caffeine produces rapid S-phase condensation. We show here that such S-phase checkpoint slippage, as visualised through caffeine-dependent S-phase condensation, correlates with rodent origin and transformed status, is opposed by reverse transformation, and is favoured by c-src and opposed by wnt1 overexpression. Slippage is also dependent on a prolonged replicative arrest, and is favoured by arrest with hydroxyurea, which inhibits ribonucleotide reductase. This last is a key enzyme in deoxyribonucleotide synthesis, recently identified as a determinant of malignancy. Addition of deoxyribonucleosides shows that rapid S-phase condensation is suppressed by a novel checkpoint mechanism: purine (but not pyrimidine) deoxyribonucleosides, like reverse transformation, suppress cyclin B/p34(cdc2) activation by caffeine, but not cyclin B accumulation. Thus, ribonucleotide reductase has an unexpectedly complex role in mammalian cell cycle regulation: not only is it regulated in response to cycle progression, but its products can also reciprocally influence cell cycle control kinase activation.

Chemical reverse transformation of CHO-K1 cells induces changes in expression of a candidate tumour suppressor and of a gene not previously characterised as transformation related.

Chemical reverse transformation of CHO-K1 and other cells is a well-established phenomenon, in which oncogenically transformed cells re-acquire fibroblastoid morphology, contact inhibition and anchorage-dependent growth, in response to cyclic AMP and other agents. A limited number of changes in gene transcription and enzyme activity have been demonstrated to coincide with these morphological and physiological changes. We have used a partial differential display to identify four genes that are transcriptionally modulated in reverse transformation. One of these, encoding ribosomal protein S18, is transcriptionally suppressed, probably as a result of the detransforming process. Three others are transcriptionally activated. One has homology to NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase chain 4 protein, and is also probably changed as a result of the detransforming process. Another is homologous to a human sequence which encodes a 27 kDa protein, p27(BBP/eIF6), that is involved in the biogenesis of 60S ribosomal subunit, and in cell lines of epithelial origin binds to beta integrin. This has not previously been described as transformation-related, and could have a causative role in reverse transformation. The third has homology, with transcriptional or processing variations, to a human genomic sequence, a positional candidate for a tumour suppressor gene, encoding the Krit1 protein which interacts with the Ras-family GTPase Krev-1.

Carrier detection by microsatellite analysis of Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy in Hungarian families.

Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies are among the most severe and frequent inherited disorders. Being still incurable, medical treatment is concentrated on the carrier diagnosis of the members of the affected families. Here we report the results of the studies of 151 members of 41 Hungarian families, obtained with multiplex PCR amplification of 18 exons as well as the muscle specific promoter region, and haplotype analysis of two polymorphic (CA)n repeat microsatellite loci in introns 45 and 49 of the dystrophin gene. The analysis of 15 deletion-type families revealed a frequency of new mutations not differing significantly from that in the other regions of Europe. We also compared the allele distributions of the two microsatellites in randomly selected normal individuals and affected family members. The allele distribution of STRP45 shows interesting differences between the two populations.