Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

Genetics Society of America, G3, 2(6), p. 351-356, 2016

DOI: 10.1534/g3.115.024257

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Chromoanasynthetic Genomic Rearrangement Identified in a N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) Mutagenesis Screen in Caenorhabditis elegans

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Question mark in circle
Published version: policy unknown
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Chromoanasynthesis is a recently discovered phenomenon in humans with congenital diseases that is characterized by complex genomic rearrangements (CGRs) resulting from aberrant repair of catastrophic chromosomal damage. How these CGRs are induced is not known. Here we describe the structure and function of dpDp667, a causative CGR that emerged from a Caenorhabditis elegans dauer suppressor screen in which animals were treated with the point mutagen N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU). dpDp667 comprises nearly three megabases of sequence on the right arm of the X chromosome, contains three duplications and one triplication, and is devoid of deletions. Sequences from three out of the four breakpoint junctions in dpDp667 reveal microhomologies that are hallmarks of chromoanasynthetic CGRs. Our findings suggest that environmental insults and physiological processes that cause point mutations may give rise to chromoanasynthetic rearrangements associated with congenital disease. The relatively subtle phenotype of animals harboring dpDp667 suggests that the prevalence of CGRs in the genomes of mutant and/or phenotypically unremarkable animals may be grossly underestimated.