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Institute for Molecular and Human Genetics, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007.
2
Division of Medical Genetics, Children's Hospital Los
Angeles, and Department of Pediatrics, University of Southern
California, School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90027.
a Address correspondence to this author at: Institute for Molecular and Human Genetics, 3800 Reservoir Rd. NW, Suite 4000, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007. Fax 202-784-1770; e-mail wonglj{at}gunet.georgetown.edu
| Abstract |
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Methods: DNA samples were selected from patients with known mtDNA mutations and patients suspected of mtDNA disorders without detectable mutations by routine analysis. Six regions of mtDNA were PCR amplified and analyzed by TTGE. Electrophoresis was carried out at 145 V with a constant temperature increment of 1.2 °C/h. Mutations were identified by direct sequencing of the PCR products and confirmed by PCR/allele-specific oligonucleotide or PCR/restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.
Results: In the experiments using patient samples containing
various amounts of mutant mtDNA, TTGE detected as little as 4% mutant
heteroplasmy and identified heteroplasmy in the presence of a
homoplasmic polymorphism. In 109 specimens with 15 different known
mutations, TTGE detected the presence of all mutations and
distinguished heteroplasmic mutations from homoplasmic polymorphisms.
When 11% of the mtDNA genome was analyzed by TTGE in 104 patients with
clinically suspected mitochondrial disorders, 7 cases of heteroplasmy
(
7%) were detected.
Conclusions: TTGE distinguishes heteroplasmic mutation from homoplasmic polymorphisms and appears to be a sensitive tool for detection of sequence variations and heteroplasmy in patients suspected of having mtDNA disorders.© 1999 American Association for Clinical Chemistry
| Introduction |
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Methods for the detection of point mutations as well as small insertions and deletions in clinical diagnostics have been reviewed recently (4). For unknown mutations, the gold standard is direct DNA sequencing, although it is not practical to routinely sequence the entire 16.6-kb mtDNA in all patients in which a mtDNA mutation is suspected. Commonly used screening methods include denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) (5), temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) (6), single-stranded conformation polymorphism, heteroduplex analysis (HA), chemical mismatch cleavage, enzyme mismatch cleavage (EMC), the protein truncation test, mismatch-binding protein, and cleavase fragment length polymorphism. The drawbacks of these methods include low sensitivity (single-stranded conformation polymorphism, HA), difficulty in casting gels (DGGE), synthesis of GC-clamped primers (DGGE, TGGE), limitation of detection to heterozygous or heteroplasmic mutations (HA, chemical mismatch cleavage, EMC), high background (chemical mismatch cleavage, EMC), lack of experience (cleavase fragment length polymorphism, EMC, mismatch-binding protein), and preferential elimination of unstable mutant transcripts (protein truncation test) (4).
mtDNA is highly polymorphic, and these single nucleotide polymorphisms
are usually homoplasmic. Thus, a unique requirement for the molecular
diagnosis of mtDNA disorders is the ability to detect heteroplasmic
mtDNA mutations and to distinguish them from homoplasmic sequence
variations. Temporal temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TTGE)
was first introduced by Yoshino et al. (7) in 1991. It is
based on the sequence-specific melting behavior of wild-type and
mutant DNA in a temporal temperature gradient that increases gradually
in a linear fashion over the length of the electrophoresis (Fig. 1
). TTGE differs from TGGE, which has been reported several
times, in that TGGE has a fixed temperature gradient from top to bottom
of the gel (6). In TTGE, the temperature at any location of
the entire gel is the same at any given time but changes with respect
to time (temporal temperature). Thus, it is easier to modulate the
temperature over time and provide a wider separation range that
increases sensitivity. TTGE, a modified high-throughput form
(parallel form) of DGGE, is much more robust and has a broader
separation range than DGGE. Thus, several fragments with different
melting behaviors can be analyzed on the same TTGE gel. TTGE does not
require the preparation of a chemical denaturant gradient gel and can
be performed without a GC clamp.
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Recently, TTGE has been shown to be a powerful tool for the detection of novel nuclear DNA mutations (8)(9)(10). In the study reported here, we first evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of TTGE in the analysis of previously identified mtDNA homoplasmic and heteroplasmic mutations. We then used TTGE to search for unknown mtDNA mutations. Our results demonstrate that heteroplasmic and homoplasmic mtDNA mutations can easily and effectively be detected and distinguished from one another by TTGE. Further testing and sequence confirmation of the mutations can be performed only on the heteroplasmic cases, greatly reducing the time and effort spent on the investigation of potentially benign polymorphic homoplasmic mutations.
| Materials and Methods |
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DNA was extracted from peripheral blood lymphocytes according to published procedures and stored at 4 °C (11). The presence of large deletions and 12 common point mutations were studied by standard Southern analysis and the PCR/allele-specific oligonucleotide method (3)(12). The percentage of heteroplasmic mutations was determined by the PCR/restriction fragment length polymorphism method as described previously (13). One hundred nine samples with 15 different known mutations and various percentages of heteroplasmy were chosen for the evaluation of potential utility of TTGE method.
From >2000 patients who tested negative for the routine analysis to exclude the presence of the most common heteroplasmic mutationsA3243G, A8344G, G8363A, T8993C, and T8993G (3)(14)104 patients were selected for TTGE analysis. The selection criteria were based on strong indications of mitochondrial disorders from other studies, such as clinical presentations, biochemical assays, histochemistry of muscle biopsies, and pedigree analysis.
Regions of mtDNA were PCR amplified, followed by TTGE analysis. Each
region was named based on the tRNAs located within it, although the
majority of each region consists of protein-coding genes. The primers
used in PCR amplification and the temperature range of the TTGE
analysis are listed in Table 1
. Each 100-µL PCR reaction mixture contained 1x Promega PCR
buffer (50 mmol/L KCl, 10 mmol/L Tris-HCl, pH 9.0, 1 mL/L Triton
X-100), 1.5 mmol/L MgCl2, 0.2 mmol/L each dNTP,
0.5 µmol/L each primer, 1 U of Taq DNA polymerase (Promega),
and 100 ng of genomic DNA. The reaction mixture was denatured at
94 °C for 4 min, followed by 30 cycles of 30 s of denaturation
at 94 °C, 45 s of reannealing at 55 °C, and 45 s of
extension at 72 °C. The PCR reaction was completed by a final
extension cycle at 72 °C for 4 min. PCR products were denatured at
95 °C for 30 s and slowly cooled to 45 °C for a period of 45
min at a rate of 1.1 °C/min. The reannealed homoduplexes and
heteroduplexes were kept at 4 °C until being loaded onto the gel.
TTGE was performed on a Bio-Rad D-Code apparatus. Two back-to-back 20
cm x 20 cm x 1 mm 6% polyacrylamide (acrylamide:bis ratio,
37.5:1, by weight) gels were prepared in 1.25x
Tris-acetate-EDTA buffer containing 6 mol/L urea. Denatured and
reannealed PCR product (5 µL) was loaded onto the gel. The
electrophoresis was carried out at 145 V for 67 h at a constant
temperature increment of ~1.2 °C/h as shown in Table 1
. The
temperature range was determined by computer simulation (MacMelt
software; Bio-Rad Laboratories). The gels were stained in 2 mg/L
ethidium bromide for 5 min and imaged with a digital CCD gel
documentation system. Confirmation of the nucleotide alteration was
performed by direct DNA sequencing of the PCR product, using a dye
terminator cycle sequencing kit (Perkin-Elmer) and an ABI 373A or 377
(Applied Biosystems) automated sequencer. To detect low-percentage
mutant mtDNA by sequencing, the homoduplex mutant or the heteroduplex
bands were excised from the TTGE gel and PCR amplified before sequence
analysis. Once the mutation was identified by sequencing, a second
method such as PCR/allele-specific oligonucleotide dot blot or
PCR/restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was used to
confirm the status of homoplasmy or heteroplasmy
(13)(14).
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| Results |
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To further establish the utility of TTGE, 109 samples with 15 different
known mutations in 6 different regions of mtDNA were analyzed. The
percentage of mutant mtDNA in the samples with heteroplasmy varied from
4% to 95%. The results summarized in Table 2
A demonstrate that every one of these known mutations was
detected and correctly identified as either homoplasmic or
heteroplasmic. Each mutation showed a distinct pattern on TTGE that is
reproducible on repeat analysis.
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TTGE was also applied to detect unknown mutations in a patient population as described in Materials and Methods. In each of these 104 cases, a mitochondrial disorder was suspected to various degrees by the referring clinician. All samples had tested negative for large deletions and common point mutations. Three regions, the L, K, and WANCY regions, representing ~11% of the entire mitochondrial genome were screened by TTGE. Table 2B summarizes the results. Homoplasmic sequence variations (shifted single band) was detected in 11 patients. Seven samples repetitively showed multiple bands, suggesting the presence of heteroplasmy.
Outside the hypervariable D-loop region, heteroplasmy is believed to be rare and is more likely to be associated with disease. Thus, heteroplasmy should occur at a higher frequency in a patient population than in the general population. This hypothesis was tested by the analysis of DNA samples from 50 individuals with phenylketonuria, a disorder unrelated to mtDNA mutations. All 50 samples showed a single band in each of the previous three different mtDNA regions (Table 2B), demonstrating the absence of heteroplasmy. Two samples did show a shifted single band, a homoplasmic sequence variation pattern, which is consistent with the known high frequency of polymorphisms in mtDNA. However, multiple banding patterns, which were detected in 7% of the patients when 11% of the mtDNA regions were analyzed, were not detected in any of the 50 phenylketonuria patients. These data suggest that heteroplasmic mtDNA mutations are rare in controls and, when present, are likely disease causing.
Some of our TTGE results for the K and WANCY regions in the patient
population are shown in Fig. 4
. Each heteroplasmic mutation (Fig. 4
, lanes 26) demonstrates
a distinct TTGE pattern. Theoretically, a single heteroplasmic mutation
in the DNA fragment to be analyzed would produce four bands on TTGE.
However, depending on the melting behavior of the mutant DNA fragment,
the location of the mutation in the fragment, and the TTGE
conditions, it is possible to have three or two bands as shown
in Fig. 4
. To identify the mutations, mutant bands were excised
from the TTGE gel, PCR amplified, and sequenced. The samples in lanes
36 were identified as having the heteroplasmic mutations of T8300C,
nt8042del AT, C5499T, and A5951G, respectively. The mutations were
further confirmed by either PCR/allele-specific oligonucleotide or
PCR/restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Other
heteroplasmic variations detected by TTGE are being confirmed by
sequencing analysis. The nt8042del AT mutation in the gene encoding the
cytochrome C oxidase II subunit produces a truncated protein that is 68
amino acids shorter than normal. This mutation is thus predicted to be
detrimental. The quantification of the heteroplasmy and the biochemical
and clinical significance of these novel mutations will be described
elsewhere.
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| Discussion |
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Heteroplasmy is characteristic of pathogenic mtDNA mutations. An apparent TTGE heteroplasmic pattern may, however, be the result of blood transfusion or bone marrow transplantation. Therefore, analysis of a second blood specimen or a tissue specimen other than blood is necessary to confirm the finding.
There are two major goals in molecular diagnosis of mtDNA disorders. The first is to detect any sequence variations at any position of the mtDNA genome. The second is to determine whether the sequence variation is homoplasmic or heteroplasmic. Our data demonstrate that TTGE accomplishes both of these goals; it is both sensitive and specific in the detection of mtDNA heteroplasmy and is more cost-effective because the fragment size is much larger than those used in single-stranded conformation polymorphism, HA, or DGGE. Although it is not possible to determine the false-negative rate across the mtDNA at this time, all of 104 known mutations were correctly detected by this method. A mutation could be detected as close as 29 nucleotides from the end of a fragment. At the present configuration, as many as 50 samples can be analyzed simultaneously for fragments up to 1 kb in length, and the entire procedure can be completed within 1 working day.
By screening for the presence of heteroplasmy and ignoring the frequent homoplasmic polymorphisms, TTGE is suitable for the mutational screening of the entire mitochondrial genome in large patient populations. The existence of a cost-effective screening assay for mtDNA mutations would have high utility considering the high variability in the clinical presentation of these disorders. As an example of the potential usefulness of such screening assay, in this study, 7 specimens with heteroplasmy were identified from 104 patients by scanning only 11% of the mitochondrial genome. Our data suggest that mtDNA heteroplasmy may be more common than previously reported. As a heteroplasmy screening assay, TTGE may also be a suitable screening technique for other applications such as in evolutionary studies and forensics.
| Footnotes |
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| References |
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The following articles in journals at HighWire Press have cited this article:
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