Differential Gene Expression in Angelman syndrome deletion vs. int dup(15) Human Lymphocytes

Angelman syndrome (AS) and interstitial duplication 15q autism (int dup(15)) are reciprocal genomic disorders caused by maternal deletion or duplication of the 15q11.2-q13 region. While AS is caused by maternal loss of 15q and maternal duplications of 15q can cause autism implicating the maternally expressed UBE3A gene in these phenotypes. We investigated chromatin and gene expression changes in blood and cell lines from three int dup(15) and three reciprocal AS deletion subjects to identify global genomic and gene expression changes that may influence both the AS and autism phenotypes. Using formaldehyde-assisted isolation of regulatory elements (FAIRE) we identified 1104 regions of differential open chromatin in AS deletion and 2344 regions int dup(15) indicating changes in chromatin could influence gene expression in these regions. Microarray analysis revealed 1225 genes that were elevated in AS deletion vs int dup(15) and 976 genes that were elevated in int dup(15) vs AS deletion PBMC (pvalue<0.05). Significant differences in expression were found for genes at the 15q locus like UBE3A, ATP10A and HERC2. A larger set of genes involved in chromatin remodeling, DNA repair and neurogenesis were found, at FAIRE peaks in AS deletion samples but had increased transcription in int dup(15) samples. There was a significant enhancement for genes with FOXP1 binding sites in the int dup(15) gene set and elevated FOXP1 protein could be detected in the nucleus of int dup(15) as compared to AS deletion cell lines. This analysis provides the first insights into transcriptional changes which may unveil new sets of genes and pathways contributing to both AS and autism pathogenesis.

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