Deletions of fetal and adult muscle cDNA in Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy patients.

We have isolated a cDNA molecule from a human adult muscle cDNA library which is deleted in several Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients. Patient deletions have been used to map the exons across the Xp21 region of the short arm of the X chromosome. We demonstrate that a very mildly affected 61 year old patient is deleted for at least nine exons of the adult cDNA. We find no evidence for differential exon usage between adult and fetal muscle in this region of the gene. There must therefore be less essential domains of the protein structure which can be removed without complete loss of function. The sequence of 2.0 kb of the adult cDNA shows no homology to any previously described protein listed in the data banks although sequence comparison at the amino acid level suggests that the protein has a structure not dissimilar to rod structures of cytoskeletal proteins such as lamin and myosin. There are single nucleotide differences in the DNA sequence between the adult and fetal cDNAs which result in amino acid changes but none that would be predicted to change the structure of the protein dramatically.