Direct gene dosage determination in patients with unbalanced chromosomal aberrations using cloned DNA sequences. Application to the regional assignment of the gene for alpha 2(I) procollagen (COLIA2).

We describe a new method of direct gene dosage determination in patients with unbalanced chromosomal aberrations using cloned DNA sequences: the intensity of the signal obtained by hybridization of the radioactive probe to the corresponding DNA fragments can be compared with the intensity of the DNA fragments that hybridize with a nonsyntenic probe used as an internal control. This has been demonstrated by densitometer tracing of the autoradiogram, using an X-specific DNA sequence, beta globin and alpha 2(I) collagen probes, in normal men and women, in one patient trisomic for 11p, and in one patient trisomic for segment 7q21 leads to 7qter. The ratio men/women for the X-specific sequence (DXS) was close to the expected value 0.5, while the ratio trisomy 11/normal control and trisomy 7/normal control were close to 1.5 for beta globin (HBB) and alpha 2(I) collagen (COLIA2), respectively. The gene coding for COLIA2 can therefore be assigned to 7q21 leads to 7qter. This method should also apply to noncoding sequences: the increasing number of cloned DNA segments that have already been assigned to a specific chromosome represent a new tool for prenatal and premorbid diagnosis of unbalanced chromosomal aberrations.