Analysis of PCNT gene coding sequence in subjects with Microcephalic Osteodysplastic Primordial Dwarfism Type II

Abstract

Pericentrin (PCNT) is a main scaffold protein of Centrosome. It is encoded by PCNT gene which comprises of 47 exons and its cytogenetic location is 21q22.3. PCNT is a large protein containing 3336 amino acids. In PCNT protein two coiled-coil domains are bounded by a non-coiled region. Various mutations like non-sense, stop and deletion in PCNT are linked with human disorder Microcephalic Osteodysplastic Primordial Dwarfism Type II (MOPDII). The current project was carried out with an objective to analyze the coding region of PCNT gene among MOPDII patients. The DNA extracted from blood was amplified using locus specific primers for 30 exons of PCNT gene. Amplified PCR products were sequenced using chain termination method and obtained sequence contigs were then analyzed by comparing with reference sequence. After analyzing - exon sequence contigs in 3 subjects, 17 variants were identified. There is need to amplify remaining 17 exons of PCNT gene for the identification of novel mutation in subjects with MOPDII. Homozygous or compound heterozygous PCNT mutation could not be identified in our study in the PCNT coding region covered