Molecular diagnosis of tuberous sclerosis complex in fetuses and infants: an institutional case series.

Objective: We describe the clinical and genetic characteristics of fetuses and infants diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) in our centre, prenatally or neonatally, for a better understanding of the benefits of early screening.

Methods: In this retrospective study, we analysed the data on one fetus and nine infants with a definitive TSC diagnosis by genetic criteria (five patients carrying variants and 5 patients carrying variants). We explored the differences between phenotypes of patients carrying and pathogenic variants.

In silico size selection is effective in reducing false positive NIPS cases of monosomy X that are due to maternal mosaic monosomy X.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to establish maternal contribution to false positive noninvasive prenatal DNA screening (NIPS) results and develop the method to distinguish maternal and fetal origin of high-risk monosomy X NIPS calls including mosaic maternal cases.

Method: A total of 906 women carrying singleton pregnancies have been recruited. Maternal plasma DNA semiconductor massive parallel sequencing was performed to detect common aneuploidies.

Inhibition of DNA topoisomerase II may trigger illegitimate recombination in living cells: experiments with a model system.

We have developed a plasmid test system to study recombination in vitro and in mammalian cells in vivo, and to analyze the possible role of DNA topoisomerase II. The system is based on a plasmid construct containing an inducible marker gene ccdB ("killer" (KIL) gene) whose product is lethal for bacterial cells, flanked by two different potentially recombinogenic elements. The plasmids were subjected to recombinogenic conditions in vitro or in vivo after transient transfection into COS-1 cells, and subsequently transformed into E.

Breakpoint clusters: reason or consequence?

Chromosomal rearrangements are common causes of cancer. In the majority of cases, the malignancy is induced via an altered transcription factor. The breakpoints of such translocations are often mysteriously tightly clustered in the genome.