Publications by authors named "Litwer S"

We describe a girl with virilized external genitalia and phenotypic features of Turner syndrome whose blood karyotype is 45,X. The presence of dysgenetic testicular tissue was confirmed by pathology. Using PCR and primers for the distal long arm, centromere and short arm of the Y chromosome, Y chromosome material was detected in her gonads but not in blood.

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Maple syrup urine disease in humans results from inherited defects in branched chain alpha-ketoacid dehydrogenase, a mitochondrial multienzyme complex. A variety of genetic changes may produce this phenotype by affecting the function of any of the three complex-specific subunits. The varied clinical expression observed in patients may be partially explained by the defects in the involved subunit.

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Branched chain alpha-ketoacid dehydrogenase is a heteroprotein complex of mitochondria and commits the branched chain alpha-ketoacids to their catabolic fate. Inherited nuclear mutations in humans decrease the activity of this complex and result in maple syrup urine disease. Here we demonstrate the restoration of branched chain alpha-ketoacid dehydrogenase activity to fibroblasts from a child with this disorder by transfection with a cDNA for the prebranched chain acyltransferase.

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A cDNA (1.6 kilobases) for branched chain acyltransferase (E2b) isolated from a human liver library encoded only the amino-terminal half of the protein (Hummel, K. B.

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A 1.6-kb cDNA for human liver branched-chain acyltransferase [E2b] was placed in a transcription vector under the control of the SP6 promoter. In vitro translation of transcripts from this vector produced a pre-E2b fragment of Mr 39,000.

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Nucleotide sequence was determined for a 1.6-kilobase human cDNA putative for the branched chain acyltransferase protein of the branched chain alpha-ketoacid dehydrogenase complex. Translation of the sequence reveals an open reading frame encoding a 315-amino acid protein of molecular weight 35,759 followed by 560 bases of 3'-untranslated sequence.

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Two cDNA clones for the transacylase protein of the branched chain ketoacid dehydrogenase complex [E.C. 1.

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