Identification of a 31-bp deletion in the RELN gene causing lissencephaly with cerebellar hypoplasia in sheep.
Aroa Suárez-Vega, Beatriz Gutiérrez-Gil, Inmaculada Cuchillo-Ibáñez, Javier Sáez-Valero, Valentín Pérez, Elsa García-Gámez, Julio Benavides, Juan Jose Arranz
Author Information
Aroa Suárez-Vega: Dpto. Producción Animal, Universidad de León, León, León, Spain.
Lissencephaly is an inherited developmental disorder in which neuronal migration is impaired. A type of lissencephaly associated with cerebellar hypoplasia (LCH) was diagnosed in a commercial flock of Spanish Churra sheep. The genotyping of 7 affected animals and 33 controls with the OvineSNP50 BeadChip enabled the localization of the causative mutation for ovine LCH to a 4.8-Mb interval on sheep chromosome 4 using genome-wide association and homozygosity mapping. The RELN gene, which is located within this interval, was considered a strong positional and functional candidate because it plays critical roles in neuronal migration and layer formation. By performing a sequencing analysis of this gene's specific mRNA in a control lamb, we obtained the complete CDS of the ovine RELN gene. The cDNA sequence from an LCH-affected lamb revealed a deletion of 31 bp (c.5410_5440del) in predicted exon 36 of RELN, resulting in a premature termination codon. A functional analysis of this mutation revealed decreased levels of RELN mRNA and a lack of reelin protein in the brain cortex and blood of affected lambs. This mutation showed a complete concordance with the Mendelian recessive pattern of inheritance observed for the disease. The identification of the causal mutation of LCH in Churra sheep will facilitate the implementation of gene-assisted selection to detect heterozygous mutants, which will help breeders avoid at-risk matings in their flocks. Moreover, the identification of this naturally occurring RELN mutation provides an opportunity to use Churra sheep as a genetically characterized large animal model for the study of reelin functions in the developing and mature brain.
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