Over the last decade, major advances in the development and application of microarray-based comparative genomic hybridisation (aCGH) technology have significantly contributed to our understanding of Genomic Disorders. My aims here were to provide insight into the genotype to phenotype relationships of three Genomic Disorders; CUL4B-deleted X-Linked Mental Retardation (XLMR), Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome (WHS) and 16p11.2 Copy Number Variant Disorder. CUL4B encodes a structural component of the Cullin-RING-ligase 4-containing class of E3 ubiquitin ligases. CUL4B-deleted XLMR represents a syndromal form of mental retardation whereby patients exhibit other clinical features aside from the MR, such as seizures, growth retardation and disrupted sexual development. I used CUL4B-deleted patient-derived cell lines to investigate the impacts of CUL4B loss on mitochondrial function. I have shown that loss of CUL4B is associated with a distinct set of mitochondrial phenotypes, identifying CUL4B-deleted XLMR as a disorder associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. Furthermore, I have uncovered a reciprocal relationship between CUL4B and Cereblon, providing evidence of a potential role for the CUL4-CRBN E3 ligase complex in maintaining mitochondrial function. Deletion or duplication of the 16p11.2 region is associated with macro-/microcephaly respectively. Here, I have evaluated the cellular consequences of 16p11.2 CNV, specifically with regards KCTD13 expression, DNA replication and checkpoint activation. WHS is typically caused by a small hemizygous telomeric deletion of the 4p16.1 region. Haploinsufficiency of 4p16.1 is associated with microcephaly, growth retardation and complex developmental abnormalities. I investigated the impacts of LETM1 copy number change in WHS patient-derived cells. Here, I have shown that copy number change of LETM1 specifically segregates with mitochondrial dysfunction, likely underlying the seizure phenotype exhibited by the large subgroup of WHS patients whose deletions incorporate LETM1 as well as the rarer instances of the reciprocal duplication. In this thesis I use patient-derived cell lines from three Genomic Disorders as a fundamental tool providing new pathomechanistic insight into the clinical presentation of these conditions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:582065 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Hart, Lesley Ruth |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/47112/ |
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