Abstract
Many techniques are available to efficiently pick up (point) mutations, all with their own strong and weak points and limitations. The most powerful qualitative techniques include denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) (see Chapter 8), chemical cleavage of mismatches (CCM) (see Chapter 7), and denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC). Of the quantitative techniques, Southern blotting, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) (see Chapter 25) and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) are most popular. The protein truncation test (PTT) (1, also known as the in vitro synthesized protein assay (IVSP) (2, is rather exceptional and has several unique features. The most prominent of these are that it uses an RNA template, scans for mutations at the protein level, has a high sensitivity, and hardly gives false positives. In addition, PTT detects truncating mutations only and the large majority of these are disease causing and thus directly clinically relevant. No PTT-detected alterations have been reported that could not be confirmed by sequence analysis; PTT analysis could thus be used directly for diagnostic purposes.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Roest, P. A. M., Roberts, R. G., Sugino, S., Van Ommen, G. J. B., and Den Dunnen, J. T. (1993) Protein truncation test (PTT) for rapid detection of translation-terminating mutations. Hum. Mol. Genet. 2, 1719–1721.
Powell, S. M., Petersen, G. M., Krush, A. A. J., et al. (1993) Molecular Diagnosis of familial adenomatous polyposis. N. Engl. J. Med. 329, 1982–1987.
Mazoyer, S., Dunning, A. M., Serova, O., et al. (1996) A polymorphic stop codon in Brca2. Nature Genet. 14, 253–254.
Koenig, M., Hoffman, E. P., Bertelson, C. J., Monaco, A. P., Feener, C. A., and Kunkel, L. M. (1987) Complete cloning of the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) cDNA and preliminary genomic organization of the DMD gene in normal and affected individuals. Cell 50, 509–517.
Steimle, V., Otten, L. A., Zufferey, M., and Mach, B. (1993) Complementation cloning of an MHC class II transactivator mutated in hereditary MHC class II deficiency (or bare lymphocyte syndrome). Cell 75, 135–146.
Den Dunnen, J. T., Grootscholten, P. M., Bakker, E., et al. (1989) Topography of the DMD gene: FIGE and cDNA analysis of 194 cases reveals 115 deletions and 13 duplications. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 45, 835–847.
Roberts, R. G., Coffey, A. J., Bobrow, M., and Bentley, D. R. (1992) Determination of the exon structure of the distal portion of the dystrophin gene by vectorette PCR. Genomics 13, 942–950.
Roest, P. A. M., Bakker, E., Fallaux, F. J., Verellen-Dumoulin, C., Murry, C. E., and Den Dunnen, J. T. (1999) New possibilities for prenatal diagnosis of muscular dystrophies: forced myogenesis with an adenoviral MyoD-vector. Lancet 353, 727–728.
Whittock, N. V., Roberts, R. G., Mathew, C. G., and Abbs, S. J. (1997) Dystrophin point mutation screening using a multiplexed protein truncation test. Genet. Test. 1, 115–123.
Van Der Luijt, R. B., Meera Kahn, P., Vasen, H., et al. (1994) Rapid detection of translation-terminating mutations at the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene by direct protein truncation test. Genomics 20, 1–4.
Hogervorst, F. B. L., Cornelis, R. S., Bout, M., et al. (1995) Rapid detection of BRCA1 mutations by the protein truncation test. Nature Genet. 10, 208–212.
Den Dunnen, J. T. (1996) Protein truncation test, in Current Protocols In Human Genetics (Dracopoli, N. C., Haines, J. L., Korf, B. R., et al., eds.), Wiley, New York.
Traverso, G., Diehl, F., Hurst, R., et al. (2003) Multicolor in vitro translation. Nature Biotechnol. 21, 1093–1097.
Ars, E., Serra, E., De La Luna, S., Estivill, X., and Lazaro, C. (2000) Cold shock induces the insertion of a cryptic exon in the neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) mRNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 28, 1307–1312.
Culbertson, M. R. (1999) RNA surveillance. Unforeseen consequences for gene expression, inherited genetic disorders and cancer. Trends. Genet. 15, 74–80.
Lamande, S. R., Bateman, J. F., Hutchison, W., et al. (1998) Reduced collagen VI causes Bethlem myopathy: a heterozygous COL6A1 nonsense mutation results in mRNA decay and functional haploinsufficiency. Hum. Mol. Genet. 7, 981–989.
Chelly, J., Concordet, J., Kaplan, J. C., and Kahn, A. (1989) Illegitimate Transcription Of Any Gene In Any Cell Type. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 86, 2617–2621.
Hope, I. A. and Struhl, K. (1985) GCN4 protein synthesized in vitro, binds HIS3 regulatory sequences: implications for general control of amino acid biosynthetic genes in yeast. Cell 43, 177–188.
Rowan, A. J. and Bodmer, W. F. (1997) Introduction of a myc reporter tag to improve the quality of mutation detection using the protein truncation test. Hum. Mutat. 9, 172–176.
Kahmann, S., Herter, P., Kuhnen, C., et al. (2002) A non-radioactive protein truncation test for the sensitive detection of all stop and frameshift mutations. Hum. Mutat. 19, 165–172.
Gite, S., Lim, M., Carlson, R., Olejnik, J., Zehnbauer, B., and Rothschild, K. (2003) A high-throughput nonisotopic protein truncation test. Nature Biotechnol. 21, 194–197.
Garvin, A. M., Parker, K. C., and Haff, L. (2000) Maldi-tof based mutation detection using tagged in vitro synthesized peptides. Nature Biotechnol. 18, 95–97.
Martinez-Gimeno, M., Gamundi, M. J., Hernan, I., et al. (2003) Mutations in the pre-mRNA splicing-factor genes PRPF3, PRPF8, and PRPF31 in Spanish families with autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 44, 2171–2177.
Chang, C. C. and Gould, S. J. (1998) Phenotype-genotype relationships in complementation group 3 of the peroxisome-biogenesis disorders. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 63, 1294–1306.
Laken, S. J., Petersen, G. M., Gruber, S. B., et al. (1997) Familial colorectal cancer in ashkenazim due to a hypermutable tract in APC. Nature Genet. 17, 79–83.
Roberts, R. G., Bentley, D. R., and Bobrow, M. (1993) Infidelity in the structure of ectopic transcripts: a novel exon in lymphocyte dystrophin transcripts. Hum. Mutat. 2, 293–299.
Yates, J., Aksmanovic, V., Mcmahon, R., Bione, S., and Toniolo, D. (1996) Mutation analysis in emery-dreifuss muscular dystrophy. Eur. J. Hum. Genet. 4, 62–63.
De Koning Gans, P. A. M., Ginjaar, H. B., Bakker, E., Yates, J. R. W., and Den Dunnen, J. T. (1999) A protein truncation test for emery-dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EMD): detection of N-terminal truncating mutations. Neuromusc. Disord. 9, 247–250.
Shattuck-Eidens, D., Mcclure, M., Simard, J., et al. (1995) A collaborative survey of 80 mutations in the brca1 breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 273, 535–541.
Van Ommen, G. J. B., Bakker, E., and Den Dunnen, J. T. (1999) The human genome project and the future of diagnostics, treatment, and prevention. Lancet 354, Si5–Si10.
Den Dunnen, J. T. and Van Ommen, G. J. B. (1999) The protein truncation test: a review. Hum. Mutat. 14, 95–102.
Lancaster, J. M., Wooster, R., Mangion, J., et al. (1996) BRCA2 mutations in primary breast and ovarian cancers. Nature Genet. 13, 238–240.
Farrington, S. M., Lin-Goerke, J., Ling, J., et al. (1998) Systematic analysis of hMSH2 and hMLH1 in young colon cancer patients and controls. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 63, 749–759.
Kohonen-Corish, M., Ross, V. L., Doe, W. F., et al. (1996) RNA-based mutation screening in hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 59, 818–824.
Heim, R. A., Silverman, L. M., Farber, R. A., Kam-Morgan, L. N. W., and Luce, M. C. (1995) Screening for truncated NF1 proteins. Nature Genet. 8, 218–219.
Parry, D. M., Maccollin, M. M., Kaiser Kupfer, M. I., et al. (1996) Germ-line mutations in the neurofibromatosis 2 gene: correlations with disease severity and retinal abnormalities. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 59, 529–539.
Roelfsema, J. H., Spruit, L., Saris, J. J., et al. (1997) Mutation detection in the repeated part of the PKD1 gene. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 61, 1044–1052.
Romey, M. C., Tuffery, S., Desgeorges, M., Bienvenu, T., Demaille, J., and Claustres, M. (1996) Transcript analysis of CFTR frameshift mutations in lymphocytes using the revesre transriptionpolymerase chain reaction technique and the protein truncation test. Hum. Genet. 98, 328–332.
Petrij, F., Giles, R. H., Dauwerse, J. G., et al. (1995) Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome caused by mutations in the transcriptional co-activator CBP. Nature 376, 348–351.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
den Dunnen, J.T. (2005). The Protein Truncation Test. In: Walker, J.M., Rapley, R. (eds) Medical Biomethods Handbook. Springer Protocols Handbooks. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-870-6:195
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-870-6:195
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-288-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-870-0
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols