Familial pericentric inversion (13) detected by antenatal diagnosis

Characterization of a familial balanced rec(13) in a child with mild MR and his half-sibling with two structurally rearranged chromosomes 13

In this report, we describe a 7-year-old child with mild mental retardation, developmental delay, and learning disabilities. His karyotype contained a rearrangement of chromosome 13, which appeared to include a duplication of 13q31-qter and a deletion of 13p12-pter regions. The chromosomal origin of the additional material was confirmed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using a whole chromosome painting probe specific for chromosome 13. Family studies showed that his mother carried a balanced inversion of chromosome 13 and that his half-brother carried the balanced pericentric inversion of chromosome 13 from his mother as well as another structural rearrangement involving chromosome 13 presumably from his father. The findings from this study suggested that the proband's abnormal 13 resulted from an unbalanced crossing-over between the normal and maternal inverted chromosome 13.

Segregation of inverted chromosome 13 in families ascertained through liveborn recombinant offspring

In humans pericentric inversions are rare structural chromosome abnormalities. Reproductive consequences of inversion heterozygosity depend upon many variables such as the chromosomes involved, the location of breakpoints, frequency of crossovers in the inverted segment, functional impairment of the gametes produced, and the viability of unbalanced zygotes that form. Therefore, each pericentric inversion may be studied as a unique mutation. This paper analyzes the segregation of inversion 13 chromosomes resulting from breaks at bands 13p12 and 13q21/22 in 11 apparently unrelated families. Ten of these families were ascertained through malformed fetuses or infants with a recombinant 13 duplication q, deletion p chromosome.