Detection of the three common mutations of adeninephosphoribosyltransferase deficiency among Japanese.

We analyzed DNA from six Japanese patients with adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) deficiency who developed 2,8-dihydroxyadenine (DHA) urolithiasis. These six patients were selected for DNA analysis since they were expected to possess allele(s) with mutations other than two known abnormalities, i.e. a missense mutation at codon 136 (APRTJ allele) and a nonsense mutation at codon 98. In three of the six patients an insert of four bases CCGA was detected in exon 3 by sequencing clones obtained from the genomic DNA. In two of the three patients, both of the two alleles had this mutation (homozygotes) while the other patient had the APRTJ allele in addition to the allele with the 4-base insertion. To search for mutations other than the above three defined germline mutations, we amplified a genomic DNA segment including all the 5 exons of the APRT gene by PCR and cloned it into a plasmid. After selecting recombinant plasmids containing neither of the three defined mutations, we sequenced the entire APRT exons and introns. Abnormalities were found in neither the coding regions nor the exon-intron junctions. Disease-related mutations in these mutant alleles may exist in either 5' or 3' flanking sequences and remain to be elucidated.