Haplotype and quantitative transcript analyses of Portuguese breast/ovarian cancer families with the BRCA1 R71G founder mutation of Galician origin

We investigated the functional effect of the missense variant c.211A > G (R71G) localized at position -2 of exon 5 donor splice site in the BRCA1 gene and evaluated whether Portuguese and Galician families with this mutation share a common ancestry. Three unrelated Portuguese breast/ovarian cancer families carrying this variant were studied through qualitative and quantitative transcript analyses. We also evaluated the presence of loss of heterozigosity and the histopathologic characteristics of the carcinomas in those families. Informative families (two from Portugal and one from Galicia) were genotyped for polymorphic microsatellite markers flanking BRCA1 to reconstruct haplotypes. Qualitative RNA analysis revealed the presence of two alternative transcripts both in carriers of the BRCA1 R71G variant and in controls. Semi-quantitative fragment analysis and real-time RT-PCR showed a significant increase of the transcript with an out of frame deletion of the last 22nt of exon 5 (BRCA1-Delta 22ntex5) and a decrease of the full-length transcript (BRCA1-ex5FL) in patients carrying the R71G mutation as compared to controls, whereas no significant differences were found for the transcript with in frame skipping of exon 5 (BRCA1-Delta ex5). One haplotype was found to segregate in the two informative Portuguese families and in the Galician family. We demonstrate that disruption of alternative transcript ratios is the mechanism causing hereditary breast/ovarian cancer associated with the BRCA1 R71G mutation. Furthermore, our findings indicate a common ancestry of the Portuguese and Galician families sharing this mutation.