Omphalocele in trisomy 3q: further delineation of phenotype

We report a case of a patient with omphalocele, dysmorphic features, and mild developmental delay associated with a chromosomal aberration. Chromosome studies showed that the propositus carries a maternally derived unbalanced translocation der(4)t(3;4)(q27.3;q32.3), resulting in trisomy for region 3q27.3-->qter and monosomy for 4q32.3-->qter. Because the association between dup3q and omphalocele has been reported in several cases, we analyzed the data on 93 previously reported patients with partial trisomy of the long arm of chromosome 3 and compared the clinical features between the cases. The imbalance of chromosome 3 in the patient was further defined by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) studies using bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones. BAC clone RP11-171N2 was identified as a breakpoint-spanning clone in the patient and his mother. Based on our comparative analysis, we have delineated that the smallest region of overlap (SRO) associated with omphalocele is from BAC 171N2 to 3qter. We hypothesize that the SRO contains a gene(s) important in normal abdominal wall development and is of potential interest for further investigation.