PCR amplification of exon 7 of MET gene in autism spectrum disorder

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder in which genetic factor strongly influences the risk of developing autism among children worldwide. The MET gene which located in a common autism linkage region, chromosome 7q31 has been identified as the major genetic determinant for the development of autism. MET gene is responsible for the development of brain system such as cerebral cortex and cerebellum. It also has contribution to gastrointestinal and immune system functions. As children with autism often exhibit disruption in all these functions, MET gene was chosen as one of the vulnerability-conferring genes in this research project. The objective of this research is to design a set of primers for the amplification of exon 7 of MET gene using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A set of specific primers was designed using NCBI Primer BLAST tool. Successfully amplified amplicons were sent for DNA sequencing, followed by analysis of SNPs. Pairwise comparison showed that only one SNP (rs13223756) was found at A2146G for this exon; and it was a synonymous SNP as the substitution of A>G did not change the resultant amino acid that is glutamine, for both CAA and CAG codons. In conclusion, the newly designed primer set was able to amplify exon 7 of MET gene successfully. However, the SNP found was not reported as clinically significant for the development of autism spectrum disorder. Synonymous change is not always silent as it may have implication on transcription, translation, splicing, as well as for mRNA transport. Therefore, further protein expression studies are required.