The mutated base was analyzed in the family and 100 unrelated healthy

controls. Human HOXD13 open reading frame (ORF) cDNA was obtained from GeneChem (Guangzhou, China). Site-directed BKM120 datasheet mutagenesis was performed with appropriate primers to generate HOXD13 carrying the c.659G>C (p.Gly220Ala) or the c.940A>C (p.Ile314Leu) mutation, which was well studied and widely used as a control [14] and [15], using the QuickChange Lightning Site-Directed Mutagenesis kit (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA, USA). The specific base changes were verified by DNA sequencing. The ORFs of wild-type and mutant HOXD13 were amplified by PCR and cloned into a HindIII- and EcoRI-digested pcDNA3.1 (+) vector (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) to create the expression plasmid pcDNA3.1-HOXD13. The human EPHA7 promoter of 660 bp (from − 580 to + 80), which contains a HOXD13-binding site, was amplified from human genomic DNA by PCR and inserted into the BglII and KpnI sites of a pGL3-basic vector (Promega, Madison, WI, USA) to generate a pGL3-EPHA7 reporter construct. All the clones were confirmed by sequencing. The PCR primers used for mutagenesis and plasmid construction are shown in Table 2. 293T cells were cultured in Iscove’s modified Dulbecco’s

medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, 100 mg/mL penicillin and 100 mg/mL streptomycin. Cells were seeded in 24-well tissue BLZ945 culture plates 24 h prior to transfection at approximately 60% confluence. Transfection was performed using Lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA)

according to the manufacturer’s instructions. HOXD13 expression crotamiton constructs (wild type and mutants) or a pcDNA3.1 empty vector was cotransfected with the pGL3-EPHA7 reporter construct. The Renilla luciferase control plasmid pREP7-RLuc was also cotransfected in each well for normalization. At 30 h after transfection, the cells were washed, lysed and assayed for firefly and Renilla luciferase expression using the Dual Luciferase Reporter Assay System (Promega). Relative luciferase activities were calculated as folds of firefly compared with Renilla. The values represent the means of three independent experiments performed in triplicate, and the bars in figures denote the S.D. Student’s t test was used to test for the statistical significance of differences between means of unpaired samples. All the results were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS 11.5 software for Windows (student version). Statistically significant values were defined as P < 0.05. We investigated a Han Chinese family with distinctive SPD phenotypes (Fig. 1A). There were six affected individuals in three generations of the family and one individual (I-2) had been deceased. Digital images of the proband and one of the affected individual were taken. The proband was a 15-year-old boy. SPD and clinodactyly of the fifth finger were noted at both hands at birth.