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Gentile JE, Corridon TL, Mortberg MA, D'Souza EN, Whiffin N, Minikel EV, Vallabh SM. Modulation of prion protein expression through cryptic splice site manipulation. J Biol Chem 2024; 300:107560. [PMID: 39002681 PMCID: PMC11342779 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2024.107560] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2024] [Revised: 06/15/2024] [Accepted: 07/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/15/2024] Open
Abstract
Lowering expression of prion protein (PrP) is a well-validated therapeutic strategy in prion disease, but additional modalities are urgently needed. In other diseases, small molecules have proven capable of modulating pre-mRNA splicing, sometimes by forcing inclusion of cryptic exons that reduce gene expression. Here, we characterize a cryptic exon located in human PRNP's sole intron and evaluate its potential to reduce PrP expression through incorporation into the 5' untranslated region. This exon is homologous to exon 2 in nonprimate species but contains a start codon that would yield an upstream open reading frame with a stop codon prior to a splice site if included in PRNP mRNA, potentially downregulating PrP expression through translational repression or nonsense-mediated decay. We establish a minigene transfection system and test a panel of splice site alterations, identifying mutants that reduce PrP expression by as much as 78%. Our findings nominate a new therapeutic target for lowering PrP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juliana E Gentile
- McCance Center for Brain Health and Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Taylor L Corridon
- McCance Center for Brain Health and Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Meredith A Mortberg
- McCance Center for Brain Health and Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Elston Neil D'Souza
- Big Data Institute and Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Nicola Whiffin
- Big Data Institute and Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Eric Vallabh Minikel
- McCance Center for Brain Health and Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Sonia M Vallabh
- McCance Center for Brain Health and Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
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2
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Ruan L, Gu M, Geng H, Duan Z, Yu H, Shao Z, Li K, Lv M, Tang D. Achieving an optimal pregnancy outcome through the combined utilization of micro-TESE and ICSI in cryptorchidism associated with a non-canonical splicing variant in RXFP2. J Assist Reprod Genet 2024; 41:1307-1317. [PMID: 38430325 PMCID: PMC11143137 DOI: 10.1007/s10815-024-03070-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2023] [Accepted: 02/16/2024] [Indexed: 03/03/2024] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE To identify the genetic cause of a cryptorchidism patient carrying a non-canonical splicing variant highlighted by SPCards platform in RXFP2 and to provide a comprehensive overview of RXFP2 variants with cryptorchidism correlation. METHODS We identified a homozygous non-canonical splicing variant by whole-exome sequencing and Sanger sequencing in a case with cryptorchidism and non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA). As the pathogenicity of this non-canonical splicing variant remained unclear, we initially utilized the SPCards platform to predict its pathogenicity. Subsequently, we employed a minigene splicing assay to further evaluate the influence of the identified splicing variant. Microdissection testicular sperm extraction (micro-TESE) combined with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) was performed. PubMed and Human Genome Variant Database (HGMD) were queried to search for RXFP2 variants. RESULTS We identified a homozygous non-canonical splicing variant (NM_130806: c.1376-12A > G) in RXFP2, and confirmed this variant caused aberrant splicing of exons 15 and 16 of the RXFP2 gene: 11 bases were added in front of exon 16, leading to an abnormal transcript initiation and a frameshift. Fortunately, the patient successfully obtained his biological offspring through micro-TESE combined with ICSI. Four cryptorchidism-associated variants in RXFP2 from 90 patients with cryptorchidism were identified through a literature search in PubMed and HGMD, with different inheritance patterns. CONCLUSION This is the first cryptorchidism case carrying a novel causative non-canonical splicing RXFP2 variant. The combined approach of micro-TESE and ICSI contributed to an optimal pregnancy outcome. Our literature review demonstrated that RXFP2 variants caused cryptorchidism in a recessive inheritance pattern, rather than a dominant pattern.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lewen Ruan
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No 218 Jixi Road, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, China
- NHC Key Laboratory of Study On Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
- Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
| | - Meng Gu
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No 218 Jixi Road, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, China
- NHC Key Laboratory of Study On Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
- Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
| | - Hao Geng
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No 218 Jixi Road, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, China
- NHC Key Laboratory of Study On Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
- Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
| | - Zongliu Duan
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No 218 Jixi Road, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, China
| | - Hui Yu
- NHC Key Laboratory of Study On Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
- Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
| | - Zhongmei Shao
- NHC Key Laboratory of Study On Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
- Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
| | - Kuokuo Li
- NHC Key Laboratory of Study On Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China.
- Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China.
| | - Mingrong Lv
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No 218 Jixi Road, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, China.
- NHC Key Laboratory of Study On Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China.
- Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China.
| | - Dongdong Tang
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No 218 Jixi Road, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, China.
- NHC Key Laboratory of Study On Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China.
- Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China.
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Cirincione A, Simpson D, Ravisankar P, Solley SC, Yan J, Singh M, Adamson B. A benchmarked, high-efficiency prime editing platform for multiplexed dropout screening. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.03.25.585978. [PMID: 38585933 PMCID: PMC10996517 DOI: 10.1101/2024.03.25.585978] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/09/2024]
Abstract
Prime editing installs precise edits into the genome with minimal unwanted byproducts, but low and variable editing efficiencies have complicated application of the approach to high-throughput functional genomics. Leveraging several recent advances, we assembled a prime editing platform capable of high-efficiency substitution editing across a set of engineered prime editing guide RNAs (epegRNAs) and corresponding target sequences (80% median intended editing). Then, using a custom library of 240,000 epegRNAs targeting >17,000 codons with 175 different substitution types, we benchmarked our platform for functional interrogation of small substitution variants (1-3 nucleotides) targeted to essential genes. Resulting data identified negative growth phenotypes for nonsense mutations targeted to ~8,000 codons, and comparing those phenotypes to results from controls demonstrated high specificity. We also observed phenotypes for synonymous mutations that disrupted splice site motifs at 3' exon boundaries. Altogether, we establish and benchmark a high-throughput prime editing approach for functional characterization of genetic variants with simple readouts from multiplexed experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ann Cirincione
- Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Danny Simpson
- Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Purnima Ravisankar
- Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Present address: Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis Program, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Sabrina C Solley
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Jun Yan
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Mona Singh
- Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Britt Adamson
- Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
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4
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Donkervoort S, Mohassel P, O'Leary M, Bonner DE, Hartley T, Acquaye N, Brull A, Mozaffar T, Saporta MA, Dyment DA, Sampson JB, Pajusalu S, Austin-Tse C, Hurth K, Cohen JS, McWalter K, Warman-Chardon J, Crunk A, Foley AR, Mammen AL, Wheeler MT, O'Donnell-Luria A, Bönnemann CG. Recurring homozygous ACTN2 variant (p.Arg506Gly) causes a recessive myopathy. Ann Clin Transl Neurol 2024; 11:629-640. [PMID: 38311799 DOI: 10.1002/acn3.51983] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2023] [Revised: 12/10/2023] [Accepted: 12/16/2023] [Indexed: 02/06/2024] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE ACTN2, encoding alpha-actinin-2, is essential for cardiac and skeletal muscle sarcomeric function. ACTN2 variants are a known cause of cardiomyopathy without skeletal muscle involvement. Recently, specific dominant monoallelic variants were reported as a rare cause of core myopathy of variable clinical onset, although the pathomechanism remains to be elucidated. The possibility of a recessively inherited ACTN2-myopathy has also been proposed in a single series. METHODS We provide clinical, imaging, and histological characterization of a series of patients with a novel biallelic ACTN2 variant. RESULTS We report seven patients from five families with a recurring biallelic variant in ACTN2: c.1516A>G (p.Arg506Gly), all manifesting with a consistent phenotype of asymmetric, progressive, proximal, and distal lower extremity predominant muscle weakness. None of the patients have cardiomyopathy or respiratory insufficiency. Notably, all patients report Palestinian ethnicity, suggesting a possible founder ACTN2 variant, which was confirmed through haplotype analysis in two families. Muscle biopsies reveal an underlying myopathic process with disruption of the intermyofibrillar architecture, Type I fiber predominance and atrophy. MRI of the lower extremities demonstrate a distinct pattern of asymmetric muscle involvement with selective involvement of the hamstrings and adductors in the thigh, and anterior tibial group and soleus in the lower leg. Using an in vitro splicing assay, we show that c.1516A>G ACTN2 does not impair normal splicing. INTERPRETATION This series further establishes ACTN2 as a muscle disease gene, now also including variants with a recessive inheritance mode, and expands the clinical spectrum of actinopathies to adult-onset progressive muscle disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra Donkervoort
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Payam Mohassel
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Melanie O'Leary
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Devon E Bonner
- Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Medical Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Taila Hartley
- Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Nicole Acquaye
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Astrid Brull
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Tahseen Mozaffar
- Department of Neurology, University of California, Irvine, California, USA
- Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Irvine, California, USA
| | - Mario A Saporta
- Department of Neurology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, USA
| | - David A Dyment
- Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jacinda B Sampson
- Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Department of Neurology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Sander Pajusalu
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Genetics and Personalized Medicine Clinic, Tartu University Hospital, Tartu, Estonia
- Department of Clinical Genetics, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Christina Austin-Tse
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Kyle Hurth
- Department of Pathology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Julie S Cohen
- Department of Neurology and Developmental Medicine, Hugo W. Moser Research Institute, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | | | - Jodi Warman-Chardon
- Department of Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - A Reghan Foley
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Andrew L Mammen
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Muscle Disease Unit, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
- Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Matthew T Wheeler
- Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Anne O'Donnell-Luria
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Division of Genetics and Genomics, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Carsten G Bönnemann
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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Li K, Xiao J, Ling Z, Luo T, Xiong J, Chen Q, Dong L, Wang Y, Wang X, Jiang Z, Xia L, Yu Z, Hua R, Guo R, Tang D, Lv M, Lian A, Li B, Zhao G, He X, Xia K, Cao Y, Li J. Prioritizing de novo potential non-canonical splicing variants in neurodevelopmental disorders. EBioMedicine 2024; 99:104928. [PMID: 38113761 PMCID: PMC10767160 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104928] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2023] [Revised: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 12/05/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Genomic variants outside of the canonical splicing site (±2) may generate abnormal mRNA splicing, which are defined as non-canonical splicing variants (NCSVs). However, the clinical interpretation of NCSVs in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) is largely unknown. METHODS We investigated the contribution of NCSVs to NDDs from 345,787 de novo variants (DNVs) in 47,574 patients with NDDs. We performed functional enrichment and protein-protein interaction analysis to assess the association between genes carrying prioritised NCSVs and NDDs. Minigene was used to validate the impact of NCSVs on mRNA splicing. FINDINGS We observed significantly more NCSVs (p = 0.02, odds ratio [OR] = 2.05) among patients with NDD than in controls. Both canonical splicing variants (CSVs) and NCSVs contributed to an equal proportion of patients with NDD (0.76% vs. 0.82%). The candidate genes carrying NCSVs were associated with glutamatergic synapse and chromatin remodelling. Minigene successfully validated 59 of 79 (74.68%) NCSVs that led to abnormal splicing in 40 candidate genes, and 9 of the genes (ARID1B, KAT6B, TCF4, SMARCA2, SHANK3, PDHA1, WDR45, SCN2A, SYNGAP1) harboured recurrent NCSVs with the same variant present in more than two unrelated patients with NDD. Moreover, 36 of 59 (61.02%) NCSVs are novel clinically relevant variants, including 34 unreported and 2 clinically conflicting interpretations or of uncertain significance NCSVs in the ClinVar database. INTERPRETATION This study highlights the common pathology and clinical importance of NCSVs in unsolved patients with NDD. FUNDING The present study was funded by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, the Hunan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Talent Project, the Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Hunan, The Scientific Research Program of FuRong laboratory, and the Natural Science Project of the University of Anhui Province.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kuokuo Li
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China; NHC Key Laboratory of Study on Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China; Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
| | - Jifang Xiao
- Bioinformatics Center, National Clinical Research Centre for Geriatric Disorders, Department of Geriatrics, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Bioinformatics Center, Furong Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Zhengbao Ling
- Centre for Medical Genetics & Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Tengfei Luo
- Centre for Medical Genetics & Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Jingyu Xiong
- Centre for Medical Genetics & Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Qian Chen
- Bioinformatics Center, National Clinical Research Centre for Geriatric Disorders, Department of Geriatrics, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Bioinformatics Center, Furong Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Lijie Dong
- Centre for Medical Genetics & Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Bioinformatics Center, Furong Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Yijing Wang
- Bioinformatics Center, National Clinical Research Centre for Geriatric Disorders, Department of Geriatrics, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Centre for Medical Genetics & Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Bioinformatics Center, Furong Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Xiaomeng Wang
- Centre for Medical Genetics & Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Bioinformatics Center, Furong Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Zhaowei Jiang
- Centre for Medical Genetics & Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Lu Xia
- Centre for Medical Genetics & Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Zhen Yu
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China; NHC Key Laboratory of Study on Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China; Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
| | - Rong Hua
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China; NHC Key Laboratory of Study on Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China; Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
| | - Rui Guo
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China; NHC Key Laboratory of Study on Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China; Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
| | - Dongdong Tang
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China; NHC Key Laboratory of Study on Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China; Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
| | - Mingrong Lv
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China; NHC Key Laboratory of Study on Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China; Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China
| | - Aojie Lian
- National Health Commission Key Laboratory of Birth Defect Research and Prevention, Hunan Provincial Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Bin Li
- Bioinformatics Center, National Clinical Research Centre for Geriatric Disorders, Department of Geriatrics, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Bioinformatics Center, Furong Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - GuiHu Zhao
- Bioinformatics Center, National Clinical Research Centre for Geriatric Disorders, Department of Geriatrics, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Bioinformatics Center, Furong Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Xiaojin He
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China; NHC Key Laboratory of Study on Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China; Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China; Anhui Provincial Human Sperm Bank, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China.
| | - Kun Xia
- Centre for Medical Genetics & Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
| | - Yunxia Cao
- Reproductive Medicine Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China; NHC Key Laboratory of Study on Abnormal Gametes and Reproductive Tract (Anhui Medical University), No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China; Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle (Anhui Medical University), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, No 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, China.
| | - Jinchen Li
- Bioinformatics Center, National Clinical Research Centre for Geriatric Disorders, Department of Geriatrics, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Centre for Medical Genetics & Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Bioinformatics Center, Furong Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
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6
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Gentile JE, Corridon TL, Mortberg MA, D'Souza EN, Whiffin N, Minikel EV, Vallabh SM. Modulation of prion protein expression through cryptic splice site manipulation. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.12.19.572439. [PMID: 38187635 PMCID: PMC10769280 DOI: 10.1101/2023.12.19.572439] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2024]
Abstract
Lowering expression of prion protein (PrP) is a well-validated therapeutic strategy in prion disease, but additional modalities are urgently needed. In other diseases, small molecules have proven capable of modulating pre-mRNA splicing, sometimes by forcing inclusion of cryptic exons that reduce gene expression. Here, we characterize a cryptic exon located in human PRNP's sole intron and evaluate its potential to reduce PrP expression through incorporation into the 5' untranslated region (5'UTR). This exon is homologous to exon 2 in non-primate species, but contains a start codon that would yield an upstream open reading frame (uORF) with a stop codon prior to a splice site if included in PRNP mRNA, potentially downregulating PrP expression through translational repression or nonsense-mediated decay. We establish a minigene transfection system and test a panel of splice site alterations, identifying mutants that reduce PrP expression by as much as 78%. Our findings nominate a new therapeutic target for lowering PrP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juliana E Gentile
- McCance Center for Brain Health and Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142
| | - Taylor L Corridon
- McCance Center for Brain Health and Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142
| | - Meredith A Mortberg
- McCance Center for Brain Health and Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142
| | - Elston Neil D'Souza
- Big Data Institute and Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK
| | - Nicola Whiffin
- Big Data Institute and Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA
| | - Eric Vallabh Minikel
- McCance Center for Brain Health and Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142
| | - Sonia M Vallabh
- McCance Center for Brain Health and Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142
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7
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Koczkowska M, Chen Y, Xie J, Callens T, Gomes A, Wimmer K, Messiaen LM. Analysis of 200 unrelated individuals with a constitutional NF1 deep intronic pathogenic variant reveals that variants flanking the alternatively spliced NF1 exon 31 [23a] cause a classical neurofibromatosis type 1 phenotype while altering predominantly NF1 isoform type II. Hum Genet 2023; 142:849-861. [PMID: 37186028 PMCID: PMC10329576 DOI: 10.1007/s00439-023-02555-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2023] [Accepted: 04/06/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Neurofibromatosis type 1 results from loss-of-function NF1 pathogenic variants (PVs). Up to 30% of all NF1 PVs disrupt mRNA splicing, including deep intronic variants. Here, we retrospectively investigated the spectrum of NF1 deep intronic PVs in a cohort of 8,090 unrelated individuals from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) dataset with a molecularly confirmed neurofibromatosis type 1. All variants were identified through their effect on the NF1 transcript, followed by variant characterization at the DNA-level. A total of 68 distinct variants, which were ≥ 20 nucleotides away from the closest exon-intron junction, were identified in 2.5% unrelated individuals with NF1 (200/8,090). Nine different pathogenic splice variants, identified in 20 probands, led to exonization of different parts of intron 30 [23.2] or 31 [23a]. The two major NF1 transcript isoforms, distinguished by the absence (type I) or presence (type II) of the alternatively spliced cassette exon 31 [23a], are equally expressed in blood in control individuals without NF1 or NF1-affected individuals carrying their PV not in the introns flanking exon 31 [23a]. By fragment and cloning analysis we demonstrated that the exonization of intron 31 [23a] sequences due to deep intronic PV predominantly affects the NF1 isoform II. Seven additional (likely) pathogenic NF1 deep intronic variants not observed in the UAB dataset were found by classification of 36 variants identified by a literature search. Hence, the unique list of these 75 deep intronic (likely) PVs should be included in any comprehensive NF1 testing strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Magdalena Koczkowska
- Medical Genomics Laboratory, Department of Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, 35294, USA.
- 3P-Medicine Laboratory, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-211, Gdansk, Poland.
| | - Yunjia Chen
- Medical Genomics Laboratory, Department of Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, 35294, USA
| | - Jing Xie
- Medical Genomics Laboratory, Department of Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, 35294, USA
- Natera, Inc., San Carlos, CA, USA
| | - Tom Callens
- Medical Genomics Laboratory, Department of Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, 35294, USA
| | - Alicia Gomes
- Medical Genomics Laboratory, Department of Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, 35294, USA
| | - Katharina Wimmer
- Institute of Human Genetics, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Ludwine M Messiaen
- Medical Genomics Laboratory, Department of Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, 35294, USA.
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8
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Wang H, Wang R, Fang J. A spliceosome-associated gene signature aids in predicting prognosis and tumor microenvironment of hepatocellular carcinoma. Aging (Albany NY) 2023; 15:204765. [PMID: 37301543 PMCID: PMC10292887 DOI: 10.18632/aging.204765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/17/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Splicing alterations have been shown to be key tumorigenesis drivers. In this study, we identified a novel spliceosome-related genes (SRGs) signature to predict the overall survival (OS) of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A total of 25 SRGs were identified from the GSE14520 dataset (training set). Univariate and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analyses were utilized to construct the signature using genes with predictive significance. We then constructed a risk model using six SRGs (BUB3, IGF2BP3, RBM3, ILF3, ZC3H13, and CCT3). The reliability and predictive power of the gene signature were validated in two validation sets (TCGA and GSE76427 dataset). Patients in training and validation sets were divided into high and low-risk groups based on the gene signature. Patients in high-risk groups exhibited a poorer OS than in low-risk groups both in the training set and two validation sets. Next, risk score, BCLC staging, TNM staging, and multinodular were combined in a nomogram for OS prediction, and the decision curve analysis (DCA) curve exhibited the excellent prediction performance of the nomogram. The functional enrichment analyses demonstrated high-risk score patients were closely related to multiple oncology characteristics and invasive-related pathways, such as Cell cycle, DNA replication, and Spliceosome. Different compositions of the tumor microenvironment and immunocyte infiltration ratio might contribute to the prognostic difference between high and low-risk score groups. In conclusion, a spliceosome-related six-gene signature exhibited good performance for predicting the OS of patients with HCC, which may aid in clinical decision-making for individual treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huaxiang Wang
- Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Taihe Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan 442000, Hubei, China
| | - Ruling Wang
- Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Taihe Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan 442000, Hubei, China
| | - Jian Fang
- Department of Hepatobiliary Medicine, The Third People’s Hospital of Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou 350108, Fujian, China
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9
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Mendelian inheritance revisited: dominance and recessiveness in medical genetics. Nat Rev Genet 2023:10.1038/s41576-023-00574-0. [PMID: 36806206 DOI: 10.1038/s41576-023-00574-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 02/22/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the consequences of genotype for phenotype (which ranges from molecule-level effects to whole-organism traits) is at the core of genetic diagnostics in medicine. Many measures of the deleteriousness of individual alleles exist, but these have limitations for predicting the clinical consequences. Various mechanisms can protect the organism from the adverse effects of functional variants, especially when the variant is paired with a wild type allele. Understanding why some alleles are harmful in the heterozygous state - representing dominant inheritance - but others only with the biallelic presence of pathogenic variants - representing recessive inheritance - is particularly important when faced with the deluge of rare genetic alterations identified by high throughput DNA sequencing. Both awareness of the specific quantitative and/or qualitative effects of individual variants and the elucidation of allelic and non-allelic interactions are essential to optimize genetic diagnosis and counselling.
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10
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Xiao G, Wang K, Wang Z, Dai Z, Liang X, Ye W, Luo P, Zhang J, Liu Z, Cheng Q, Peng R. Machine learning-based identification of SOX10 as an immune regulator of macrophage in gliomas. Front Immunol 2022; 13:1007461. [PMID: 36524115 PMCID: PMC9745112 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1007461] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Gliomas, originating from the glial cells, are the most lethal type of primary tumors in the central nervous system. Standard treatments like surgery have not significantly improved the prognosis of glioblastoma patients. Recently, immune therapy has become a novel and effective option. As a conserved group of transcriptional regulators, the Sry-type HMG box (SOX) family has been proved to have a correlation with numerous diseases. Based on the large-scale machine learning, we found that the SOX family, with significant immune characteristics and genomic profiles, can be divided into two distinct clusters in gliomas, among which SOX10 was identified as an excellent immune regulator of macrophage in gliomas. The high expression of SOX10 is related to a shorter OS in LGG, HGG, and pan-cancer groups but benefited from the immunotherapy. It turned out in single-cell sequencing that SOX10 is high in neurons, M1 macrophages, and neural stem cells. Also, macrophages are found to be elevated in the SOX10 high-expression group. SOX10 has a positive correlation with macrophage cytokine production and negative regulation of macrophages' chemotaxis and migration. In conclusion, our study demonstrates the outstanding cluster ability of the SOX family, indicating that SOX10 is an immune regulator of macrophage in gliomas, which can be an effective target for glioma immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gelei Xiao
- Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China,Diagnosis and Treatment Center for Hydrocephalus, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China,Hunan International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Brain Tumor Research, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China,National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Kaiyue Wang
- Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Zeyu Wang
- Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China,MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Regeneration and Repair, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Ziyu Dai
- Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Xisong Liang
- Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Weijie Ye
- Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Peng Luo
- Department of Oncology, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jian Zhang
- Department of Oncology, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zaoqu Liu
- Department of Interventional Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Quan Cheng
- Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China,National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China,Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China,*Correspondence: Quan Cheng, ; Renjun Peng,
| | - Renjun Peng
- Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China,National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China,*Correspondence: Quan Cheng, ; Renjun Peng,
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11
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Danilchenko VY, Zytsar MV, Maslova EA, Posukh OL. Selection of Diagnostically Significant Regions of the SLC26A4 Gene Involved in Hearing Loss. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms232113453. [PMID: 36362242 PMCID: PMC9655724 DOI: 10.3390/ijms232113453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2022] [Revised: 10/23/2022] [Accepted: 11/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Screening pathogenic variants in the SLC26A4 gene is an important part of molecular genetic testing for hearing loss (HL) since they are one of the common causes of hereditary HL in many populations. However, a large size of the SLC26A4 gene (20 coding exons) predetermines the difficulties of its complete mutational analysis, especially in large samples of patients. In addition, the regional or ethno-specific prevalence of SLC26A4 pathogenic variants has not yet been fully elucidated, except variants c.919-2A>G and c.2168A>G (p.His723Arg), which have been proven to be most common in Asian populations. We explored the distribution of currently known pathogenic and likely pathogenic (PLP) variants across the SLC26A4 gene sequence presented in the Deafness Variation Database for the selection of potential diagnostically important parts of this gene. As a result of this bioinformatic analysis, we found that molecular testing ten SLC26A4 exons (4, 6, 10, 11, 13−17 and 19) with flanking intronic regions can provide a diagnostic rate of 61.9% for all PLP variants in the SLC26A4 gene. The primary sequencing of these SLC26A4 regions may be applied as an initial effective diagnostic testing in samples of patients of unknown ethnicity or as a subsequent step after the targeted testing of already-known ethno- or region-specific pathogenic SLC26A4 variants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valeriia Yu. Danilchenko
- Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
- Novosibirsk State University, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Marina V. Zytsar
- Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Ekaterina A. Maslova
- Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
- Novosibirsk State University, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Olga L. Posukh
- Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
- Novosibirsk State University, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
- Correspondence:
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12
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Blakes AJM, Wai HA, Davies I, Moledina HE, Ruiz A, Thomas T, Bunyan D, Thomas NS, Burren CP, Greenhalgh L, Lees M, Pichini A, Smithson SF, Taylor Tavares AL, O'Donovan P, Douglas AGL, Whiffin N, Baralle D, Lord J. A systematic analysis of splicing variants identifies new diagnoses in the 100,000 Genomes Project. Genome Med 2022; 14:79. [PMID: 35883178 PMCID: PMC9327385 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-022-01087-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2022] [Accepted: 07/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Genomic variants which disrupt splicing are a major cause of rare genetic diseases. However, variants which lie outside of the canonical splice sites are difficult to interpret clinically. Improving the clinical interpretation of non-canonical splicing variants offers a major opportunity to uplift diagnostic yields from whole genome sequencing data. METHODS Here, we examine the landscape of splicing variants in whole-genome sequencing data from 38,688 individuals in the 100,000 Genomes Project and assess the contribution of non-canonical splicing variants to rare genetic diseases. We use a variant-level constraint metric (the mutability-adjusted proportion of singletons) to identify constrained functional variant classes near exon-intron junctions and at putative splicing branchpoints. To identify new diagnoses for individuals with unsolved rare diseases in the 100,000 Genomes Project, we identified individuals with de novo single-nucleotide variants near exon-intron boundaries and at putative splicing branchpoints in known disease genes. We identified candidate diagnostic variants through manual phenotype matching and confirmed new molecular diagnoses through clinical variant interpretation and functional RNA studies. RESULTS We show that near-splice positions and splicing branchpoints are highly constrained by purifying selection and harbour potentially damaging non-coding variants which are amenable to systematic analysis in sequencing data. From 258 de novo splicing variants in known rare disease genes, we identify 35 new likely diagnoses in probands with an unsolved rare disease. To date, we have confirmed a new diagnosis for six individuals, including four in whom RNA studies were performed. CONCLUSIONS Overall, we demonstrate the clinical value of examining non-canonical splicing variants in individuals with unsolved rare diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander J M Blakes
- Faculty of Medicine, Human Development and Health, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
- Faculty of Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Htoo A Wai
- Faculty of Medicine, Human Development and Health, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - Ian Davies
- Cancer Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - Hassan E Moledina
- Faculty of Medicine, Human Development and Health, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - April Ruiz
- Wessex Clinical Genetics Service, Princess Anne Hospital, Southampton, UK
| | - Tessy Thomas
- Wessex Clinical Genetics Service, Princess Anne Hospital, Southampton, UK
| | - David Bunyan
- Wessex Regional Genetics Laboratory, Salisbury District Hospital, Salisbury, UK
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - N Simon Thomas
- Wessex Regional Genetics Laboratory, Salisbury District Hospital, Salisbury, UK
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - Christine P Burren
- Department of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol, UK
- Bristol Medical School, Department of Translational Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Lynn Greenhalgh
- Liverpool Centre for Genomic Medicine, Crown Street, Liverpool, UK
| | - Melissa Lees
- North East Thames Regional Genomics Service, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK
| | - Amanda Pichini
- Department of Clinical Genetics, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston Foundation Trust, Bristol, UK
- Genomics England, Dawson Hall, Charterhouse Square, London, UK
| | - Sarah F Smithson
- Department of Clinical Genetics, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston Foundation Trust, Bristol, UK
| | - Ana Lisa Taylor Tavares
- Genomics England, Dawson Hall, Charterhouse Square, London, UK
- Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Hills Road, Cambridge, UK
| | - Peter O'Donovan
- Genomics England, Dawson Hall, Charterhouse Square, London, UK
| | - Andrew G L Douglas
- Faculty of Medicine, Human Development and Health, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
- Oxford Centre for Genomic Medicine, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK
| | - Nicola Whiffin
- Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Diana Baralle
- Faculty of Medicine, Human Development and Health, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
- Wessex Clinical Genetics Service, Princess Anne Hospital, Southampton, UK
| | - Jenny Lord
- Faculty of Medicine, Human Development and Health, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
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13
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Zhang Y, Wang X, Wang H, Jiang Y, Xu Z, Luo L. Elevated Small Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein Polypeptide an Expression Correlated With Poor Prognosis and Immune Infiltrates in Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Front Oncol 2022; 12:893107. [PMID: 35860579 PMCID: PMC9290672 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.893107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2022] [Accepted: 06/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BackgroundElevated Small Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein Polypeptide A (SNRPA) can enhance tumor cell growth and proliferation in various cancers. However, rarely studies focus on the comprehensive analysis of SNRPA in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).MethodsTCGA and GEO databases were used to analyze the mRNA expression of SNRPA in HCC. Protein expression of SNAPA was validated using immunohistochemistry. Stably transfected HCC cells were used to investigate the role of SNRPA in the progression of HCC. The functional enrichment analysis was utilized for the biological function prediction. The CIBERSORT and ssGSEA algorithms were used to evaluate the composition of the tumor microenvironment and immunocyte infiltration ratio.ResultsThe SNRPA expression was upregulated in HCC and positively correlated with tumor stage and grade. SNRPA overexpression were independent risk factors for poor overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS). In patients with early-stage disease, low alpha-fetoprotein expression, and better differentiation, SNRPA still exhibited the excellent prognostic value. Knockdown of SNRPA inhibited the proliferation and migration while promoting the apoptosis of HCC cells. Higher methylation of the CpG site cg16596691 correlated with longer OS in HCC patients. Genes co-expressed with SNRPA were overexpressed in HCC and correlated with shorter OS. The GO and KEGG enrichment analysis showed that SNRPA expression was related to mRNA splicing, spliceosome signaling. GSEA demonstrated that the main enrichment pathway of SNRPA-related differential genes was spliceosome signaling, cell cycle signaling, P53 signaling pathway, T cell receptor signaling pathway, natural killer cell-mediated signaling. CIBERSORT and ssGSEA algorithm revealed that SNRPA was mainly associated with the higher proportion of CD8+T cells, T cells follicular helper, T cells regulatory, Macrophages M0, and the lower proportion of T cells CD4 memory resting, NK cells resting, Monocytes, and Mast cells resting.ConclusionElevated SNRPA enhances tumor cell proliferation and correlated with poor prognosis and immune infiltrates in patients with HCC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Youfu Zhang
- Department of Organ Transplantation, Jiangxi Provincial People’s Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang Medical College, Nanchang, China
| | - Xuyang Wang
- Department of Organ Transplantation, Jiangxi Provincial People’s Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang Medical College, Nanchang, China
| | - Huaxiang Wang
- Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The Fuzong Clinical Medical College of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
- Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, 900 Hospital of the Joint Logistic Team, Fuzhou, China
| | - Yi Jiang
- Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The Fuzong Clinical Medical College of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
- Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, 900 Hospital of the Joint Logistic Team, Fuzhou, China
| | - Zhidan Xu
- Department of Organ Transplantation, Jiangxi Provincial People’s Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang Medical College, Nanchang, China
- *Correspondence: Laibang Luo, ; Zhidan Xu,
| | - Laibang Luo
- Department of Organ Transplantation, Jiangxi Provincial People’s Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang Medical College, Nanchang, China
- *Correspondence: Laibang Luo, ; Zhidan Xu,
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14
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Ding JT, Yu XT, He JH, Chen DZ, Guo F. A Pan-Cancer Analysis Revealing the Dual Roles of Lysine (K)-Specific Demethylase 6B in Tumorigenesis and Immunity. Front Genet 2022; 13:912003. [PMID: 35783266 PMCID: PMC9246050 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.912003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2022] [Accepted: 05/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction: Epigenetic-targeted therapy has been increasingly applied in the treatment of cancers. Lysine (K)-specific demethylase 6B (KDM6B) is an epigenetic enzyme involved in the coordinated control between cellular intrinsic regulators and the tissue microenvironment whereas the pan-cancer analysis of KDM6B remains unavailable. Methods: The dual role of KDM6B in 33 cancers was investigated based on the GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) and TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) databases. TIMER2 and GEPIA2 were applied to investigate the KDM6B levels in different subtypes or stages of tumors. Besides, the Human Protein Atlas database allowed us to conduct a pan-cancer study of the KDM6B protein levels. GEPIA2 and Kaplan–Meier plotter were used for the prognosis analysis in different cancers. Characterization of genetic modifications of the KDM6B gene was analyzed by the cBioPortal. DNA methylation levels of different KDM6B probes in different TCGA tumors were analyzed by MEXPRESS. TIMER2 was applied to determine the association of the KDM6B expression and immune infiltration and DNA methyltransferases. Spearman correlation analysis was used to assess the association of the KDM6B expression with TMB (tumor mutation burden) and MSI (microsatellite instability). The KEGG (Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes) pathway analysis and GO (Gene ontology) enrichment analysis were used to further investigate the potential mechanism of KDM6B in tumor pathophysiology. Results: KDM6B was downregulated in 11 cancer types and upregulated across five types. In KIRC (kidney renal clear cell carcinoma) and OV (ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma), the KDM6B level was significantly associated with the pathological stage. A high level of KDM6B was related to poor OS (overall survival) outcomes for THCA (thyroid carcinoma), while a low level was correlated with poor OS and DFS (disease-free survival) prognosis of KIRC. The KDM6B expression level was associated with TMB, MSI, and immune cell infiltration, particularly cancer-associated fibroblasts, across various cancer types with different correlations. Furthermore, the enrichment analysis revealed the relationship between H3K4 and H3K27 methylation and KDM6B function. Conclusion: Dysregulation of the DNA methyltransferase activity and methylation levels of H3K4 and H3K27 may involve in the dual role of KDM6B in tumorigenesis and development. Our study offered a relatively comprehensive understanding of KDM6B’s dual role in cancer development and response to immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia-Tong Ding
- Ningbo Institute for Medicine & Biomedical Engineering Combined Innovation, Ningbo Medical Centre Lihuili Hospital, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
- The Second Clinical Medical College of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
| | - Xiao-Ting Yu
- Burn Research Institute, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
| | - Jin-Hao He
- Burn Research Institute, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
| | - De-Zhi Chen
- Burn Research Institute, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
| | - Fei Guo
- Ningbo Institute for Medicine & Biomedical Engineering Combined Innovation, Ningbo Medical Centre Lihuili Hospital, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
- Burn Research Institute, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
- *Correspondence: Fei Guo,
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15
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Weisschuh N, Marino V, Schäferhoff K, Richter P, Park J, Haack TB, Dell'Orco D. Mutations at a split codon in the GTPase-encoding domain of OPA1 cause dominant optic atrophy through different molecular mechanisms. Hum Mol Genet 2021; 31:761-774. [PMID: 34559197 PMCID: PMC8895747 DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddab286] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2021] [Revised: 09/06/2021] [Accepted: 09/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Exonic (i.e. coding) variants in genes associated with disease can exert pathogenic effects both at the protein and mRNA level, either by altering the amino acid sequence or by affecting pre-mRNA splicing. The latter is often neglected due to the lack of RNA analyses in genetic diagnostic testing. In this study we considered both pathomechanisms and performed a comprehensive analysis of nine exonic nucleotide changes in OPA1, which is the major gene underlying autosomal dominant optic atrophy (DOA) and is characterized by pronounced allelic heterogeneity. We focused on the GTPase-encoding domain of OPA1, which harbors most of the missense variants associated with DOA. Given that the consensus splice sites extend into the exons, we chose a split codon, namely codon 438, for our analyses. Variants at this codon are the second most common cause of disease in our large cohort of DOA patients harboring disease-causing variants in OPA1. In silico splice predictions, heterologous splice assays, analysis of patient’s RNA when available, and protein modeling revealed different molecular outcomes for variants at codon 438. The wildtype aspartate residue at amino acid position 438 is directly involved in the dimerization of OPA1 monomers. We found that six amino acid substitutions at codon 438 (i.e. all substitutions of the first and second nucleotide of the codon) destabilized dimerization while only substitutions of the first nucleotide of the codon caused exon skipping. Our study highlights the value of combining RNA analysis and protein modeling approaches to accurately assign patients to future precision therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Weisschuh
- Institute for Ophthalmic Research, Centre for Ophthalmology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Valerio Marino
- Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, Section of Biological Chemistry, University of Verona, Verona 37134, Italy
| | - Karin Schäferhoff
- Institute of Medical Genetics and Applied Genomics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Paul Richter
- University Eye Hospital, Centre for Ophthalmology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Joohyun Park
- Institute of Medical Genetics and Applied Genomics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Tobias B Haack
- Institute of Medical Genetics and Applied Genomics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72076, Germany.,Centre for Rare Diseases, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Daniele Dell'Orco
- Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, Section of Biological Chemistry, University of Verona, Verona 37134, Italy
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Lord J, Baralle D. Splicing in the Diagnosis of Rare Disease: Advances and Challenges. Front Genet 2021; 12:689892. [PMID: 34276790 PMCID: PMC8280750 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2021.689892] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Mutations which affect splicing are significant contributors to rare disease, but are frequently overlooked by diagnostic sequencing pipelines. Greater ascertainment of pathogenic splicing variants will increase diagnostic yields, ending the diagnostic odyssey for patients and families affected by rare disorders, and improving treatment and care strategies. Advances in sequencing technologies, predictive modeling, and understanding of the mechanisms of splicing in recent years pave the way for improved detection and interpretation of splice affecting variants, yet several limitations still prohibit their routine ascertainment in diagnostic testing. This review explores some of these advances in the context of clinical application and discusses challenges to be overcome before these variants are comprehensively and routinely recognized in diagnostics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenny Lord
- School of Human Development and Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
| | - Diana Baralle
- School of Human Development and Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
- Wessex Clinical Genetics Service, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, United Kingdom
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Disrupting upstream translation in mRNAs is associated with human disease. Nat Commun 2021; 12:1515. [PMID: 33750777 PMCID: PMC7943595 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21812-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2020] [Accepted: 02/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Ribosome-profiling has uncovered pervasive translation in non-canonical open reading frames, however the biological significance of this phenomenon remains unclear. Using genetic variation from 71,702 human genomes, we assess patterns of selection in translated upstream open reading frames (uORFs) in 5’UTRs. We show that uORF variants introducing new stop codons, or strengthening existing stop codons, are under strong negative selection comparable to protein-coding missense variants. Using these variants, we map and validate gene-disease associations in two independent biobanks containing exome sequencing from 10,900 and 32,268 individuals, respectively, and elucidate their impact on protein expression in human cells. Our results suggest translation disrupting mechanisms relating uORF variation to reduced protein expression, and demonstrate that translation at uORFs is genetically constrained in 50% of human genes. The significance of translated upstream open reading frames is not well known. Here, the authors investigate genetic variants in these regions, finding that they are under high evolutionary constraint and may contribute to disease.
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Massively parallel assessment of human variants with base editor screens. Cell 2021; 184:1064-1080.e20. [PMID: 33606977 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.01.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 160] [Impact Index Per Article: 53.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2020] [Revised: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 01/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the functional consequences of single-nucleotide variants is critical to uncovering the genetic underpinnings of diseases, but technologies to characterize variants are limiting. Here, we leverage CRISPR-Cas9 cytosine base editors in pooled screens to scalably assay variants at endogenous loci in mammalian cells. We benchmark the performance of base editors in positive and negative selection screens, identifying known loss-of-function mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 with high precision. To demonstrate the utility of base editor screens to probe small molecule-protein interactions, we screen against BH3 mimetics and PARP inhibitors, identifying point mutations that confer drug sensitivity or resistance. We also create a library of single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) predicted to generate 52,034 ClinVar variants in 3,584 genes and conduct screens in the presence of cellular stressors, identifying loss-of-function variants in numerous DNA damage repair genes. We anticipate that this screening approach will be broadly useful to readily and scalably functionalize genetic variants.
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Jiang Q, Wang Y, Gao Y, Wang H, Zhang Z, Li Q, Xu S, Cai W, Li L. RET compound inheritance in Chinese patients with Hirschsprung disease: lack of penetrance from insufficient gene dysfunction. Hum Genet 2021; 140:813-825. [PMID: 33433679 DOI: 10.1007/s00439-020-02247-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2020] [Accepted: 12/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Hirschsprung disease (HSCR) is a neurocristopathy characterized by the absence of enteric ganglia along variable lengths of the intestine. Genetic defects play a major role in HSCR pathogenesis with nearly 50% of patients having a structural or regulatory deficiency in the major susceptibility gene RET. However, complete molecular defects remain poorly characterized in most patients. Here, we performed detailed genetic, molecular, and populational investigations of rare null mutations and modifiers at the RET locus. We first verified the pathogenicity of three RET splice site mutants (c.1879 + 1G > A, c.2607 + 5G > A and c.2608-3C > G) at the RNA level. We also identified significantly higher risk allele (genotype) frequencies, and their over-transmission, from unaffected parents to affected offspring of three functionally independent enhancer variants (rs2506030, rs7069590 and rs2435357, with odd ratios (OR) of 2.09, 2.71 and 7.59, respectively, P < 0.001). These three common variants are in significant (P < 4.64 × 10-186) linkage disequilibrium in the Han Chinese population with ~ 60% of them carrying at least one copy and > 10% with two copies. We show that RET compound inheritance of rare and common variants prevails in 64% (seven out of 11) of Chinese HSCR families. This study supports the idea that common RET variants can modify the penetrance of rare null RET mutations in HSCR, and the combined high susceptibility allele dosage may constitute the unique raised "risk baseline" among the Chinese population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Jiang
- Department of Medical Genetics, Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory of Child Development and Nutriomics, Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, 100020, China
| | - Yang Wang
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, Xinhua Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Shanghai Institute for Pediatric Research, Shanghai, 200092, China
| | - Yang Gao
- Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, 201210, China
| | - Hui Wang
- Department of Medical Genetics, Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory of Child Development and Nutriomics, Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, 100020, China
| | - Zhen Zhang
- Department of General Surgery, Capital Institute of Pediatrics Affiliated Children's Hospital, No. 2 Yabao Rd., Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100020, China
| | - Qi Li
- Department of General Surgery, Capital Institute of Pediatrics Affiliated Children's Hospital, No. 2 Yabao Rd., Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100020, China
| | - Shuhua Xu
- Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650223, China
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, 201210, China
| | - Wei Cai
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, Xinhua Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Shanghai Institute for Pediatric Research, Shanghai, 200092, China.
| | - Long Li
- Department of General Surgery, Capital Institute of Pediatrics Affiliated Children's Hospital, No. 2 Yabao Rd., Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100020, China.
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20
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Programmed Cell Death 2-Like ( Pdcd2l) Is Required for Mouse Embryonic Development. G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS 2020; 10:4449-4457. [PMID: 33055224 PMCID: PMC7718740 DOI: 10.1534/g3.120.401714] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Globozoospermia is a rare form of male infertility where men produce round-headed sperm that are incapable of fertilizing an oocyte naturally. In a previous study where we undertook a whole exome screen to define novel genetic causes of globozoospermia, we identified homozygous mutations in the gene PDCD2L. Two brothers carried a p.(Leu225Val) variant predicted to introduce a novel splice donor site, thus presenting PDCD2L as a potential regulator of male fertility. In this study, we generated a Pdcd2l knockout mouse to test its role in male fertility. Contrary to the phenotype predicted from its testis-enriched expression pattern, Pdcd2l null mice died during embryogenesis. Specifically, we identified that Pdcd2l is essential for post-implantation embryonic development. Pdcd2l−/− embryos were resorbed at embryonic days 12.5-17.5 and no knockout pups were born, while adult heterozygous Pdcd2l males had comparable fertility to wildtype males. To specifically investigate the role of PDCD2L in germ cells, we employed Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. Consistent with the mouse data, global knockdown of trus, the fly ortholog of PDCD2L, resulted in lethality in flies at the third instar larval stage. However, germ cell-specific knockdown with two germ cell drivers did not affect male fertility. Collectively, these data suggest that PDCD2L is not essential for male fertility. By contrast, our results demonstrate an evolutionarily conserved role of PDCD2L in development.
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21
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Donkervoort S, Kutzner CE, Hu Y, Lornage X, Rendu J, Stojkovic T, Baets J, Neuhaus SB, Tanboon J, Maroofian R, Bolduc V, Mroczek M, Conijn S, Kuntz NL, Töpf A, Monges S, Lubieniecki F, McCarty RM, Chao KR, Governali S, Böhm J, Boonyapisit K, Malfatti E, Sangruchi T, Horkayne-Szakaly I, Hedberg-Oldfors C, Efthymiou S, Noguchi S, Djeddi S, Iida A, di Rosa G, Fiorillo C, Salpietro V, Darin N, Fauré J, Houlden H, Oldfors A, Nishino I, de Ridder W, Straub V, Pokrzywa W, Laporte J, Foley AR, Romero NB, Ottenheijm C, Hoppe T, Bönnemann CG. Pathogenic Variants in the Myosin Chaperone UNC-45B Cause Progressive Myopathy with Eccentric Cores. Am J Hum Genet 2020; 107:1078-1095. [PMID: 33217308 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2020] [Accepted: 11/03/2020] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The myosin-directed chaperone UNC-45B is essential for sarcomeric organization and muscle function from Caenorhabditis elegans to humans. The pathological impact of UNC-45B in muscle disease remained elusive. We report ten individuals with bi-allelic variants in UNC45B who exhibit childhood-onset progressive muscle weakness. We identified a common UNC45B variant that acts as a complex hypomorph splice variant. Purified UNC-45B mutants showed changes in folding and solubility. In situ localization studies further demonstrated reduced expression of mutant UNC-45B in muscle combined with abnormal localization away from the A-band towards the Z-disk of the sarcomere. The physiological relevance of these observations was investigated in C. elegans by transgenic expression of conserved UNC-45 missense variants, which showed impaired myosin binding for one and defective muscle function for three. Together, our results demonstrate that UNC-45B impairment manifests as a chaperonopathy with progressive muscle pathology, which discovers the previously unknown conserved role of UNC-45B in myofibrillar organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra Donkervoort
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Carl E Kutzner
- Institute for Genetics and Cologne Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases, University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany; Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany
| | - Ying Hu
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Xavière Lornage
- Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, INSERM U1258, CNRS UMR7104, Université de Strasbourg, BP 10142, 67404 Illkirch, France
| | - John Rendu
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble Alpes, Biochimie Génétique et Moléculaire, Grenoble 38000, France; Grenoble Institut des Neurosciences-INSERM U1216 UGA, Grenoble 38000, France
| | - Tanya Stojkovic
- Centre de Référence des Maladies Neuromusculaires Nord/Est/Ile de France, Institut de Myologie, GHU La Pitié-Salpêtrière, Sorbonne Université, AP-HP, 75013 Paris, France
| | - Jonathan Baets
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium; Laboratory of Neuromuscular Pathology, Institute Born-Bunge, University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium; Neuromuscular Reference Centre, Department of Neurology, Antwerp University Hospital, 2650 Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Sarah B Neuhaus
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Jantima Tanboon
- Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, 10700 Bangkok, Thailand; Department of Neuromuscular Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 187-8502 Tokyo, Japan
| | - Reza Maroofian
- Department of Neuromuscular Disorders, University College London Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Véronique Bolduc
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Magdalena Mroczek
- John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre, Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3BZ, UK
| | - Stefan Conijn
- Department of Physiology, Amsterdam UMC (location VUmc), 1081 HZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Nancy L Kuntz
- Department of Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611, USA
| | - Ana Töpf
- John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre, Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3BZ, UK
| | - Soledad Monges
- Servicio de Neurología y Servicio de Patologia, Hospital de Pediatría Garrahan, C1245 AAM Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Fabiana Lubieniecki
- Servicio de Neurología y Servicio de Patologia, Hospital de Pediatría Garrahan, C1245 AAM Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Riley M McCarty
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Katherine R Chao
- Center for Mendelian Genomics, Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Serena Governali
- Department of Physiology, Amsterdam UMC (location VUmc), 1081 HZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Johann Böhm
- Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, INSERM U1258, CNRS UMR7104, Université de Strasbourg, BP 10142, 67404 Illkirch, France
| | - Kanokwan Boonyapisit
- Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol, University, 10700 Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Edoardo Malfatti
- Neurology Department, Raymond-Poincaré teaching hospital, centre de référence des maladies neuromusculaires Nord/Est/Ile-de-France, AP-HP, 92380 Garches, France
| | - Tumtip Sangruchi
- Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, 10700 Bangkok, Thailand
| | | | - Carola Hedberg-Oldfors
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Stephanie Efthymiou
- Department of Neuromuscular Disorders, University College London Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Satoru Noguchi
- Department of Neuromuscular Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 187-8502 Tokyo, Japan; Department of Genome Medicine Development, Medical Genome Center, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 187-8551 Tokyo, Japan
| | - Sarah Djeddi
- Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, INSERM U1258, CNRS UMR7104, Université de Strasbourg, BP 10142, 67404 Illkirch, France
| | - Aritoshi Iida
- Department of Clinical Genome Analysis, Medical Genome Center, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 187-8551 Tokyo, Japan
| | - Gabriella di Rosa
- Division of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, Department of the Adult and Developmental Age Human Pathology, University of Messina, Messina 98125, Italy
| | - Chiara Fiorillo
- Pediatric Neurology and Muscular Diseases Unit, G. Gaslini Institute, 16147 Genoa, Italy; Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Salpietro
- Pediatric Neurology and Muscular Diseases Unit, G. Gaslini Institute, 16147 Genoa, Italy; Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy
| | - Niklas Darin
- Department of Pediatrics, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, 41650 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Julien Fauré
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble Alpes, Biochimie Génétique et Moléculaire, Grenoble 38000, France; Grenoble Institut des Neurosciences-INSERM U1216 UGA, Grenoble 38000, France
| | - Henry Houlden
- Department of Neuromuscular Disorders, University College London Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Anders Oldfors
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Ichizo Nishino
- Department of Neuromuscular Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 187-8502 Tokyo, Japan; Department of Genome Medicine Development, Medical Genome Center, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 187-8551 Tokyo, Japan; Department of Clinical Genome Analysis, Medical Genome Center, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 187-8551 Tokyo, Japan
| | - Willem de Ridder
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium; Laboratory of Neuromuscular Pathology, Institute Born-Bunge, University of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium; Neuromuscular Reference Centre, Department of Neurology, Antwerp University Hospital, 2650 Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Volker Straub
- John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre, Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3BZ, UK; Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne NE7 7DN, UK
| | - Wojciech Pokrzywa
- Laboratory of Protein Metabolism in Development and Aging, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, 02-109 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Jocelyn Laporte
- Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, INSERM U1258, CNRS UMR7104, Université de Strasbourg, BP 10142, 67404 Illkirch, France
| | - A Reghan Foley
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Norma B Romero
- Centre de Référence des Maladies Neuromusculaires Nord/Est/Ile de France, Institut de Myologie, GHU La Pitié-Salpêtrière, Sorbonne Université, AP-HP, 75013 Paris, France; Université Sorbonne, UPMC Univ Paris 06, INSERM UMRS974, CNRS FRE3617, Center for Research in Myology, GH Pitié-Salpêtrière, 75651 Paris, France; Neuromuscular Morphology Unit, Myology Institute, GHU Pitié-Salpêtrière, 75013 Paris, France
| | - Coen Ottenheijm
- Department of Physiology, Amsterdam UMC (location VUmc), 1081 HZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85718, USA
| | - Thorsten Hoppe
- Institute for Genetics and Cologne Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases, University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany; Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany.
| | - Carsten G Bönnemann
- Neuromuscular and Neurogenetic Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
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Baeza-Centurion P, Miñana B, Valcárcel J, Lehner B. Mutations primarily alter the inclusion of alternatively spliced exons. eLife 2020; 9:59959. [PMID: 33112234 PMCID: PMC7673789 DOI: 10.7554/elife.59959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2020] [Accepted: 10/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Genetic analyses and systematic mutagenesis have revealed that synonymous, non-synonymous and intronic mutations frequently alter the inclusion levels of alternatively spliced exons, consistent with the concept that altered splicing might be a common mechanism by which mutations cause disease. However, most exons expressed in any cell are highly-included in mature mRNAs. Here, by performing deep mutagenesis of highly-included exons and by analysing the association between genome sequence variation and exon inclusion across the transcriptome, we report that mutations only very rarely alter the inclusion of highly-included exons. This is true for both exonic and intronic mutations as well as for perturbations in trans. Therefore, mutations that affect splicing are not evenly distributed across primary transcripts but are focussed in and around alternatively spliced exons with intermediate inclusion levels. These results provide a resource for prioritising synonymous and other variants as disease-causing mutations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pablo Baeza-Centurion
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Belén Miñana
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Juan Valcárcel
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Spain.,Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Ben Lehner
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Spain.,Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain.,Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
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23
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Joynt AT, Evans TA, Pellicore MJ, Davis-Marcisak EF, Aksit MA, Eastman AC, Patel SU, Paul KC, Osorio DL, Bowling AD, Cotton CU, Raraigh KS, West NE, Merlo CA, Cutting GR, Sharma N. Evaluation of both exonic and intronic variants for effects on RNA splicing allows for accurate assessment of the effectiveness of precision therapies. PLoS Genet 2020; 16:e1009100. [PMID: 33085659 PMCID: PMC7605713 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2020] [Revised: 11/02/2020] [Accepted: 09/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Elucidating the functional consequence of molecular defects underlying genetic diseases enables appropriate design of therapeutic options. Treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF) is an exemplar of this paradigm as the development of CFTR modulator therapies has allowed for targeted and effective treatment of individuals harboring specific genetic variants. However, the mechanism of these drugs limits effectiveness to particular classes of variants that allow production of CFTR protein. Thus, assessment of the molecular mechanism of individual variants is imperative for proper assignment of these precision therapies. This is particularly important when considering variants that affect pre-mRNA splicing, thus limiting success of the existing protein-targeted therapies. Variants affecting splicing can occur throughout exons and introns and the complexity of the process of splicing lends itself to a variety of outcomes, both at the RNA and protein levels, further complicating assessment of disease liability and modulator response. To investigate the scope of this challenge, we evaluated splicing and downstream effects of 52 naturally occurring CFTR variants (exonic = 15, intronic = 37). Expression of constructs containing select CFTR intronic sequences and complete CFTR exonic sequences in cell line models allowed for assessment of RNA and protein-level effects on an allele by allele basis. Characterization of primary nasal epithelial cells obtained from individuals harboring splice variants corroborated in vitro data. Notably, we identified exonic variants that result in complete missplicing and thus a lack of modulator response (e.g. c.2908G>A, c.523A>G), as well as intronic variants that respond to modulators due to the presence of residual normally spliced transcript (e.g. c.4242+2T>C, c.3717+40A>G). Overall, our data reveals diverse molecular outcomes amongst both exonic and intronic variants emphasizing the need to delineate RNA, protein, and functional effects of each variant in order to accurately assign precision therapies. Genetic variants that impact pre-mRNA splicing are a common cause of genetic disease and have varying downstream molecular consequences. As a result, precision therapies that function at the protein level are not always effective for these variants and thus careful assessment is necessary. Here we evaluate RNA-level effects of 52 variants in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene and show that study of splicing and its consequences allows for more accurate assignment of precision therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anya T. Joynt
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Taylor A. Evans
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Matthew J. Pellicore
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Emily F. Davis-Marcisak
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Melis A. Aksit
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Alice C. Eastman
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Shivani U. Patel
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Kathleen C. Paul
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Derek L. Osorio
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Alyssa D. Bowling
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Calvin U. Cotton
- Departments of Pediatrics, Physiology and Biophysics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America
| | - Karen S. Raraigh
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Natalie E. West
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Christian A. Merlo
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Garry R. Cutting
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
- * E-mail: (GRC); (NS)
| | - Neeraj Sharma
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
- * E-mail: (GRC); (NS)
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24
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Ferraro NM, Strober BJ, Einson J, Abell NS, Aguet F, Barbeira AN, Brandt M, Bucan M, Castel SE, Davis JR, Greenwald E, Hess GT, Hilliard AT, Kember RL, Kotis B, Park Y, Peloso G, Ramdas S, Scott AJ, Smail C, Tsang EK, Zekavat SM, Ziosi M, Aradhana, Ardlie KG, Assimes TL, Bassik MC, Brown CD, Correa A, Hall I, Im HK, Li X, Natarajan P, Lappalainen T, Mohammadi P, Montgomery SB, Battle A. Transcriptomic signatures across human tissues identify functional rare genetic variation. Science 2020; 369:eaaz5900. [PMID: 32913073 PMCID: PMC7646251 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz5900] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2019] [Accepted: 07/31/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Rare genetic variants are abundant across the human genome, and identifying their function and phenotypic impact is a major challenge. Measuring aberrant gene expression has aided in identifying functional, large-effect rare variants (RVs). Here, we expanded detection of genetically driven transcriptome abnormalities by analyzing gene expression, allele-specific expression, and alternative splicing from multitissue RNA-sequencing data, and demonstrate that each signal informs unique classes of RVs. We developed Watershed, a probabilistic model that integrates multiple genomic and transcriptomic signals to predict variant function, validated these predictions in additional cohorts and through experimental assays, and used them to assess RVs in the UK Biobank, the Million Veterans Program, and the Jackson Heart Study. Our results link thousands of RVs to diverse molecular effects and provide evidence to associate RVs affecting the transcriptome with human traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole M Ferraro
- Biomedical Informatics Training Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Benjamin J Strober
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Jonah Einson
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Nathan S Abell
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | - Alvaro N Barbeira
- Section of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Margot Brandt
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Maja Bucan
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Stephane E Castel
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Joe R Davis
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Emily Greenwald
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Gaelen T Hess
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Austin T Hilliard
- Palo Alto Veterans Institute for Research, Palo Alto Epidemiology Research and Information Center for Genomics, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Rachel L Kember
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Bence Kotis
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - YoSon Park
- Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Gina Peloso
- Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Shweta Ramdas
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Alexandra J Scott
- McDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Craig Smail
- Biomedical Informatics Training Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Emily K Tsang
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Seyedeh M Zekavat
- Medical & Population Genomics, Yale School of Medicine and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | - Aradhana
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | - Themistocles L Assimes
- Palo Alto Veterans Institute for Research, Palo Alto Epidemiology Research and Information Center for Genomics, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | | | - Adolfo Correa
- University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA
| | - Ira Hall
- McDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Hae Kyung Im
- Section of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Xin Li
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Pradeep Natarajan
- Cardiovascular Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Tuuli Lappalainen
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Pejman Mohammadi
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA.
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Scripps Translational Science Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Stephen B Montgomery
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Alexis Battle
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
- Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
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25
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Hakonen AH, Lehtonen J, Kivirikko S, Keski-Filppula R, Moilanen J, Kivisaari R, Almusa H, Jakkula E, Saarela J, Avela K, Aittomäki K. Recessive MYH3 variants cause "Contractures, pterygia, and variable skeletal fusions syndrome 1B" mimicking Escobar variant multiple pterygium syndrome. Am J Med Genet A 2020; 182:2605-2610. [PMID: 32902138 DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.a.61836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2020] [Revised: 07/06/2020] [Accepted: 08/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The multiple pterygium syndromes (MPS) are rare disorders with disease severity ranging from lethal to milder forms. The nonlethal Escobar variant MPS (EVMPS) is characterized by multiple pterygia and arthrogryposis, as well as various additional features including congenital anomalies. The genetic etiology of EVMPS is heterogeneous and the diagnosis has been based either on the detection of pathogenic CHRNG variants (~23% of patients), or suggestive clinical features. We describe four patients with a clinical suspicion of EVMPS who manifested with multiple pterygia, mild flexion contractures of several joints, and vertebral anomalies. We revealed recessively inherited MYH3 variants as the underlying cause in all patients: two novel variants, c.1053C>G, p.(Tyr351Ter) and c.3102+5G>C, as compound heterozygous with the hypomorphic MYH3 variant c.-9+1G>A. Recessive MYH3 variants have been previously associated with spondylocarpotarsal synostosis syndrome. Our findings now highlight multiple pterygia as an important feature in patients with recessive MYH3 variants. Based on all patients with recessive MYH3 variants reported up to date, we consider that this disease entity should be designated as "Contractures, pterygia, and variable skeletal fusions syndrome 1B," as recently suggested by OMIM. Our findings underline the importance of analyzing MYH3 in the differential diagnosis of EVMPS, particularly as the hypomorphic MYH3 variant might remain undetected by routine exome sequencing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna H Hakonen
- Department of Clinical Genetics, HUSLAB, HUS Diagnostic Center, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Johanna Lehtonen
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, FIMM, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Sirpa Kivirikko
- Department of Clinical Genetics, HUSLAB, HUS Diagnostic Center, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Riikka Keski-Filppula
- Department of Clinical Genetics, Oulu University Hospital, Medical Research Center Oulu and PEDEGO Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Jukka Moilanen
- Department of Clinical Genetics, Oulu University Hospital, Medical Research Center Oulu and PEDEGO Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Reetta Kivisaari
- HUS Medical Imaging Center, Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Henrikki Almusa
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, FIMM, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Eveliina Jakkula
- Department of Clinical Genetics, HUSLAB, HUS Diagnostic Center, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Janna Saarela
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, FIMM, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.,Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.,HUSLAB, HUS Diagnostic Center, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Kristiina Avela
- Department of Clinical Genetics, HUSLAB, HUS Diagnostic Center, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Kristiina Aittomäki
- Department of Clinical Genetics, HUSLAB, HUS Diagnostic Center, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
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26
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Pathogenic deep intronic MTM1 variant activates a pseudo-exon encoding a nonsense codon resulting in severe X-linked myotubular myopathy. Eur J Hum Genet 2020; 29:61-66. [PMID: 32862205 DOI: 10.1038/s41431-020-00715-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2020] [Revised: 06/30/2020] [Accepted: 08/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
X-linked myotubular myopathy (XLMTM) is a severe congenital myopathy characterised by generalised weakness and respiratory insufficiency. XLMTM is associated with pathogenic variants in MTM1; a gene encoding the lipid phosphatase myotubularin. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of an exome-negative male proband with severe hypotonia, respiratory insufficiency and centralised nuclei on muscle biopsy identified a deep intronic MTM1 variant NG_008199.1(NM_000252.2):c.1468-577A>G, which strengthened a cryptic 5' splice site (A>G substitution at the +5 position). Muscle RNA sequencing was non-diagnostic due to low read depth. Reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) of muscle RNA confirmed the c.1468-577A>G variant activates inclusion of a pseudo-exon encoding a premature stop codon into all detected MTM1 transcripts. Western blot analysis establishes deficiency of myotubularin protein, consistent with the severe XLMTM phenotype. We expand the genotypic spectrum of XLMTM and highlight benefits of screening non-coding regions of MTM1 in male probands with phenotypically concordant XLMTM who remain undiagnosed following exome sequencing.
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27
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Chung J, Marini S, Pera J, Norrving B, Jimenez-Conde J, Roquer J, Fernandez-Cadenas I, Tirschwell DL, Selim M, Brown DL, Silliman SL, Worrall BB, Meschia JF, Demel S, Greenberg SM, Slowik A, Lindgren A, Schmidt R, Traylor M, Sargurupremraj M, Tiedt S, Malik R, Debette S, Dichgans M, Langefeld CD, Woo D, Rosand J, Anderson CD. Genome-wide association study of cerebral small vessel disease reveals established and novel loci. Brain 2020; 142:3176-3189. [PMID: 31430377 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awz233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2018] [Revised: 05/30/2019] [Accepted: 06/04/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Intracerebral haemorrhage and small vessel ischaemic stroke (SVS) are the most acute manifestations of cerebral small vessel disease, with no established preventive approaches beyond hypertension management. Combined genome-wide association study (GWAS) of these two correlated diseases may improve statistical power to detect novel genetic factors for cerebral small vessel disease, elucidating underlying disease mechanisms that may form the basis for future treatments. Because intracerebral haemorrhage location is an adequate surrogate for distinct histopathological variants of cerebral small vessel disease (lobar for cerebral amyloid angiopathy and non-lobar for arteriolosclerosis), we performed GWAS of intracerebral haemorrhage by location in 1813 subjects (755 lobar and 1005 non-lobar) and 1711 stroke-free control subjects. Intracerebral haemorrhage GWAS results by location were meta-analysed with GWAS results for SVS from MEGASTROKE, using 'Multi-Trait Analysis of GWAS' (MTAG) to integrate summary data across traits and generate combined effect estimates. After combining intracerebral haemorrhage and SVS datasets, our sample size included 241 024 participants (6255 intracerebral haemorrhage or SVS cases and 233 058 control subjects). Genome-wide significant associations were observed for non-lobar intracerebral haemorrhage enhanced by SVS with rs2758605 [MTAG P-value (P) = 2.6 × 10-8] at 1q22; rs72932727 (P = 1.7 × 10-8) at 2q33; and rs9515201 (P = 5.3 × 10-10) at 13q34. In the GTEx gene expression library, rs2758605 (1q22), rs72932727 (2q33) and rs9515201 (13q34) are significant cis-eQTLs for PMF1 (P = 1 × 10-4 in tibial nerve), NBEAL1, FAM117B and CARF (P < 2.1 × 10-7 in arteries) and COL4A2 and COL4A1 (P < 0.01 in brain putamen), respectively. Leveraging S-PrediXcan for gene-based association testing with the predicted expression models in tissues related with nerve, artery, and non-lobar brain, we found that experiment-wide significant (P < 8.5 × 10-7) associations at three genes at 2q33 including NBEAL1, FAM117B and WDR12 and genome-wide significant associations at two genes including ICA1L at 2q33 and ZCCHC14 at 16q24. Brain cell-type specific expression profiling libraries reveal that SEMA4A, SLC25A44 and PMF1 at 1q22 and COL4A1 and COL4A2 at 13q34 were mainly expressed in endothelial cells, while the genes at 2q33 (FAM117B, CARF and NBEAL1) were expressed in various cell types including astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and neurons. Our cross-phenotype genetic study of intracerebral haemorrhage and SVS demonstrates novel genome-wide associations for non-lobar intracerebral haemorrhage at 2q33 and 13q34. Our replication of the 1q22 locus previous seen in traditional GWAS of intracerebral haemorrhage, as well as the rediscovery of 13q34, which had previously been reported in candidate gene studies with other cerebral small vessel disease-related traits strengthens the credibility of applying this novel genome-wide approach across intracerebral haemorrhage and SVS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaeyoon Chung
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.,Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Sandro Marini
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.,Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Joanna Pera
- Department of Neurology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland
| | - Bo Norrving
- Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Neurology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.,Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden
| | - Jordi Jimenez-Conde
- Department of Neurology, Neurovascular Research Unit, Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigacions Mèdiques, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jaume Roquer
- Department of Neurology, Neurovascular Research Unit, Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigacions Mèdiques, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Israel Fernandez-Cadenas
- Neurovascular Research Laboratory and Neurovascular Unit, Institut de Recerca, Hospital Vall d'Hebron, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.,Stroke Pharmacogenomics and Genetics, Sant Pau Institute of Research, Hospital de la Santa Creu I Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain
| | - David L Tirschwell
- Stroke Center, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Magdy Selim
- Department of Neurology, Stroke Division, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Devin L Brown
- Stroke Program, Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Scott L Silliman
- Department of Neurology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Jacksonville, FL, USA
| | - Bradford B Worrall
- Department of Neurology and Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | | | - Stacie Demel
- Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Steven M Greenberg
- The J. Philip Kistler Stroke Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Agnieszka Slowik
- Department of Neurology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland
| | - Arne Lindgren
- Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Neurology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.,Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden
| | - Reinhold Schmidt
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Matthew Traylor
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | | | - Steffen Tiedt
- Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.,Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Munich, Germany
| | - Rainer Malik
- Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.,Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Munich, Germany
| | - Stéphanie Debette
- University of Bordeaux, INSERM U1219, Bordeaux Population Health Research Center, Bordeaux, France.,Department of Neurology, Memory Clinic, Bordeaux University Hospital, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
| | - Martin Dichgans
- Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.,Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Munich, Germany.,German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE, Munich), Munich, Germany
| | - Carl D Langefeld
- Center for Public Health Genomics and Department of Biostatistical Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
| | - Daniel Woo
- Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Jonathan Rosand
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.,Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Christopher D Anderson
- Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.,Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
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28
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Whiffin N, Karczewski KJ, Zhang X, Chothani S, Smith MJ, Evans DG, Roberts AM, Quaife NM, Schafer S, Rackham O, Alföldi J, O'Donnell-Luria AH, Francioli LC, Cook SA, Barton PJR, MacArthur DG, Ware JS. Characterising the loss-of-function impact of 5' untranslated region variants in 15,708 individuals. Nat Commun 2020; 11:2523. [PMID: 32461616 PMCID: PMC7253449 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10717-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 92] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2019] [Accepted: 05/23/2019] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are tissue-specific cis-regulators of protein translation. Isolated reports have shown that variants that create or disrupt uORFs can cause disease. Here, in a systematic genome-wide study using 15,708 whole genome sequences, we show that variants that create new upstream start codons, and variants disrupting stop sites of existing uORFs, are under strong negative selection. This selection signal is significantly stronger for variants arising upstream of genes intolerant to loss-of-function variants. Furthermore, variants creating uORFs that overlap the coding sequence show signals of selection equivalent to coding missense variants. Finally, we identify specific genes where modification of uORFs likely represents an important disease mechanism, and report a novel uORF frameshift variant upstream of NF2 in neurofibromatosis. Our results highlight uORF-perturbing variants as an under-recognised functional class that contribute to penetrant human disease, and demonstrate the power of large-scale population sequencing data in studying non-coding variant classes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Whiffin
- National Heart and Lung Institute and MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, Imperial College London, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK.
- NIHR Royal Brompton Cardiovascular Research Centre, Royal Brompton and Harefield National Health Service Foundation Trust, Sydney Street, London, SW3 6NP, UK.
- Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA.
| | - Konrad J Karczewski
- Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA
- Analytical and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
| | - Xiaolei Zhang
- National Heart and Lung Institute and MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, Imperial College London, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK
- NIHR Royal Brompton Cardiovascular Research Centre, Royal Brompton and Harefield National Health Service Foundation Trust, Sydney Street, London, SW3 6NP, UK
| | - Sonia Chothani
- Program in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, Duke-NUS Medical School, 8 College Road, Singapore, 169857, Singapore
| | - Miriam J Smith
- NW Genomic Laboratory Hub, Centre for Genomic Medicine, Division of Evolution and Genomic Science, St Mary's Hospital, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9WL, UK
| | - D Gareth Evans
- NW Genomic Laboratory Hub, Centre for Genomic Medicine, Division of Evolution and Genomic Science, St Mary's Hospital, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9WL, UK
| | - Angharad M Roberts
- National Heart and Lung Institute and MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, Imperial College London, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK
- NIHR Royal Brompton Cardiovascular Research Centre, Royal Brompton and Harefield National Health Service Foundation Trust, Sydney Street, London, SW3 6NP, UK
| | - Nicholas M Quaife
- National Heart and Lung Institute and MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, Imperial College London, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK
- NIHR Royal Brompton Cardiovascular Research Centre, Royal Brompton and Harefield National Health Service Foundation Trust, Sydney Street, London, SW3 6NP, UK
| | - Sebastian Schafer
- Program in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, Duke-NUS Medical School, 8 College Road, Singapore, 169857, Singapore
- National Heart Centre Singapore, 5 Hospital Drive, Singapore, 169609, Singapore
| | - Owen Rackham
- Program in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, Duke-NUS Medical School, 8 College Road, Singapore, 169857, Singapore
| | - Jessica Alföldi
- Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA
- Analytical and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
| | - Anne H O'Donnell-Luria
- Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA
- Division of Genetics and Genomics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Laurent C Francioli
- Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA
- Analytical and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
| | - Stuart A Cook
- National Heart and Lung Institute and MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, Imperial College London, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK
- Program in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, Duke-NUS Medical School, 8 College Road, Singapore, 169857, Singapore
- National Heart Centre Singapore, 5 Hospital Drive, Singapore, 169609, Singapore
| | - Paul J R Barton
- National Heart and Lung Institute and MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, Imperial College London, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK
- NIHR Royal Brompton Cardiovascular Research Centre, Royal Brompton and Harefield National Health Service Foundation Trust, Sydney Street, London, SW3 6NP, UK
| | - Daniel G MacArthur
- Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA
- Analytical and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
- Centre for Population Genomics, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia
- Centre for Population Genomics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia
| | - James S Ware
- National Heart and Lung Institute and MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, Imperial College London, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK
- NIHR Royal Brompton Cardiovascular Research Centre, Royal Brompton and Harefield National Health Service Foundation Trust, Sydney Street, London, SW3 6NP, UK
- Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA
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29
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Sanders SJ, Schwartz GB, Farh KKH. Clinical impact of splicing in neurodevelopmental disorders. Genome Med 2020; 12:36. [PMID: 32331533 PMCID: PMC7183108 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-020-00737-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2019] [Accepted: 04/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Clinical exome sequencing is frequently used to identify gene-disrupting variants in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. While splice-disrupting variants are known to contribute to these disorders, clinical interpretation of cryptic splice variants outside of the canonical splice site has been challenging. Here, we discuss papers that improve such detection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephan J Sanders
- Department of Psychiatry and UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA.
| | - Grace B Schwartz
- Department of Psychiatry and UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA
| | - Kyle Kai-How Farh
- Illumina Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Illumina, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA
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30
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Ribeiro M, Furtado M, Martins S, Carvalho T, Carmo-Fonseca M. RNA Splicing Defects in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Implications for Diagnosis and Therapy. Int J Mol Sci 2020; 21:ijms21041329. [PMID: 32079122 PMCID: PMC7072897 DOI: 10.3390/ijms21041329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2020] [Revised: 02/10/2020] [Accepted: 02/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the most common inherited heart disease, is predominantly caused by mutations in genes that encode sarcomere-associated proteins. Effective gene-based diagnosis is critical for the accurate clinical management of patients and their family members. However, the introduction of high-throughput DNA sequencing approaches for clinical diagnostics has vastly expanded the number of variants of uncertain significance, leading to many inconclusive results that limit the clinical utility of genetic testing. More recently, developments in RNA analysis have been improving diagnostic outcomes by identifying new variants that interfere with splicing. This review summarizes recent discoveries of RNA mis-splicing in HCM and provides an overview of research that aims to apply the concept of RNA therapeutics to HCM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marta Ribeiro
- Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Av Prof Egas Moniz, Edificio Egas Moniz, 1649-028 Lisboa, Portugal; (M.R.); (M.F.); (S.M.); (T.C.)
- Department of Bioengineering and iBB–Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Marta Furtado
- Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Av Prof Egas Moniz, Edificio Egas Moniz, 1649-028 Lisboa, Portugal; (M.R.); (M.F.); (S.M.); (T.C.)
| | - Sandra Martins
- Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Av Prof Egas Moniz, Edificio Egas Moniz, 1649-028 Lisboa, Portugal; (M.R.); (M.F.); (S.M.); (T.C.)
| | - Teresa Carvalho
- Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Av Prof Egas Moniz, Edificio Egas Moniz, 1649-028 Lisboa, Portugal; (M.R.); (M.F.); (S.M.); (T.C.)
| | - Maria Carmo-Fonseca
- Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Av Prof Egas Moniz, Edificio Egas Moniz, 1649-028 Lisboa, Portugal; (M.R.); (M.F.); (S.M.); (T.C.)
- Correspondence:
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Molla KA, Yang Y. CRISPR/Cas-Mediated Base Editing: Technical Considerations and Practical Applications. Trends Biotechnol 2019; 37:1121-1142. [PMID: 30995964 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2019.03.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 192] [Impact Index Per Article: 38.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2019] [Revised: 03/05/2019] [Accepted: 03/06/2019] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kutubuddin A Molla
- Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, and Huck Institute of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA; ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack 753006, India
| | - Yinong Yang
- Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, and Huck Institute of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
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One byte at a time: evidencing the quality of clinical service next-generation sequencing for germline and somatic variants. Eur J Hum Genet 2019; 28:202-212. [PMID: 31570784 PMCID: PMC6974611 DOI: 10.1038/s41431-019-0515-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2019] [Revised: 07/03/2019] [Accepted: 08/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is replacing other molecular techniques to become the de facto gene diagnostics approach, transforming the speed of diagnosis for patients and expanding opportunities for precision medicine. Consequently, for accredited laboratories as well as those seeking accreditation, both objective measures of quality and external review of laboratory processes are required. External quality assessment (EQA), or Proficiency Testing (PT), can assess a laboratory’s service through an independent external agency, the EQA provider. The analysis of a growing number of genes and whole exome and genomes is now routine; therefore, an EQA must be delivered to enable all testing laboratories to participate. In this paper, we describe the development of a unique platform and gene target independent EQA scheme for NGS, designed to scale from current to future requirements of clinical diagnostic laboratories testing for germline and somatic variants. The EQA results from three annual rounds indicate that clinical diagnostic laboratories are providing an increasingly high-quality NGS service and variant calling abilities are improving. From an EQA provider perspective, challenges remain regarding delivery and performance criteria, as well as in analysing similar NGS approaches between cohorts with meaningful metrics, sample sourcing and data formats.
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Furlong R. Refining the splice region. Nat Rev Genet 2019; 19:470-471. [PMID: 29921867 DOI: 10.1038/s41576-018-0028-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Surikova Y, Filatova A, Polyak M, Skoblov M, Zaklyazminskaya E. Common pathogenic mechanism in patients with dropped head syndrome caused by different mutations in the MYH7 gene. Gene 2019; 697:159-164. [PMID: 30794915 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2019.02.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2018] [Revised: 01/24/2019] [Accepted: 02/06/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Mutations in the MYH7 gene are the source of an allelic series of diseases, including various cardiomyopathies and skeletal myopathies that usually manifest in adulthood. We observed a 1.5 y.o. male patient with congenital weaknesses of the axial muscles, "dropped head" syndrome, and dilated cardiomyopathy. The clinical evaluation included medical history, an echocardiogram, electromyography, and a histopathological study. The genetic evaluation included whole exome sequencing. Muscle biopsy samples from the proband were used for mRNA extraction. We revealed a novel genetic variant c.5655 + 5G > C in the MYH7 gene. The analysis of the cDNA showed an in-frame skipping of exon 38 (p.1854_1885del). This variant and two previously published mutations (c.5655G > A and c.5655 + 1G > A), also presumably leading to exon 38 skipping, were studied by expression analysis in the HEK293T cell line transfected with 4 plasmids containing the MYH7 minigene (wt, c.5655G > C, c.5655 + 1G > A and c.5655 + 5G > A). A quantitative difference in expression was shown for cell lines with each of the three mutant plasmids. All mutation carriers had a similar phenotype and included congenital axial myopathy and variable cardiac involvement. Prominent dropped head syndrome was mentioned in all patients. Early-onset axial myopathy with a dropped head syndrome is a distinct clinical entity within MYH7-related disorders. We suggest that mutations in the MYH7 gene affecting the C-terminal domain of beta-myosin heavy chain should also be considered as a possible cause in cases of early-onset myopathy with "dropped head" syndrome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yulia Surikova
- Medical Genetics Laboratory, Petrovsky Russian Research Center of Surgery, Moscow 119991, Russia.
| | - Alexandra Filatova
- Laboratory of Functional Genomics, Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moscow 115522, Russia
| | - Margarita Polyak
- Medical Genetics Laboratory, Petrovsky Russian Research Center of Surgery, Moscow 119991, Russia
| | - Mikhail Skoblov
- Laboratory of Functional Genomics, Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moscow 115522, Russia; School of Biomedicine, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok 690090, Russia
| | - Elena Zaklyazminskaya
- Medical Genetics Laboratory, Petrovsky Russian Research Center of Surgery, Moscow 119991, Russia; Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow 117997, Russia
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