scholarly journals Using high-resolution variant frequencies to empower clinical genome interpretation

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Whiffin ◽  
Eric Minikel ◽  
Roddy Walsh ◽  
Anne O’Donnell-Luria ◽  
Konrad Karczewski ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTWhole exome and genome sequencing have transformed the discovery of genetic variants that cause human Mendelian disease, but discriminating pathogenic from benign variants remains a daunting challenge. Rarity is recognised as a necessary, although not sufficient, criterion for pathogenicity, but frequency cutoffs used in Mendelian analysis are often arbitrary and overly lenient. Recent very large reference datasets, such as the Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC), provide an unprecedented opportunity to obtain robust frequency estimates even for very rare variants. Here we present a statistical framework for the frequency-based filtering of candidate disease-causing variants, accounting for disease prevalence, genetic and allelic heterogeneity, inheritance mode, penetrance, and sampling variance in reference datasets. Using the example of cardiomyopathy, we show that our approach reduces by two-thirds the number of candidate variants under consideration in the average exome, and identifies 43 variants previously reported as pathogenic that can now be reclassified. We present precomputed allele frequency cutoffs for all variants in the ExAC dataset.

2021 ◽  
pp. 105566562110375
Author(s):  
Meng Lu ◽  
Bin Yang ◽  
Zixiang Chen ◽  
Haiyue Jiang ◽  
Bo Pan

Objective The aim of this study was to confirm the pathogenic variants, explore the genotype–phenotype correlation and characteristics of Chinese patients with Treacher Collins syndrome (TCS). Design Clinical details of 3 TCS family cases and 2 sporadic cases were collected and analyzed. Whole-exome sequencing and Sanger sequencing were conducted to detect causative variants. Setting Tertiary clinical care. Patients This study included 8 patients clinically diagnosed with TCS who were from 3 familial cases and 2 sporadic cases. Main Outcome Measures When filtering the database, variants were saved as rare variants if their frequency were less than 0.005 in the 1000 Genomes Project Database, the Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC) browser, and the Novogene database, or they would be removed as common ones. The pathogenic variants identified were verified by polymerase chain reaction. The sequencing results were analyzed by Chromas 2.1 software. Results Two novel pathogenic variants (NM_000356.3: c.537del and NM_000356.3: c.1965_1966dupGG) and 2 known pathogenic variants (NM_000356.3: c.1535del, NM_000356.3: c.4131_4135del) were identified within TCOF1 which are predicted to lead to premature termination codons resulting in a truncated protein. There was a known missense SNP (NM_015972.3: c.139G>A) within POLR1D. No phenotype–genotype correlation was observed. Instead, these 8 patients demonstrated the high genotypic and phenotypic heterogeneity of TCS. Conclusions This study expands on the pathogenic gene pool of Chinese patients with TCS. Besides the great variation among patients which is similar to international reports, Chinese patients have their own characteristics in clinical phenotype and pathogenesis mutations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (17) ◽  
pp. 4609-4615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garrett Jenkinson ◽  
Yang I Li ◽  
Shubham Basu ◽  
Margot A Cousin ◽  
Gavin R Oliver ◽  
...  

Abstract Motivation Next-generation sequencing is rapidly improving diagnostic rates in rare Mendelian diseases, but even with whole genome or whole exome sequencing, the majority of cases remain unsolved. Increasingly, RNA sequencing is being used to solve many cases that evade diagnosis through sequencing alone. Specifically, the detection of aberrant splicing in many rare disease patients suggests that identifying RNA splicing outliers is particularly useful for determining causal Mendelian disease genes. However, there is as yet a paucity of statistical methodologies to detect splicing outliers. Results We developed LeafCutterMD, a new statistical framework that significantly improves the previously published LeafCutter in the context of detecting outlier splicing events. Through simulations and analysis of real patient data, we demonstrate that LeafCutterMD has better power than the state-of-the-art methodology while controlling false-positive rates. When applied to a cohort of disease-affected probands from the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, LeafCutterMD recovered all aberrantly spliced genes that had previously been identified by manual curation efforts. Availability and implementation The source code for this method is available under the opensource Apache 2.0 license in the latest release of the LeafCutter software package available online at http://davidaknowles.github.io/leafcutter. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 430
Author(s):  
Steven R. Bentley ◽  
Ilaria Guella ◽  
Holly E. Sherman ◽  
Hannah M. Neuendorf ◽  
Alex M. Sykes ◽  
...  

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is typically sporadic; however, multi-incident families provide a powerful platform to discover novel genetic forms of disease. Their identification supports deciphering molecular processes leading to disease and may inform of new therapeutic targets. The LRRK2 p.G2019S mutation causes PD in 42.5–68% of carriers by the age of 80 years. We hypothesise similarly intermediately penetrant mutations may present in multi-incident families with a generally strong family history of disease. We have analysed six multiplex families for missense variants using whole exome sequencing to find 32 rare heterozygous mutations shared amongst affected members. Included in these mutations was the KCNJ15 p.R28C variant, identified in five affected members of the same family, two elderly unaffected members of the same family, and two unrelated PD cases. Additionally, the SIPA1L1 p.R236Q variant was identified in three related affected members and an unrelated familial case. While the evidence presented here is not sufficient to assign causality to these rare variants, it does provide novel candidates for hypothesis testing in other modestly sized families with a strong family history. Future analysis will include characterisation of functional consequences and assessment of carriers in other familial cases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Ka-Yee Kwong ◽  
Mandy Ho-Yin Tsang ◽  
Jasmine Lee-Fong Fung ◽  
Christopher Chun-Yu Mak ◽  
Kate Lok-San Chan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Movement disorders are a group of heterogeneous neurological diseases including hyperkinetic disorders with unwanted excess movements and hypokinetic disorders with reduction in the degree of movements. The objective of our study is to investigate the genetic etiology of a cohort of paediatric patients with movement disorders by whole exome sequencing and to review the potential treatment implications after a genetic diagnosis. Results We studied a cohort of 31 patients who have paediatric-onset movement disorders with unrevealing etiologies. Whole exome sequencing was performed and rare variants were interrogated for pathogenicity. Genetic diagnoses have been confirmed in 10 patients with disease-causing variants in CTNNB1, SPAST, ATP1A3, PURA, SLC2A1, KMT2B, ACTB, GNAO1 and SPG11. 80% (8/10) of patients with genetic diagnosis have potential treatment implications and treatments have been offered to them. One patient with KMT2B dystonia showed clinical improvement with decrease in dystonia after receiving globus pallidus interna deep brain stimulation. Conclusions A diagnostic yield of 32% (10/31) was reported in our cohort and this allows a better prediction of prognosis and contributes to a more effective clinical management. The study highlights the potential of implementing precision medicine in the patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 3625
Author(s):  
Filomena Napolitano ◽  
Giorgia Bruno ◽  
Chiara Terracciano ◽  
Giuseppina Franzese ◽  
Nicole Piera Palomba ◽  
...  

Pompe disease is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by a deficiency in the enzyme acid alpha-glucosidase. The late-onset form of Pompe disease (LOPD) is characterized by a slowly progressing proximal muscle weakness, often involving respiratory muscles. In LOPD, the levels of GAA enzyme activity and the severity of the clinical pictures may be highly variable among individuals, even in those who harbour the same combination of GAA mutations. The result is an unpredictable genotype–phenotype correlation. The purpose of this study was to identify the genetic factors responsible for the progression, severity and drug response in LOPD. We report here on a detailed clinical, morphological and genetic study, including a whole exome sequencing (WES) analysis of 11 adult LOPD siblings belonging to two Italian families carrying compound heterozygous GAA mutations. We disclosed a heterogeneous pattern of myopathic impairment, associated, among others, with cardiac defects, intracranial vessels abnormality, osteoporosis, vitamin D deficiency, obesity and adverse response to enzyme replacement therapy (ERT). We identified deleterious variants in the genes involved in autophagy, immunity and bone metabolism, which contributed to the severity of the clinical symptoms observed in the LOPD patients. This study emphasizes the multisystem nature of LOPD and highlights the polygenic nature of the complex phenotype disclosed in these patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Gialluisi ◽  
Mafalda Giovanna Reccia ◽  
Nicola Modugno ◽  
Teresa Nutile ◽  
Alessia Lombardi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative movement disorder affecting 1–5% of the general population for which neither effective cure nor early diagnostic tools are available that could tackle the pathology in the early phase. Here we report a multi-stage procedure to identify candidate genes likely involved in the etiopathogenesis of PD. Methods The study includes a discovery stage based on the analysis of whole exome data from 26 dominant late onset PD families, a validation analysis performed on 1542 independent PD patients and 706 controls from different cohorts and the assessment of polygenic variants load in the Italian cohort (394 unrelated patients and 203 controls). Results Family-based approach identified 28 disrupting variants in 26 candidate genes for PD including PARK2, PINK1, DJ-1(PARK7), LRRK2, HTRA2, FBXO7, EIF4G1, DNAJC6, DNAJC13, SNCAIP, AIMP2, CHMP1A, GIPC1, HMOX2, HSPA8, IMMT, KIF21B, KIF24, MAN2C1, RHOT2, SLC25A39, SPTBN1, TMEM175, TOMM22, TVP23A and ZSCAN21. Sixteen of them have not been associated to PD before, were expressed in mesencephalon and were involved in pathways potentially deregulated in PD. Mutation analysis in independent cohorts disclosed a significant excess of highly deleterious variants in cases (p = 0.0001), supporting their role in PD. Moreover, we demonstrated that the co-inheritance of multiple rare variants (≥ 2) in the 26 genes may predict PD occurrence in about 20% of patients, both familial and sporadic cases, with high specificity (> 93%; p = 4.4 × 10− 5). Moreover, our data highlight the fact that the genetic landmarks of late onset PD does not systematically differ between sporadic and familial forms, especially in the case of small nuclear families and underline the importance of rare variants in the genetics of sporadic PD. Furthermore, patients carrying multiple rare variants showed higher risk of manifesting dyskinesia induced by levodopa treatment. Conclusions Besides confirming the extreme genetic heterogeneity of PD, these data provide novel insights into the genetic of the disease and may be relevant for its prediction, diagnosis and treatment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 148 (4) ◽  
pp. S-71
Author(s):  
Judith R. Kelsen ◽  
Noor Dewany ◽  
Eric Rappaport ◽  
Petar Mamula ◽  
David Piccoli ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Konstantin Nissen ◽  
Mette Christiansen ◽  
Marie Helleberg ◽  
Kathrine Kjær ◽  
Sofie Eg Jørgensen ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Qingwen Zeng ◽  
Yanjie Fan ◽  
Lili Wang ◽  
Zhuo Huang ◽  
Xuefan Gu ◽  
...  

AbstractBackground:Mucopolysaccharidosis IIIB (MPS IIIB) is a genetic disease characterized by mutations in theCase presentation:Whole exome sequencing (WES) was conducted and the putative pathogenic variants were validated by Sanger sequencing. The activity of MPS IIIB related enzyme in the patient’s blood serum was assayed. A heterozygous, non-synonymous mutation (c.1562C>T, p.P521L) as well as a novel mutation (c.1705C>A, p.Q569K) were found in theConclusions:Our results describe an atypical form of MPS IIIB and illustrate the diagnostic potential of targeted WES in Mendelian disease with unknown etiology. WES could become a powerful tool for molecular diagnosis of MPS IIIB in clinical setting.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (12) ◽  
pp. 3168-3173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda K. Tilot ◽  
Katerina S. Kucera ◽  
Arianna Vino ◽  
Julian E. Asher ◽  
Simon Baron-Cohen ◽  
...  

Synesthesia is a rare nonpathological phenomenon where stimulation of one sense automatically provokes a secondary perception in another. Hypothesized to result from differences in cortical wiring during development, synesthetes show atypical structural and functional neural connectivity, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are unknown. The trait also appears to be more common among people with autism spectrum disorder and savant abilities. Previous linkage studies searching for shared loci of large effect size across multiple families have had limited success. To address the critical lack of candidate genes, we applied whole-exome sequencing to three families with sound–color (auditory–visual) synesthesia affecting multiple relatives across three or more generations. We identified rare genetic variants that fully cosegregate with synesthesia in each family, uncovering 37 genes of interest. Consistent with reports indicating genetic heterogeneity, no variants were shared across families. Gene ontology analyses highlighted six genes—COL4A1, ITGA2, MYO10, ROBO3, SLC9A6, and SLIT2—associated with axonogenesis and expressed during early childhood when synesthetic associations are formed. These results are consistent with neuroimaging-based hypotheses about the role of hyperconnectivity in the etiology of synesthesia and offer a potential entry point into the neurobiology that organizes our sensory experiences.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document