scholarly journals Extremely rare variants reveal patterns of germline mutation rate heterogeneity in humans

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jedidiah Carlson ◽  
Adam E Locke ◽  
Matthew Flickinger ◽  
Matthew Zawistowski ◽  
Shawn Levy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mutation Rate ◽  
Germline Mutation ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Gc Content ◽  
Mutation Rates ◽  
Rate Heterogeneity ◽  
Genomic Features ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Wide Variability ◽  
Nucleotide Context

AbstractA detailed understanding of the genome-wide variability of single-nucleotide germline mutation rates is essential to studying human genome evolution. Here we use ∼36 million singleton variants from 3,560 whole-genome sequences to infer fine-scale patterns of mutation rate heterogeneity. Mutability is jointly affected by adjacent nucleotide context and diverse genomic features of the surrounding region, including histone modifications, replication timing, and recombination rate, sometimes suggesting specific mutagenic mechanisms. Remarkably, GC content, DNase hypersensitivity, CpG islands, and H3K36 trimethylation are associated with both increased and decreased mutation rates depending on nucleotide context. We validate these estimated effects in an independent dataset of ∼46,000 de novo mutations, and confirm our estimates are more accurate than previously published estimates based on ancestrally older variants without considering genomic features. Our results thus provide the most refined portrait to date of the factors contributing to genome-wide variability of the human germline mutation rate.

scholarly journals De novo mutations across 1,465 diverse genomes reveal novel mutational insights and reductions in the Amish founder population

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Kessler ◽  
Douglas P. Loesch ◽  
James A. Perry ◽  
Nancy L. Heard-Costa ◽  
Brian E. Cade ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Mutation Rate ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Mutation Rates ◽  
Founder Population ◽  
Single Nucleotide ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Nucleotide Mutation ◽  
Rare Genetic Variation

Abstractde novo Mutations (DNMs), or mutations that appear in an individual despite not being seen in their parents, are an important source of genetic variation whose impact is relevant to studies of human evolution, genetics, and disease. Utilizing high-coverage whole genome sequencing data as part of the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program, we directly estimate and analyze DNM counts, rates, and spectra from 1,465 trios across an array of diverse human populations. Using the resulting call set of 86,865 single nucleotide DNMs, we find a significant positive correlation between local recombination rate and local DNM rate, which together can explain up to 35.5% of the genome-wide variation in population level rare genetic variation from 41K unrelated TOPMed samples. While genome-wide heterozygosity does correlate weakly with DNM count, we do not find significant differences in DNM rate between individuals of European, African, and Latino ancestry, nor across ancestrally distinct segments within admixed individuals. However, interestingly, we do find significantly fewer DNMs in Amish individuals compared with other Europeans, even after accounting for parental age and sequencing center. Specifically, we find significant reductions in the number of T→C mutations in the Amish, which seems to underpin their overall reduction in DNMs. Finally, we calculate near-zero estimates of narrow sense heritability (h2), which suggest that variation in DNM rate is significantly shaped by non-additive genetic effects and/or the environment, and that a less mutagenic environment may be responsible for the reduced DNM rate in the Amish.SignificanceHere we provide one of the largest and most diverse human de novo mutation (DNM) call sets to date, and use it to quantify the genome-wide relationship between local mutation rate and population-level rare genetic variation. While we demonstrate that the human single nucleotide mutation rate is similar across numerous human ancestries and populations, we also discover a reduced mutation rate in the Amish founder population, which shows that mutation rates can shift rapidly. Finally, we find that variation in mutation rates is not heritable, which suggests that the environment may influence mutation rates more significantly than previously realized.

scholarly journals A deep learning-based framework for estimating fine-scale germline mutation rates

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiyuan Fang ◽  
Shuyi Deng ◽  
Cai Li
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Mutation Rate ◽  
Germline Mutation ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Mutation Rates ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Current State ◽  
Genome Wide

Germline mutation rates are essential for genetic and evolutionary analyses. Yet, estimating accurate fine-scale mutation rates across the genome is a great challenge, due to relatively few observed mutations and intricate relationships between predictors and mutation rates. Here we present MuRaL (Mutation Rate Learner), a deep learning-based framework to predict fine-scale mutation rates using only genomic sequences as input. Harnessing human germline variants for comprehensive assessment, we show that MuRaL achieves better predictive performance than current state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, MuRaL can build models with relatively few training mutations and a moderate number of sequenced individuals. It can leverage transfer learning to build models with further less training data and time. We apply MuRaL to produce genome-wide mutation rate profiles for four species - Homo sapiens, Macaca mulatta, Arabidopsis thaliana and Drosophila melanogaster, demonstrating its high applicability. The generated mutation rate profiles and open source software can greatly facilitate related research.

scholarly journals Nucleosome positioning stability is a significant modulator of germline mutation rate variation across the human genome

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cai Li ◽  
Nicholas M. Luscombe
Keyword(s):  
Human Genome ◽  
Genome Evolution ◽  
Mutation Rate ◽  
Germline Mutation ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Mutation Rates ◽  
Rate Variation ◽  
Nucleosome Organization ◽  
Local Sequence ◽  
Mutation Rate Variation

AbstractUnderstanding the patterns and genesis of germline de novo mutations is important for studying genome evolution and human diseases. Nucleosome organization is suggested to be a contributing factor to mutation rate variation across the genome. However, the small number of published de novo mutations and the low resolution of earlier nucleosome maps limited our understanding of how nucleosome organization affects germline mutation rates in the human genome. Here, we systematically investigated the relationship between nucleosome organization and fine-scale mutation rate variation by analyzing >300,000 de novo mutations from whole-genome trio sequencing and high-resolution nucleosome maps in human. We found that de novo mutation rates are elevated around strong, translationally stable nucleosomes, a previously under-appreciated aspect. We confirmed this observation having controlled for local sequence context and other potential confounding factors. Analysis of the underlying mutational processes suggests that the increased mutation rates around strong nucleosomes are shaped by a combination of low-fidelity replication, frequent DNA damage and insufficient/error-prone repair in these regions. Interestingly, strong nucleosomes are preferentially located in young SINE/LINE elements, implying frequent nucleosome re-positioning (i.e. shifting of dyad position) and their contribution to hypermutation at new retrotransposons during evolution. These findings provide novel insights into how chromatin organization affects germline mutation rates and have important implications in human genetics and genome evolution.

scholarly journals De novo mutation rates at the single-mutation resolution in a human HBB gene-region associated with adaptation and genetic disease

2022 ◽  
pp. gr.276103.121
Author(s):  
Daniel Melamed ◽  
Yuval Nov ◽  
Assaf Malik ◽  
Michael B Yakass ◽  
Evgeni Bolotin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mutation Rate ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Region Of Interest ◽  
De Novo Mutation ◽  
Mutation Rates ◽  
Single Mutation ◽  
Random Mutation ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Specific Manner

While it is known that the mutation rate varies across the genome, previous estimates were based on averaging across various numbers of positions. Here we describe a method to measure the origination rates of target mutations at target base positions and apply it to a 6-bp region in the human hemoglobin subunit beta (HBB) gene and to the identical, paralogous hemoglobin subunit delta (HBD) region in sperm cells from both African and European donors. The HBB region of interest (ROI) includes the site of the hemoglobin S (HbS) mutation, which protects against malaria, is common in Africa and has served as a classic example of adaptation by random mutation and natural selection. We found a significant correspondence between de novo mutation rates and past observations of alleles in carriers, showing that mutation rates vary substantially in a mutation-specific manner that contributes to the site frequency spectrum. We also found that the overall point mutation rate is significantly higher in Africans than in Europeans in the HBB region studied. Finally, the rate of the 20A→T mutation, called the 'HbS mutation' when it appears in HBB, is significantly higher than expected from the genome-wide average for this mutation type. Nine instances were observed in the African HBB ROI, where it is of adaptive significance, representing at least three independent originations; no instances were observed elsewhere. Further studies will be needed to examine mutation rates at the single-mutation resolution across these and other loci and organisms and to uncover the molecular mechanisms responsible.

scholarly journals De novo mutation rates at the single-mutation resolution in a human HBB gene-region associated with adaptation and genetic disease

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Melamed ◽  
Yuval Nov ◽  
Assaf Malik ◽  
Michael B. Yakass ◽  
Evgeni Bolotin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mutation Rate ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Region Of Interest ◽  
De Novo Mutation ◽  
Mutation Rates ◽  
Single Mutation ◽  
Random Mutation ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Specific Manner

While it is known that the mutation rate varies across the genome, previous estimates of it were based on averaging across various numbers of positions. Here we describe a method to measure the origination rates of target mutations at target base positions and apply it to a 6-bp region in the human β–globin (HBB) gene and to the identical, homologous δ–globin (HBD) region in sperm cells from both African and European donors. The HBB region of interest (ROI) includes the site of the hemoglobin S (HbS) mutation, which protects against malaria, is common in Africa and has served as a classic example of adaptation by random mutation and natural selection. We found a significant correspondence between de novo mutation rates and past observations of alleles in carriers, showing that mutation rates vary substantially in a mutation-specific manner that contributes to the site frequency spectrum. We also found that the overall point mutation rate is significantly higher in Africans than Europeans in the HBB region studied. Finally, the rate of the 20A→T mutation, called the ″HbS mutation″ when it appears in HBB, is significantly higher than expected from the genome-wide average for this mutation type. Nine instances of it were observed in the African HBB ROI, where it is of adaptive significance, representing at least three independent originations, and no instances of it were observed in the European HBB ROI or in the European or African HBD ROI. Further studies will be needed to examine mutation rates at the single-mutation resolution across these and other loci and organisms and to uncover the molecular mechanisms responsible.

scholarly journals Death and population dynamics affect mutation rate estimates and evolvability under stress in bacteria

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Frénoy ◽  
Sebastian Bonhoeffer
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Mutation Rate ◽  
Death Rate ◽  
Mutation Rates ◽  
Resistance Mutations ◽  
Bacterial Populations ◽  
Plasmid Segregation ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Response To Stress ◽  
Induced Mutagenesis

AbstractThe stress-induced mutagenesis paradigm postulates that in response to stress, bacteria increase their genome-wide mutation rate, in turn increasing the chances that a descendant is able to withstand the stress. This has implications for antibiotic treatment: exposure to sub-inhibitory doses of antibiotics has been reported to increase bacterial mutation rates, and thus probably the rate at which resistance mutations appear and lead to treatment failure.Measuring mutation rates under stress, however, is problematic, because existing methods assume there is no death. Yet sub-inhibitory stress levels may induce a substantial death rate. Death events need to be compensated by extra replication to reach a given population size, thus giving more opportunities to acquire mutations. We show that ignoring death leads to a systematic overestimation of mutation rates under stress.We developed a system using plasmid segregation to measure death and growth rates simultaneously in bacterial populations. We use it to replicate classical experiments reporting antibiotic-induced mutagenesis. We found that a substantial death rate occurs at the tested sub-inhibitory concentrations, and taking this death into account lowers and sometimes removes the signal for stress-induced mutagenesis. Moreover even when antibiotics increase mutation rate, sub-inhibitory treatments do not increase genetic diversity and evolvability, again because of effects of the antibiotics on population dynamics.Beside showing that population dynamic is a crucial but neglected parameter affecting evolvability, we provide better experimental and computational tools to study evolvability under stress, leading to a re-assessment of the magnitude and significance of the stress-induced mutagenesis paradigm.

scholarly journals Paternal Age Explains a Major Portion of De Novo Germline Mutation Rate Variability in Healthy Individuals

PLoS ONE ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. e0164212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon L. Girard ◽  
Cynthia V. Bourassa ◽  
Louis-Philippe Lemieux Perreault ◽  
Marc-André Legault ◽  
Amina Barhdadi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mutation Rate ◽  
Germline Mutation ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Paternal Age ◽  
Major Portion ◽  
Healthy Individuals

scholarly journals Epigenetic modifications affect the rate of spontaneous mutations in a pathogenic fungus

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Habig ◽  
Cecile Lorrain ◽  
Alice Feurtey ◽  
Jovan Komluski ◽  
Eva H. Stukenbrock
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Stress ◽  
Mutation Rate ◽  
Cytosine Methylation ◽  
Pathogenic Fungus ◽  
Epigenetic Modifications ◽  
Mutation Rates ◽  
Adaptive Mutation ◽  
Spontaneous Mutations ◽  
Evolutionary Trajectory ◽  
Genome Wide

AbstractMutations are the source of genetic variation and the substrate for evolution. Genome-wide mutation rates appear to be affected by selection and are probably adaptive. Mutation rates are also known to vary along genomes, possibly in response to epigenetic modifications, but causality is only assumed. In this study we determine the direct impact of epigenetic modifications and temperature stress on mitotic mutation rates in a fungal pathogen using a mutation accumulation approach. Deletion mutants lacking epigenetic modifications confirm that histone mark H3K27me3 increases whereas H3K9me3 decreases the mutation rate. Furthermore, cytosine methylation in transposable elements (TE) increases the mutation rate 15-fold resulting in significantly less TE mobilization. Also accessory chromosomes have significantly higher mutation rates. Finally, we find that temperature stress substantially elevates the mutation rate. Taken together, we find that epigenetic modifications and environmental conditions modify the rate and the location of spontaneous mutations in the genome and alter its evolutionary trajectory.

scholarly journals Extensivede novomutation rate variation between individuals and across the genome ofChlamydomonas reinhardtii

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob W Ness ◽  
Andrew D Morgan ◽  
Radhakrishnan B Vasanthakrishnan ◽  
Nick Colegrave ◽  
Peter D Keightley
Keyword(s):  
Mutation Rate ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Spontaneous Mutation ◽  
Gc Content ◽  
Rate Variation ◽  
De Novo Mutations ◽  
Local Sequence ◽  
Wild Strains ◽  
Genomic Regions

Describing the process of spontaneous mutation is fundamental for understanding the genetic basis of disease, the threat posed by declining population size in conservation biology, and in much evolutionary biology. However, directly studying spontaneous mutation is difficult because of the rarity of de novo mutations. Mutation accumulation (MA) experiments overcome this by allowing mutations to build up over many generations in the near absence of natural selection. In this study, we sequenced the genomes of 85 MA lines derived from six genetically diverse wild strains of the green algaChlamydomonas reinhardtii. We identified 6,843 spontaneous mutations, more than any other study of spontaneous mutation. We observed seven-fold variation in the mutation rate among strains and that mutator genotypes arose, increasing the mutation rate dramatically in some replicates. We also found evidence for fine-scale heterogeneity in the mutation rate, driven largely by the sequence flanking mutated sites, and by clusters of multiple mutations at closely linked sites. There was little evidence, however, for mutation rate heterogeneity between chromosomes or over large genomic regions of 200Kbp. Using logistic regression, we generated a predictive model of the mutability of sites based on their genomic properties, including local GC content, gene expression level and local sequence context. Our model accurately predicted the average mutation rate and natural levels of genetic diversity of sites across the genome. Notably, trinucleotides vary 17-fold in rate between the most mutable and least mutable sites. Our results uncover a rich heterogeneity in the process of spontaneous mutation both among individuals and across the genome.

scholarly journals Mutation bias shapes gene evolution in Arabidopsis thaliana

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Grey Monroe ◽  
Thanvi Srikant ◽  
Pablo Carbonell-Bejerano ◽  
Moises Exposito-Alonso ◽  
Mao-Lun Weng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arabidopsis Thaliana ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Gene Evolution ◽  
Gc Content ◽  
Mutation Rates ◽  
Rate Variation ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
De Novo Mutations ◽  
Coding Region ◽  
Mutational Hotspots

Classical evolutionary theory maintains that mutation rate variation between genes should be random with respect to fitness 1–4 and evolutionary optimization of genic mutation rates remains controversial 3,5. However, it has now become known that cytogenetic (DNA sequence + epigenomic) features influence local mutation probabilities 6, which is predicted by more recent theory to be a prerequisite for beneficial mutation rates between different classes of genes to readily evolve 7. To test this possibility, we used de novo mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana to create a high resolution predictive model of mutation rates as a function of cytogenetic features across the genome. As expected, mutation rates are significantly predicted by features such as GC content, histone modifications, and chromatin accessibility. Deeper analyses of predicted mutation rates reveal effects of introns and untranslated exon regions in distancing coding sequences from mutational hotspots at the start and end of transcribed regions in A. thaliana. Finally, predicted coding region mutation rates are significantly lower in genes where mutations are more likely to be deleterious, supported by numerous estimates of evolutionary and functional constraint. These findings contradict neutral expectations that mutation probabilities are independent of fitness consequences. Instead they are consistent with the evolution of lower mutation rates in functionally constrained loci due to cytogenetic features, with important implications for evolutionary biology8.

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