@article {363, title = {International Cooperation to Enable the Diagnosis of All Rare Genetic Diseases.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {100}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May 04}, pages = {695-705}, abstract = {

Provision of a molecularly confirmed diagnosis in a timely manner for children and adults with rare genetic diseases shortens their "diagnostic odyssey," improves disease management, and fosters genetic counseling with respect to recurrence risks while assuring reproductive choices. In a general clinical genetics setting, the current diagnostic rate is approximately 50\%, but for those who do not receive a molecular diagnosis after the initial genetics evaluation, that rate is much lower. Diagnostic success for these more challenging affected individuals depends to a large extent on progress in the discovery of genes associated with, and mechanisms underlying, rare diseases. Thus, continued research is required for moving toward a more complete catalog of disease-related genes and variants. The International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) was established in 2011 to bring together researchers and organizations invested in rare disease research to develop a means of achieving molecular diagnosis for all rare diseases. Here, we review the current and future bottlenecks to gene discovery and suggest strategies for enabling progress in this regard. Each successful discovery will define potential diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic opportunities for the corresponding rare disease, enabling precision medicine for this patient population.

}, keywords = {Databases, Factual, Exome, Genome, Human, Humans, International Cooperation, Rare Diseases}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2017.04.003}, author = {Boycott, Kym M and Rath, Ana and Chong, Jessica X and Hartley, Taila and Alkuraya, Fowzan S and Baynam, Gareth and Brookes, Anthony J and Brudno, Michael and Carracedo, Angel and den Dunnen, Johan T and Dyke, Stephanie O M and Estivill, Xavier and Goldblatt, Jack and Gonthier, Catherine and Groft, Stephen C and Gut, Ivo and Hamosh, Ada and Hieter, Philip and H{\"o}hn, Sophie and Hurles, Matthew E and Kaufmann, Petra and Knoppers, Bartha M and Krischer, Jeffrey P and Macek, Milan and Matthijs, Gert and Olry, Annie and Parker, Samantha and Paschall, Justin and Philippakis, Anthony A and Rehm, Heidi L and Robinson, Peter N and Sham, Pak-Chung and Stefanov, Rumen and Taruscio, Domenica and Unni, Divya and Vanstone, Megan R and Zhang, Feng and Brunner, Han and Bamshad, Michael J and Lochm{\"u}ller, Hanns} } @article {348, title = {An Organismal CNV Mutator Phenotype Restricted to Early Human Development.}, journal = {Cell}, volume = {168}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 02 23}, pages = {830-842.e7}, abstract = {

De novo copy number variants (dnCNVs) arising at~multiple loci in a personal genome have usually been considered to reflect cancer somatic genomic instabilities. We describe a multiple dnCNV (MdnCNV) phenomenon in which individuals with genomic disorders carry five to ten constitutional dnCNVs. These CNVs originate from independent formation incidences, are predominantly tandem duplications or complex gains, exhibit breakpoint junction features reminiscent of replicative repair, and show increased de novo point mutations flanking the rearrangement junctions. The active CNV mutation shower appears to be restricted to a transient perizygotic period. We~propose that a defect in the CNV formation process is responsible for the "CNV-mutator state," and this state is dampened after early embryogenesis. The constitutional MdnCNV phenomenon resembles chromosomal instability in various cancers. Investigations of this phenomenon may provide unique access to understanding genomic disorders, structural variant mutagenesis, human evolution, and cancer biology.

}, keywords = {Chromosome Aberrations, Chromosome Breakpoints, Chromosome Duplication, DNA Copy Number Variations, DNA Replication, Embryonic Development, Female, Gametogenesis, Genetic Diseases, Inborn, Genomic Instability, Humans, Male, Mutation}, issn = {1097-4172}, doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2017.01.037}, author = {Liu, Pengfei and Yuan, Bo and Carvalho, Claudia M B and Wuster, Arthur and Walter, Klaudia and Zhang, Ling and Gambin, Tomasz and Chong, Zechen and Campbell, Ian M and Coban Akdemir, Zeynep and Gelowani, Violet and Writzl, Karin and Bacino, Carlos A and Lindsay, Sarah J and Withers, Marjorie and Gonzaga-Jauregui, Claudia and Wiszniewska, Joanna and Scull, Jennifer and Stankiewicz, Pawe{\l} and Jhangiani, Shalini N and Muzny, Donna M and Zhang, Feng and Chen, Ken and Gibbs, Richard A and Rautenstrauss, Bernd and Cheung, Sau Wai and Smith, Janice and Breman, Amy and Shaw, Chad A and Patel, Ankita and Hurles, Matthew E and Lupski, James R} } @article {185, title = {Absence of heterozygosity due to template switching during replicative rearrangements.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {96}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr 02}, pages = {555-64}, abstract = {

We investigated complex genomic rearrangements (CGRs) consisting of triplication copy-number variants (CNVs) that were accompanied by extended regions of copy-number-neutral absence of heterozygosity (AOH) in subjects with multiple congenital abnormalities. Molecular analyses provided observational evidence that in humans, post-zygotically generated CGRs can lead to regional uniparental disomy (UPD) due to template switches between homologs versus sister chromatids by using microhomology to prime DNA replication-a prediction of the replicative repair model, MMBIR. Our findings suggest that replication-based mechanisms might underlie the formation of diverse types of genomic alterations (CGRs and AOH) implicated in constitutional disorders.

}, keywords = {Base Sequence, DNA Copy Number Variations, DNA Repair, DNA Replication, Gene Rearrangement, Humans, In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence, Loss of Heterozygosity, Models, Genetic, Molecular Sequence Data, Netherlands, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Uniparental Disomy}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.01.021}, author = {Carvalho, Claudia M B and Pfundt, Rolph and King, Daniel A and Lindsay, Sarah J and Zuccherato, Luciana W and Macville, Merryn V E and Liu, Pengfei and Johnson, Diana and Stankiewicz, Pawel and Brown, Chester W and Shaw, Chad A and Hurles, Matthew E and Ira, Grzegorz and Hastings, P J and Brunner, Han G and Lupski, James R} } @article {131, title = {The Matchmaker Exchange: a platform for rare disease gene discovery.}, journal = {Hum Mutat}, volume = {36}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Oct}, pages = {915-21}, abstract = {

There are few better examples of the need for data sharing than in the rare disease community, where patients, physicians, and researchers must search for "the needle in a haystack" to uncover rare, novel causes of disease within the genome. Impeding the pace of discovery has been the existence of many small siloed datasets within individual research or clinical laboratory databases and/or disease-specific organizations, hoping for serendipitous occasions when two distant investigators happen to learn they have a rare phenotype in common and can "match" these cases to build evidence for causality. However, serendipity has never proven to be a reliable or scalable approach in science. As such, the Matchmaker Exchange (MME) was launched to provide a robust and systematic approach to rare disease gene discovery through the creation of a federated network connecting databases of genotypes and rare phenotypes using a common application programming interface (API). The core building blocks of the MME have been defined and assembled. Three MME services have now been connected through the API and are available for community use. Additional databases that support internal matching are anticipated to join the MME network as it continues to grow.

}, keywords = {Database Management Systems, Databases, Genetic, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Information Dissemination, Rare Diseases, Software}, issn = {1098-1004}, doi = {10.1002/humu.22858}, author = {Philippakis, Anthony A and Azzariti, Danielle R and Beltran, Sergi and Brookes, Anthony J and Brownstein, Catherine A and Brudno, Michael and Brunner, Han G and Buske, Orion J and Carey, Knox and Doll, Cassie and Dumitriu, Sergiu and Dyke, Stephanie O M and den Dunnen, Johan T and Firth, Helen V and Gibbs, Richard A and Girdea, Marta and Gonzalez, Michael and Haendel, Melissa A and Hamosh, Ada and Holm, Ingrid A and Huang, Lijia and Hurles, Matthew E and Hutton, Ben and Krier, Joel B and Misyura, Andriy and Mungall, Christopher J and Paschall, Justin and Paten, Benedict and Robinson, Peter N and Schiettecatte, Fran{\c c}ois and Sobreira, Nara L and Swaminathan, Ganesh J and Taschner, Peter E and Terry, Sharon F and Washington, Nicole L and Z{\"u}chner, Stephan and Boycott, Kym M and Rehm, Heidi L} } @article {243, title = {Monoallelic and biallelic mutations in MAB21L2 cause a spectrum of major eye malformations.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {94}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun 05}, pages = {915-23}, abstract = {

We identified four different missense mutations in the single-exon gene MAB21L2 in eight individuals with bilateral eye malformations from five unrelated families via three independent exome sequencing projects. Three mutational events altered the same amino acid (Arg51), and two were identical de novo mutations (c.151C>T [p.Arg51Cys]) in unrelated children with bilateral anophthalmia, intellectual disability, and rhizomelic skeletal dysplasia. c.152G>A (p.Arg51His) segregated with autosomal-dominant bilateral colobomatous microphthalmia in a large multiplex family. The fourth heterozygous mutation (c.145G>A [p.Glu49Lys]) affected an amino acid within two residues of Arg51 in an adult male with bilateral colobomata. In a fifth family, a homozygous mutation (c.740G>A [p.Arg247Gln]) altering a different region of the protein was identified in two male siblings with bilateral retinal colobomata. In mouse embryos, Mab21l2 showed strong expression in the developing eye, pharyngeal arches, and limb bud. As predicted by structural homology, wild-type MAB21L2 bound single-stranded RNA, whereas this activity was lost in all altered forms of the protein. MAB21L2 had no detectable nucleotidyltransferase activity in~vitro, and its function remains unknown. Induced expression of wild-type MAB21L2 in human embryonic kidney 293 cells increased phospho-ERK (pERK1/2) signaling. Compared to the wild-type and p.Arg247Gln proteins, the proteins with the Glu49 and Arg51 variants had increased stability. Abnormal persistence of pERK1/2 signaling in MAB21L2-expressing cells during development is a plausible pathogenic mechanism for the heterozygous mutations. The phenotype associated with the homozygous mutation might be a consequence of complete loss of MAB21L2 RNA binding, although the cellular function of this interaction remains unknown.

}, keywords = {Adult, Alleles, Animals, Anophthalmos, Brain Diseases, Metabolic, Inborn, Coloboma, Corneal Opacity, Exome, Eye Proteins, Female, Gene Expression, HEK293 Cells, Heterozygote, Homozygote, Humans, Intellectual Disability, Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins, Male, Mice, Microcephaly, Microphthalmos, Mutation, Missense, Pedigree, Phenotype, Protein Conformation, Signal Transduction}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.05.005}, author = {Rainger, Joe and Pehlivan, Davut and Johansson, Stefan and Bengani, Hemant and Sanchez-Pulido, Luis and Williamson, Kathleen A and Ture, Mehmet and Barker, Heather and Rosendahl, Karen and Spranger, J{\"u}rgen and Horn, Denise and Meynert, Alison and Floyd, James A B and Prescott, Trine and Anderson, Carl A and Rainger, Jacqueline K and Karaca, Ender and Gonzaga-Jauregui, Claudia and Jhangiani, Shalini and Muzny, Donna M and Seawright, Anne and Soares, Dinesh C and Kharbanda, Mira and Murday, Victoria and Finch, Andrew and Gibbs, Richard A and van Heyningen, Veronica and Taylor, Martin S and Yakut, Tahsin and Knappskog, Per M and Hurles, Matthew E and Ponting, Chris P and Lupski, James R and Houge, Gunnar and FitzPatrick, David R} }