@article {822, title = {Gene-based analyses of the maternal genome implicate maternal effect genes as risk factors for conotruncal heart defects.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {15}, year = {2020}, month = {2020}, pages = {e0234357}, abstract = {

Congenital heart defects (CHDs) affect approximately 1\% of newborns. Epidemiological studies have identified several genetically-mediated maternal phenotypes (e.g., pregestational diabetes, chronic hypertension) that are associated with the risk of CHDs in offspring. However, the role of the maternal genome in determining CHD risk has not been defined. We present findings from gene-level, genome-wide studies that link CHDs to maternal effect genes as well as to maternal genes related to hypertension and proteostasis. Maternal effect genes, which provide the mRNAs and proteins in the oocyte that guide early embryonic development before zygotic gene activation, have not previously been implicated in CHD risk. Our findings support a role for and suggest new pathways by which the maternal genome may contribute to the development of CHDs in offspring.

}, keywords = {Adult, Case-Control Studies, Child, Preschool, Family, Female, Genetic Testing, Heart Defects, Congenital, Humans, Hypertension, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Male, Maternal Exposure, Maternal Inheritance, Middle Aged, Oocytes, Pregnancy, Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects, Proteostasis, Risk Factors}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0234357}, author = {Sewda, Anshuman and Agopian, A J and Goldmuntz, Elizabeth and Hakonarson, Hakon and Morrow, Bernice E and Musfee, Fadi and Taylor, Deanne and Mitchell, Laura E} } @article {710, title = {X-chromosome association studies of congenital heart defects.}, journal = {Am J Med Genet A}, volume = {182}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 01}, pages = {250-254}, keywords = {Chromosome Deletion, Chromosomes, Human, X, Female, Genes, X-Linked, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Heart Defects, Congenital, Humans, Male}, issn = {1552-4833}, doi = {10.1002/ajmg.a.61411}, author = {Agopian, A J and Hoang, Thanh T and Goldmuntz, Elizabeth and Hakonarson, Hakon and Musfee, Fadi I and Mitchell, Laura E} } @article {445, title = {The Congenital Heart Disease Genetic Network Study: Cohort description.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {13}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {e0191319}, abstract = {

The Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium (PCGC) designed the Congenital Heart Disease Genetic Network Study to provide phenotype and genotype data for a large congenital heart defects (CHDs) cohort. This article describes the PCGC cohort, overall and by major types of CHDs (e.g., conotruncal defects) and subtypes of conotrucal heart defects (e.g., tetralogy of Fallot) and left ventricular outflow tract obstructions (e.g., hypoplastic left heart syndrome). Cases with CHDs were recruited through ten sites, 2010-2014. Information on cases (N = 9,727) and their parents was collected through interviews and medical record abstraction. Four case characteristics, eleven parental characteristics, and thirteen parent-reported neurodevelopment outcomes were summarized using counts and frequencies and compared across CHD types and subtypes. Eleven percent of cases had a genetic diagnosis. Among cases without a genetic diagnosis, the majority had conotruncal heart defects (40\%) or left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (21\%). Across CHD types, there were significant differences (p<0.05) in the distribution of all four case characteristics (e.g., sex), four parental characteristics (e.g., maternal pregestational diabetes), and five neurodevelopmental outcomes (e.g., learning disabilities). Several characteristics (e.g., sex) were also significantly different across CHD subtypes. The PCGC cohort is one of the largest CHD cohorts available for the study of genetic determinants of risk and outcomes. The majority of cases do not have a genetic diagnosis. This description of the PCGC cohort, including differences across CHD types and subtypes, provides a reference work for investigators who are interested in collaborating with or using publically available resources from the PCGC.

}, keywords = {Adult, Cohort Studies, Female, Gene Regulatory Networks, Heart Defects, Congenital, Humans, Male, Phenotype}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0191319}, author = {Hoang, Thanh T and Goldmuntz, Elizabeth and Roberts, Amy E and Chung, Wendy K and Kline, Jennie K and Deanfield, John E and Giardini, Alessandro and Aleman, Adolfo and Gelb, Bruce D and Mac Neal, Meghan and Porter, George A and Kim, Richard and Brueckner, Martina and Lifton, Richard P and Edman, Sharon and Woyciechowski, Stacy and Mitchell, Laura E and Agopian, A J} } @article {398, title = {Genome-Wide Association Studies and Meta-Analyses for Congenital Heart Defects.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jun}, pages = {e001449}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Maternal and inherited (ie, case) genetic factors likely contribute to the pathogenesis of congenital heart defects, but it is unclear whether individual common variants confer a large risk.

METHODS AND RESULTS: To evaluate the relationship between individual common maternal/inherited genotypes and risk for heart defects, we conducted genome-wide association studies in 5 cohorts. Three cohorts were recruited at the Children{\textquoteright}s Hospital of Philadelphia: 670 conotruncal heart defect (CTD) case-parent trios, 317 left ventricular obstructive tract defect (LVOTD) case-parent trios, and 406 CTD cases (n=406) and 2976 pediatric controls. Two cohorts were recruited through the Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium: 355 CTD trios and 192 LVOTD trios. We also conducted meta-analyses using the genome-wide association study results from the CTD cohorts, the LVOTD cohorts, and from the combined CTD and LVOTD cohorts. In the individual genome-wide association studies, several genome-wide significant associations (<=5{\texttimes}10) were observed. In our meta-analyses, 1 genome-wide significant association was detected: the case genotype for rs72820264, an intragenetic single-nucleotide polymorphism associated with LVOTDs (=2.1{\texttimes}10).

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 1 novel candidate region associated with LVOTDs and report on several additional regions with suggestive evidence for association with CTD and LVOTD. These studies were constrained by the relatively small samples sizes and thus have limited power to detect small to moderate associations. Approaches that minimize the multiple testing burden (eg, gene or pathway based) may, therefore, be required to uncover common variants contributing to the risk of these relatively rare conditions.

}, keywords = {Cohort Studies, Databases, Factual, Female, Gene Frequency, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart Defects, Congenital, Humans, Introns, Male, Membrane Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001449}, author = {Agopian, A J and Goldmuntz, Elizabeth and Hakonarson, Hakon and Sewda, Anshuman and Taylor, Deanne and Mitchell, Laura E} } @article {302, title = {De novo mutations in histone-modifying genes in congenital heart disease.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {498}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jun 13}, pages = {220-3}, abstract = {

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most frequent birth defect, affecting 0.8\% of live births. Many cases occur sporadically and impair reproductive fitness, suggesting a role for de novo mutations. Here we compare the incidence of de novo mutations in 362 severe CHD cases and 264 controls by analysing exome sequencing of parent-offspring trios. CHD cases show a significant excess of protein-altering de novo mutations in genes expressed in the developing heart, with an odds ratio of 7.5 for damaging (premature termination, frameshift, splice site) mutations. Similar odds ratios are seen across the main classes of severe CHD. We find a marked excess of de novo mutations in genes involved in the production, removal or reading of histone 3 lysine 4 (H3K4) methylation, or ubiquitination of H2BK120, which is required for H3K4 methylation. There are also two de novo mutations in SMAD2, which regulates H3K27 methylation in the embryonic left-right organizer. The combination of both activating (H3K4 methylation) and inactivating (H3K27 methylation) chromatin marks characterizes {\textquoteright}poised{\textquoteright} promoters and enhancers, which regulate expression of key developmental genes. These findings implicate de novo point mutations in several hundreds of genes that collectively contribute to approximately 10\% of severe CHD.

}, keywords = {Adult, Case-Control Studies, Child, Chromatin, DNA Mutational Analysis, Enhancer Elements, Genetic, Exome, Female, Genes, Developmental, Heart Diseases, Histones, Humans, Lysine, Male, Methylation, Mutation, Odds Ratio, Promoter Regions, Genetic}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature12141}, author = {Zaidi, Samir and Choi, Murim and Wakimoto, Hiroko and Ma, Lijiang and Jiang, Jianming and Overton, John D and Romano-Adesman, Angela and Bjornson, Robert D and Breitbart, Roger E and Brown, Kerry K and Carriero, Nicholas J and Cheung, Yee Him and Deanfield, John and DePalma, Steve and Fakhro, Khalid A and Glessner, Joseph and Hakonarson, Hakon and Italia, Michael J and Kaltman, Jonathan R and Kaski, Juan and Kim, Richard and Kline, Jennie K and Lee, Teresa and Leipzig, Jeremy and Lopez, Alexander and Mane, Shrikant M and Mitchell, Laura E and Newburger, Jane W and Parfenov, Michael and Pe{\textquoteright}er, Itsik and Porter, George and Roberts, Amy E and Sachidanandam, Ravi and Sanders, Stephan J and Seiden, Howard S and State, Mathew W and Subramanian, Sailakshmi and Tikhonova, Irina R and Wang, Wei and Warburton, Dorothy and White, Peter S and Williams, Ismee A and Zhao, Hongyu and Seidman, Jonathan G and Brueckner, Martina and Chung, Wendy K and Gelb, Bruce D and Goldmuntz, Elizabeth and Seidman, Christine E and Lifton, Richard P} }