@article {789, title = {Diagnostic yield and clinical impact of exome sequencing in early-onset scoliosis (EOS).}, journal = {J Med Genet}, volume = {58}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jan}, pages = {41-47}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Early-onset scoliosis (EOS), defined by an onset age of scoliosis less than 10 years, conveys significant health risk to affected children. Identification of the molecular aetiology underlying patients with EOS could provide valuable information for both clinical management and prenatal screening.

METHODS: In this study, we consecutively recruited a cohort of 447 Chinese patients with operative EOS. We performed exome sequencing (ES) screening on these individuals and their available family members (totaling 670 subjects). Another cohort of 13 patients with idiopathic early-onset scoliosis (IEOS) from the USA who underwent ES was also recruited.

RESULTS: After ES data processing and variant interpretation, we detected molecular diagnostic variants in 92 out of 447 (20.6\%) Chinese patients with EOS, including 8 patients with molecular confirmation of their clinical diagnosis and 84 patients with molecular diagnoses of previously unrecognised diseases underlying scoliosis. One out of 13 patients with IEOS from the US cohort was molecularly diagnosed. The age at presentation, the number of organ systems involved and the Cobb angle were the three top features predictive of a molecular diagnosis.

CONCLUSION: ES enabled the molecular diagnosis/classification of patients with EOS. Specific clinical features/feature pairs are able to indicate the likelihood of gaining a molecular diagnosis through ES.

}, issn = {1468-6244}, doi = {10.1136/jmedgenet-2019-106823}, author = {Zhao, Sen and Zhang, Yuanqiang and Chen, Weisheng and Li, Weiyu and Wang, Shengru and Wang, Lianlei and Zhao, Yanxue and Lin, Mao and Ye, Yongyu and Lin, Jiachen and Zheng, Yu and Liu, Jiaqi and Zhao, Hengqiang and Yan, Zihui and Yang, Yongxin and Huang, Yingzhao and Lin, Guanfeng and Chen, Zefu and Zhang, Zhen and Liu, Sen and Jin, Lichao and Wang, Zhaoyang and Chen, Jingdan and Niu, Yuchen and Li, Xiaoxin and Wu, Yong and Wang, Yipeng and Du, Renqian and Gao, Na and Zhao, Hong and Yang, Ying and Liu, Ying and Tian, Ye and Li, Wenli and Zhao, Yu and Liu, Jia and Yu, Bin and Zhang, Na and Yu, Keyi and Yang, Xu and Li, Shugang and Xu, Yuan and Hu, Jianhua and Liu, Zhe and Shen, Jianxiong and Zhang, Shuyang and Su, Jianzhong and Khanshour, Anas M and Kidane, Yared H and Ramo, Brandon and Rios, Jonathan J and Liu, Pengfei and Sutton, V Reid and Posey, Jennifer E and Wu, Zhihong and Qiu, Guixing and Wise, Carol A and Zhang, Feng and Lupski, James R and Zhang, Jianguo and Wu, Nan} } @article {983, title = {Perturbations of genes essential for M{\"u}llerian duct and W{\"o}lffian duct development in Mayer-Rokitansky-K{\"u}ster-Hauser syndrome.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {108}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 02 04}, pages = {337-345}, abstract = {

Mayer-Rokitansky-K{\"u}ster-Hauser syndrome (MRKHS) is associated with congenital absence of the uterus, cervix, and the upper part of the vagina; it is a sex-limited trait. Disrupted development of the M{\"u}llerian ducts (MD)/W{\"o}lffian ducts (WD) through multifactorial mechanisms has been proposed to underlie MRKHS. In this study, exome sequencing (ES) was performed on a Chinese discovery cohort (442 affected subjects and 941 female control subjects) and a replication MRKHS cohort (150 affected subjects of mixed ethnicity from North America, South America, and Europe). Phenotypic follow-up of the female reproductive system was performed on an additional cohort of PAX8-associated congenital hypothyroidism (CH) (n = 5, Chinese). By analyzing 19 candidate genes essential for MD/WD development, we identified 12 likely gene-disrupting (LGD) variants in 7 genes: PAX8 (n = 4), BMP4 (n = 2), BMP7 (n = 2), TBX6 (n = 1), HOXA10 (n = 1), EMX2 (n = 1), and WNT9B (n = 1), while LGD variants in these genes were not detected in control samples (p = 1.27E-06). Interestingly, a sex-limited penetrance with paternal inheritance was observed in multiple families. One additional PAX8 LGD variant from the replication cohort and two missense variants from both cohorts were revealed to cause loss-of-function of the protein. From the PAX8-associated CH cohort, we identified one individual presenting a syndromic condition characterized by CH and MRKHS (CH-MRKHS). Our study demonstrates the comprehensive utilization of knowledge from developmental biology toward elucidating genetic perturbations, i.e., rare pathogenic alleles involving the same loci, contributing to human birth defects.

}, keywords = {46, XX Disorders of Sex Development, Adult, Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4, Bone Morphogenetic Protein 7, Codon, Nonsense, Congenital Abnormalities, Female, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Pleiotropy, Homeobox A10 Proteins, Homeodomain Proteins, Humans, Mullerian Ducts, Mutation, Paternal Inheritance, PAX8 Transcription Factor, Penetrance, T-Box Domain Proteins, Transcription Factors, Wnt Proteins, Wolffian Ducts}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.12.014}, author = {Chen, Na and Zhao, Sen and Jolly, Angad and Wang, Lianlei and Pan, Hongxin and Yuan, Jian and Chen, Shaoke and Koch, Andr{\'e} and Ma, Congcong and Tian, Weijie and Jia, Ziqi and Kang, Jia and Zhao, Lina and Qin, Chenglu and Fan, Xin and Rall, Katharina and Coban-Akdemir, Zeynep and Chen, Zefu and Jhangiani, Shalini and Liang, Ze and Niu, Yuchen and Li, Xiaoxin and Yan, Zihui and Wu, Yong and Dong, Shuangshuang and Song, Chengcheng and Qiu, Guixing and Zhang, Shuyang and Liu, Pengfei and Posey, Jennifer E and Zhang, Feng and Luo, Guangnan and Wu, Zhihong and Su, Jianzhong and Zhang, Jianguo and Chen, Eugenia Y and Rouskas, Konstantinos and Glentis, Stavros and Bacopoulou, Flora and Deligeoroglou, Efthymios and Chrousos, George and Lyonnet, Stanislas and Polak, Michel and Rosenberg, Carla and Dingeldein, Irene and Bonilla, Ximena and Borel, Christelle and Gibbs, Richard A and Dietrich, Jennifer E and Dimas, Antigone S and Antonarakis, Stylianos E and Brucker, Sara Y and Lupski, James R and Wu, Nan and Zhu, Lan} }