@article {997, title = {Expanding the phenotype, genotype and biochemical knowledge of ALG3-CDG.}, journal = {J Inherit Metab Dis}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Feb 13}, abstract = {

Congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDGs) are a continuously expanding group of monogenic disorders of glycoprotein and glycolipid biosynthesis that cause multisystem diseases. Individuals with ALG3-CDG frequently exhibit severe neurological involvement (epilepsy, microcephaly, and hypotonia), ocular anomalies, dysmorphic features, skeletal anomalies, and feeding difficulties. We present 10 unreported individuals diagnosed with ALG3-CDG based on molecular and biochemical testing with 11 novel variants in ALG3, bringing the total to 40 reported individuals. In addition to the typical multisystem disease seen in ALG3-CDG, we expand the symptomatology of ALG3-CDG to now include endocrine abnormalities, neural tube defects, mild aortic root dilatation, immunodeficiency, and renal anomalies. N-glycan analyses of these individuals showed combined deficiencies of hybrid glycans and glycan extension beyond Man GlcNAc consistent with their truncated lipid-linked precursor oligosaccharides. This spectrum of N-glycan changes is unique to ALG3-CDG. These expanded features of ALG3-CDG facilitate diagnosis and suggest that optimal management should include baseline endocrine, renal, cardiac, and immunological evaluation at the time of diagnosis and with ongoing monitoring.

}, issn = {1573-2665}, doi = {10.1002/jimd.12367}, author = {Alsharhan, Hind and Ng, Bobby G and Daniel, Earnest James Paul and Friedman, Jennifer and Pivnick, Eniko K and Al-Hashem, Amal and Faqeih, Eissa Ali and Liu, Pengfei and Engelhardt, Nicole M and Keller, Kierstin N and Chen, Jie and Mazzeo, Pamela A and Rosenfeld, Jill A and Bamshad, Michael J and Nickerson, Deborah A and Raymond, Kimiyo M and Freeze, Hudson H and He, Miao and Edmondson, Andrew C and Lam, Christina} } @article {800, title = {Multi-omic studies on missense PLG variants in families with otitis media.}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {10}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 09 14}, pages = {15035}, abstract = {

Otitis media (OM), a very common disease in young children, can result in hearing loss. In order to potentially replicate previously reported associations between OM and PLG, exome and Sanger sequencing, RNA-sequencing of saliva and middle ear samples, 16S rRNA sequencing, molecular modeling, and statistical analyses including transmission disequilibrium tests (TDT) were performed in a multi-ethnic cohort of 718 families and simplex cases with OM. We identified four rare PLG variants c.112A > G (p.Lys38Glu), c.782G > A (p.Arg261His), c.1481C > T (p.Ala494Val) and c.2045~T > A (p.Ile682Asn), and one common variant c.1414G > A (p.Asp472Asn). However TDT analyses for these PLG variants did not demonstrate association with OM in 314 families. Additionally PLG expression is very low or absent in normal or diseased middle ear in mouse and human, and salivary expression and microbial α-diversity were non-significant in c.1414G > A (p.Asp472Asn) carriers. Based on molecular modeling, the novel rare variants particularly c.782G > A (p.Arg261His) and c.2045~T > A (p.Ile682Asn) were predicted to affect protein structure. Exploration of other potential disease mechanisms will help elucidate how PLG contributes to OM susceptibility in humans. Our results underline the importance of following up findings from genome-wide association through replication studies, preferably using multi-omic datasets.

}, keywords = {Animals, Ear, Middle, Female, Genomics, Humans, Male, Mice, Microbiota, Mutation, Missense, Otitis Media, Pedigree, Plasminogen, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Saliva}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-020-70498-w}, author = {Bootpetch, Tori C and Hafr{\'e}n, Lena and Elling, Christina L and Baschal, Erin E and Manichaikul, Ani W and Pine, Harold S and Szeremeta, Wasyl and Scholes, Melissa A and Cass, Stephen P and Larson, Eric D and Chan, Kenny H and Ishaq, Rafaqat and Prager, Jeremy D and Shaikh, Rehan S and Gubbels, Samuel P and Yousaf, Ayesha and Wine, Todd M and Bamshad, Michael J and Yoon, Patricia J and Jenkins, Herman A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Streubel, Sven-Olrik and Friedman, Norman R and Frank, Daniel N and Einarsdottir, Elisabet and Kere, Juha and Riazuddin, Saima and Daly, Kathleen A and Leal, Suzanne M and Ryan, Allen F and Mattila, Petri S and Ahmed, Zubair M and Sale, Michele M and Chonmaitree, Tasnee and Santos-Cortez, Regie Lyn P} } @article {809, title = {Rare deleterious variants of NOTCH1, GATA4, SMAD6, and ROBO4 are enriched in BAV with early onset complications but not in BAV with heritable thoracic aortic disease.}, journal = {Mol Genet Genomic Med}, volume = {8}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 10}, pages = {e1406}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the most common cardiovascular malformation in adults, with a prevalence of 0.5\%-2\%. The prevalence of BAV in cohorts who were ascertained due to thoracic aortic aneurysms or acute aortic dissections (TAD) is as high as 20\%. However, the contribution of causal BAV genes to TAD is not known. Therefore, we evaluated rare deleterious variants of GATA4, NOTCH1, SMAD6, or ROBO4 in patients with BAV who presented with TAD.

METHODS: Our cohort consisted of 487 probands with Heritable Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms or Dissections (HTAD, 12\% BAV, 29\% female) and 63 probands with Early onset complications of Bicuspid Aortic Valve disease (EBAV, 63\% TAD, 34\% female). After whole exome sequencing, we functionally annotated GATA4, NOTCH1, SMAD6, and ROBO4 variants and compared the prevalence of rare variants in these genes to controls without HTAD.

RESULTS: We identified 11 rare deleterious variants of GATA4, SMAD6, or ROBO4 in 12 (18\%) EBAV cases. The burden of rare SMAD6 and GATA4 variants was significantly enriched in EBAV but not in HTAD cases, even among HTAD cases with BAV (p~<~.003).

CONCLUSION: Rare variants of NOTCH1, ROBO4, SMAD6, or GATA4 do not significantly contribute to BAV in cohorts with HTAD. We conclude that BAV patients who present with HTAD are a genetically distinct subgroup with implications for genetic testing and prognosis.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic, Bicuspid Aortic Valve Disease, Female, GATA4 Transcription Factor, Gene Frequency, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Mutation, Receptor, Notch1, Receptors, Cell Surface, Smad6 Protein}, issn = {2324-9269}, doi = {10.1002/mgg3.1406}, author = {Musfee, Fadi I and Guo, Dongchuan and Pinard, Am{\'e}lie C and Hostetler, Ellen M and Blue, Elizabeth E and Nickerson, Deborah A and Bamshad, Michael J and Milewicz, Dianna M and Prakash, Siddharth K} }