@article {89, title = {Autosomal-Recessive Hearing Impairment Due to Rare Missense Variants within S1PR2.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {98}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Feb 04}, pages = {331-8}, abstract = {

The sphingosine-1-phosphate receptors (S1PRs) are a well-studied class of transmembrane G protein-coupled sphingolipid receptors that mediate multiple cellular processes. However, S1PRs have not been previously reported to be involved in the genetic etiology of human traits. S1PR2 lies within the autosomal-recessive nonsyndromic hearing impairment (ARNSHI) locus DFNB68 on 19p13.2. From exome sequence data we identified two pathogenic S1PR2 variants, c.323G>C (p.Arg108Pro) and c.419A>G (p.Tyr140Cys). Each of these variants co-segregates with congenital profound hearing impairment in consanguineous Pakistani families with maximum LOD scores of 6.4 for family DEM4154 and 3.3 for family PKDF1400. Neither S1PR2 missense variant was reported among \~{}120,000 chromosomes in the Exome Aggregation Consortium database, in 76 unrelated Pakistani exomes, or in 720 Pakistani control chromosomes. Both DNA variants affect highly conserved residues of S1PR2 and are predicted to be damaging by multiple bioinformatics tools. Molecular modeling predicts that these variants affect binding of sphingosine-1-phosphate (p.Arg108Pro) and G protein docking (p.Tyr140Cys). In the previously reported S1pr2(-/-) mice, stria vascularis abnormalities, organ of Corti degeneration, and profound hearing loss were~observed. Additionally, hair cell defects were seen in both knockout mice and morphant zebrafish. Family PKDF1400 presents with ARNSHI, which is consistent with the lack of gross malformations in S1pr2(-/-) mice, whereas family DEM4154 has lower limb malformations in addition to hearing loss. Our findings suggest the possibility of developing therapies against hair cell damage (e.g., from ototoxic drugs) through targeted stimulation of S1PR2.

}, keywords = {Amino Acid Sequence, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 19, Exome, Genes, Recessive, Hearing Loss, Humans, Lod Score, Logistic Models, Lysophospholipids, Models, Molecular, Molecular Sequence Data, Mutation, Missense, Pedigree, Phenotype, Receptors, Lysosphingolipid, Sphingosine}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.12.004}, author = {Santos-Cortez, Regie Lyn P and Faridi, Rabia and Rehman, Atteeq U and Lee, Kwanghyuk and Ansar, Muhammad and Wang, Xin and Morell, Robert J and Isaacson, Rivka and Belyantseva, Inna A and Dai, Hang and Acharya, Anushree and Qaiser, Tanveer A and Muhammad, Dost and Ali, Rana Amjad and Shams, Sulaiman and Hassan, Muhammad Jawad and Shahzad, Shaheen and Raza, Syed Irfan and Bashir, Zil-E-Huma and Smith, Joshua D and Nickerson, Deborah A and Bamshad, Michael J and Riazuddin, Sheikh and Ahmad, Wasim and Friedman, Thomas B and Leal, Suzanne M} } @article {64, title = {Genetic Candidate Variants in Two Multigenerational Families with Childhood Apraxia of Speech.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {11}, year = {2016}, month = {2016}, pages = {e0153864}, abstract = {

Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a severe and socially debilitating form of speech sound disorder with suspected genetic involvement, but the genetic etiology is not yet well understood. Very few known or putative causal genes have been identified to date, e.g., FOXP2 and BCL11A. Building a knowledge base of the genetic etiology of CAS will make it possible to identify infants at genetic risk and motivate the development of effective very early intervention programs. We investigated the genetic etiology of CAS in two large multigenerational families with familial CAS. Complementary genomic methods included Markov chain Monte Carlo linkage analysis, copy-number analysis, identity-by-descent sharing, and exome sequencing with variant filtering. No overlaps in regions with positive evidence of linkage between the two families were found. In one family, linkage analysis detected two chromosomal regions of interest, 5p15.1-p14.1, and 17p13.1-q11.1, inherited separately from the two founders. Single-point linkage analysis of selected variants identified CDH18 as a primary gene of interest and additionally, MYO10, NIPBL, GLP2R, NCOR1, FLCN, SMCR8, NEK8, and ANKRD12, possibly with additive effects. Linkage analysis in the second family detected five regions with LOD scores approaching the highest values possible in the family. A gene of interest was C4orf21 (ZGRF1) on 4q25-q28.2. Evidence for previously described causal copy-number variations and validated or suspected genes was not found. Results are consistent with a heterogeneous CAS etiology, as is expected in many neurogenic disorders. Future studies will investigate genome variants in these and other families with CAS.

}, keywords = {Apraxias, DNA Copy Number Variations, Exome, Female, Genetic Linkage, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Humans, Lod Score, Male, Pedigree, Risk, Speech}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0153864}, author = {Peter, Beate and Wijsman, Ellen M and Nato, Alejandro Q and Matsushita, Mark M and Chapman, Kathy L and Stanaway, Ian B and Wolff, John and Oda, Kaori and Gabo, Virginia B and Raskind, Wendy H} } @article {179, title = {Biallelic mutations in SNX14 cause a syndromic form of cerebellar atrophy and lysosome-autophagosome dysfunction.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {47}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 May}, pages = {528-34}, abstract = {

Pediatric-onset ataxias often present clinically as developmental delay and intellectual disability, with prominent cerebellar atrophy as a key neuroradiographic finding. Here we describe a new clinically distinguishable recessive syndrome in 12 families with cerebellar atrophy together with ataxia, coarsened facial features and intellectual disability, due to truncating mutations in the sorting nexin gene SNX14, encoding a ubiquitously expressed modular PX domain-containing sorting factor. We found SNX14 localized to lysosomes and associated with phosphatidylinositol (3,5)-bisphosphate, a key component of late endosomes/lysosomes. Patient-derived cells showed engorged lysosomes and a slower autophagosome clearance rate upon autophagy induction by starvation. Zebrafish morphants for snx14 showed dramatic loss of cerebellar parenchyma, accumulation of autophagosomes and activation of apoptosis. Our results characterize a unique ataxia syndrome due to biallelic SNX14 mutations leading to lysosome-autophagosome dysfunction.

}, keywords = {Animals, Atrophy, Autophagy, Cerebellar Diseases, Cerebellum, Child, Preschool, Female, Gene Frequency, Humans, Infant, Lod Score, Lysosomal Storage Diseases, Lysosomes, Male, Mutation, Phagosomes, Sorting Nexins, Spinocerebellar Ataxias, Syndrome, Zebrafish}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3256}, author = {Akizu, Naiara and Cantagrel, Vincent and Zaki, Maha S and Al-Gazali, Lihadh and Wang, Xin and Rosti, Rasim Ozgur and Dikoglu, Esra and Gelot, Antoinette Bernabe and Rosti, Basak and Vaux, Keith K and Scott, Eric M and Silhavy, Jennifer L and Schroth, Jana and Copeland, Brett and Schaffer, Ashleigh E and Gordts, Philip L S M and Esko, Jeffrey D and Buschman, Matthew D and Field, Seth J and Napolitano, Gennaro and Abdel-Salam, Ghada M and Ozgul, R Koksal and Sag{\i}roglu, Mahmut Samil and Azam, Matloob and Ismail, Samira and Aglan, Mona and Selim, Laila and Mahmoud, Iman G and Abdel-Hadi, Sawsan and Badawy, Amera El and Sadek, Abdelrahim A and Mojahedi, Faezeh and Kayserili, H{\"u}lya and Masri, Amira and Bastaki, Laila and Temtamy, Samia and M{\"u}ller, Ulrich and Desguerre, Isabelle and Casanova, Jean-Laurent and Dursun, Ali and G{\"u}nel, Murat and Gabriel, Stacey B and de Lonlay, Pascale and Gleeson, Joseph G} } @article {173, title = {COPA mutations impair ER-Golgi transport and cause hereditary autoimmune-mediated lung disease and arthritis.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {47}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jun}, pages = {654-60}, abstract = {

Unbiased genetic studies have uncovered surprising molecular mechanisms in human cellular immunity and autoimmunity. We performed whole-exome sequencing and targeted sequencing in five families with an apparent mendelian syndrome of autoimmunity characterized by high-titer autoantibodies, inflammatory arthritis and interstitial lung disease. We identified four unique deleterious variants in the COPA gene (encoding coatomer subunit α) affecting the same functional domain. Hypothesizing that mutant COPA leads to defective intracellular transport via coat protein complex I (COPI), we show that COPA variants impair binding to proteins targeted for retrograde Golgi-to-ER transport. Additionally, expression of mutant COPA results in ER stress and the upregulation of cytokines priming for a T helper type 17 (TH17) response. Patient-derived CD4(+) T cells also demonstrate significant skewing toward a TH17 phenotype that is implicated in autoimmunity. Our findings uncover an unexpected molecular link between a vesicular transport protein and a syndrome of autoimmunity manifested by lung and joint disease.

}, keywords = {Amino Acid Sequence, Arthritis, Autoimmune Diseases, Child, Preschool, Coatomer Protein, Endoplasmic Reticulum, Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress, Female, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Golgi Apparatus, HEK293 Cells, Humans, Infant, Lod Score, Lung Diseases, Interstitial, Male, Molecular Sequence Data, Pedigree, Protein Transport}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3279}, author = {Watkin, Levi B and Jessen, Birthe and Wiszniewski, Wojciech and Vece, Timothy J and Jan, Max and Sha, Youbao and Thamsen, Maike and Santos-Cortez, Regie L P and Lee, Kwanghyuk and Gambin, Tomasz and Forbes, Lisa R and Law, Christopher S and Stray-Pedersen, Asbj{\o}rg and Cheng, Mickie H and Mace, Emily M and Anderson, Mark S and Liu, Dongfang and Tang, Ling Fung and Nicholas, Sarah K and Nahmod, Karen and Makedonas, George and Canter, Debra L and Kwok, Pui-Yan and Hicks, John and Jones, Kirk D and Penney, Samantha and Jhangiani, Shalini N and Rosenblum, Michael D and Dell, Sharon D and Waterfield, Michael R and Papa, Feroz R and Muzny, Donna M and Zaitlen, Noah and Leal, Suzanne M and Gonzaga-Jauregui, Claudia and Boerwinkle, Eric and Eissa, N Tony and Gibbs, Richard A and Lupski, James R and Orange, Jordan S and Shum, Anthony K} } @article {180, title = {Exome sequencing links mutations in PARN and RTEL1 with familial pulmonary fibrosis and telomere shortening.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {47}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 May}, pages = {512-7}, abstract = {

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an age-related disease featuring progressive lung scarring. To elucidate the molecular basis of IPF, we performed exome sequencing of familial kindreds with pulmonary fibrosis. Gene burden analysis comparing 78 European cases and 2,816 controls implicated PARN, an exoribonuclease with no previous connection to telomere biology or disease, with five new heterozygous damaging mutations in unrelated cases and none in controls (P = 1.3 {\texttimes} 10(-8)); mutations were shared by all affected relatives (odds in favor of linkage = 4,096:1). RTEL1, an established locus for dyskeratosis congenita, harbored significantly more new damaging and missense variants at conserved residues in cases than in controls (P = 1.6 {\texttimes} 10(-6)). PARN and RTEL1 mutation carriers had shortened leukocyte telomere lengths, and we observed epigenetic inheritance of short telomeres in family members. Together, these genes explain ~7\% of familial pulmonary fibrosis and strengthen the link between lung fibrosis and telomere dysfunction.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Amino Acid Sequence, Case-Control Studies, Cells, Cultured, DNA Helicases, DNA Mutational Analysis, Exome, Exoribonucleases, Female, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Leukocytes, Lod Score, Male, Middle Aged, Molecular Sequence Data, Pedigree, Telomere, Telomere Shortening}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3278}, author = {Stuart, Bridget D and Choi, Jungmin and Zaidi, Samir and Xing, Chao and Holohan, Brody and Chen, Rui and Choi, Mihwa and Dharwadkar, Pooja and Torres, Fernando and Girod, Carlos E and Weissler, Jonathan and Fitzgerald, John and Kershaw, Corey and Klesney-Tait, Julia and Mageto, Yolanda and Shay, Jerry W and Ji, Weizhen and Bilguvar, Kaya and Mane, Shrikant and Lifton, Richard P and Garcia, Christine Kim} } @article {182, title = {Genetic linkage analysis in the age of whole-genome sequencing.}, journal = {Nat Rev Genet}, volume = {16}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 May}, pages = {275-84}, abstract = {

For many years, linkage analysis was the primary tool used for the genetic mapping of Mendelian and complex traits with familial aggregation. Linkage analysis was largely supplanted by the wide adoption of genome-wide association studies (GWASs). However, with the recent increased use of whole-genome sequencing (WGS), linkage analysis is again emerging as an important and powerful analysis method for the identification of genes involved in disease aetiology, often in conjunction with WGS filtering approaches. Here, we review the principles of linkage analysis and provide practical guidelines for carrying out linkage studies using WGS data.

}, keywords = {Algorithms, Female, Genetic Linkage, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotyping Techniques, Humans, Lod Score, Male, Pedigree, Penetrance, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Software}, issn = {1471-0064}, doi = {10.1038/nrg3908}, author = {Ott, Jurg and Wang, Jing and Leal, Suzanne M} }