@article {150, title = {Efficient phasing and imputation of low-coverage sequencing data using large reference panels.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {53}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 01}, pages = {120-126}, abstract = {

Low-coverage whole-genome sequencing followed by imputation has been proposed as a cost-effective genotyping approach for disease and population genetics studies. However, its competitiveness against SNP arrays is undermined because current imputation methods are computationally expensive and unable to leverage large reference panels. Here, we describe a method, GLIMPSE, for phasing and imputation of low-coverage sequencing datasets from modern reference panels. We demonstrate its remarkable performance across different coverages and human populations. GLIMPSE achieves imputation of a genome for less than US$1 in computational cost, considerably outperforming other methods and improving imputation accuracy over the full allele frequency range. As a proof of concept, we show that 1{\texttimes} coverage enables effective gene expression association studies and outperforms dense SNP arrays in rare variant burden tests. Overall, this study illustrates the promising potential of low-coverage imputation and suggests a paradigm shift in the design of future genomic studies.

}, keywords = {Genome, Human, Genotype, Humans, Likelihood Functions, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Reference Standards, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-020-00756-0}, author = {Rubinacci, Simone and Ribeiro, Diogo M and Hofmeister, Robin J and Delaneau, Olivier} } @article {143, title = {Expanded CAG Repeats in ATXN1, ATXN2, ATXN3, and HTT in the 1000 Genomes Project.}, journal = {Mov Disord}, volume = {36}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 02}, pages = {514-518}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Spinocerebellar ataxia types 1, 2, 3 and Huntington disease are neurodegenerative disorders caused by expanded CAG repeats.

METHODS: We performed an in-silico analysis of CAG repeats in ATXN1, ATXN2, ATXN3, and HTT using 30{\texttimes} whole-=genome sequencing data of 2504 samples from the 1000 Genomes Project.

RESULTS: Seven HTT-positive, 3 ATXN2-positive, 1 ATXN3-positive, and 6 possibly ATXN1-positive samples were identified. No correlation was found between the repeat sizes of the different genes. The distribution of CAG alleles varied by ethnicity.

CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that there may be asymptomatic small expanded repeats in almost 0.5\% of these populations. {\textcopyright} 2020 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Ataxin-1, Ataxin-2, Ataxin-3, Humans, Huntingtin Protein, Huntington Disease, Repressor Proteins, Spinocerebellar Ataxias, Trinucleotide Repeat Expansion, Trinucleotide Repeats}, issn = {1531-8257}, doi = {10.1002/mds.28341}, author = {Ak{\c c}imen, Fulya and Ross, Jay P and Liao, Calwing and Spiegelman, Dan and Dion, Patrick A and Rouleau, Guy A} } @article {115, title = {Emerging Targets for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Diabetes.}, journal = {Trends Mol Med}, volume = {26}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 08}, pages = {744-757}, abstract = {

Type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T1DM and T2DM) increase the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD), resulting in acute cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke. Recent clinical trials point toward new treatment and prevention strategies for cardiovascular complications of T2DM. New antidiabetic agents show unexpected cardioprotective benefits. Moreover, genetic and reverse translational strategies have revealed potential novel targets for CVD prevention in diabetes, including inhibition of apolipoprotein C3 (APOC3). Modeling and pharmacology-based approaches to improve insulin action provide additional potential strategies to combat CVD. The development of new strategies for improved diabetes and lipid control fuels hope for future prevention of CVD associated with diabetes.

}, issn = {1471-499X}, doi = {10.1016/j.molmed.2020.03.011}, author = {Stitziel, Nathan O and Kanter, Jenny E and Bornfeldt, Karin E} } @article {126, title = {Epilepsy subtype-specific copy number burden observed in a genome-wide study of 17 458 subjects.}, journal = {Brain}, volume = {143}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 07 01}, pages = {2106-2118}, abstract = {

Cytogenic testing is routinely applied in most neurological centres for severe paediatric epilepsies. However, which characteristics of copy number variants (CNVs) confer most epilepsy risk and which epilepsy subtypes carry the most CNV burden, have not been explored on a genome-wide scale. Here, we present the largest CNV investigation in epilepsy to date with 10 712 European epilepsy cases and 6746 ancestry-matched controls. Patients with genetic generalized epilepsy, lesional focal epilepsy, non-acquired focal epilepsy, and developmental and epileptic encephalopathy were included. All samples were processed with the same technology and analysis pipeline. All investigated epilepsy types, including lesional focal epilepsy patients, showed an increase in CNV burden in at least one tested category compared to controls. However, we observed striking differences in CNV burden across epilepsy types and investigated CNV categories. Genetic generalized epilepsy patients have the highest CNV burden in all categories tested, followed by developmental and epileptic encephalopathy patients. Both epilepsy types also show association for deletions covering genes intolerant for truncating variants. Genome-wide CNV breakpoint association showed not only significant loci for genetic generalized and developmental and epileptic encephalopathy patients but also for lesional focal epilepsy patients. With a 34-fold risk for developing genetic generalized epilepsy, we show for the first time that the established epilepsy-associated 15q13.3 deletion represents the strongest risk CNV for genetic generalized epilepsy across the whole genome. Using the human interactome, we examined the largest connected component of the genes overlapped by CNVs in the four epilepsy types. We observed that genetic generalized epilepsy and non-acquired focal epilepsy formed disease modules. In summary, we show that in all common epilepsy types, 1.5-3\% of patients carry epilepsy-associated CNVs. The characteristics of risk CNVs vary tremendously across and within epilepsy types. Thus, we advocate genome-wide genomic testing to identify all disease-associated types of CNVs.

}, keywords = {DNA Copy Number Variations, Epilepsy, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male}, issn = {1460-2156}, doi = {10.1093/brain/awaa171}, author = {Niestroj, Lisa-Marie and Perez-Palma, Eduardo and Howrigan, Daniel P and Zhou, Yadi and Cheng, Feixiong and Saarentaus, Elmo and N{\"u}rnberg, Peter and Stevelink, Remi and Daly, Mark J and Palotie, Aarno and Lal, Dennis} } @article {111, title = {Evaluation of the VISAGE Basic Tool for Appearance and Ancestry Prediction Using PowerSeq Chemistry on the MiSeq FGx System.}, journal = {Genes (Basel)}, volume = {11}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 06 26}, abstract = {

The study of DNA to predict externally visible characteristics (EVCs) and the biogeographical ancestry (BGA) from unknown samples is gaining relevance in forensic genetics. Technical developments in Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS) enable the simultaneous analysis of hundreds of DNA markers, which improves successful Forensic DNA Phenotyping (FDP). The EU-funded VISAGE (VISible Attributes through GEnomics) Consortium has developed various targeted MPS-based lab tools to apply FDP in routine forensic analyses. Here, we present an evaluation of the VISAGE Basic tool for appearance and ancestry prediction based on PowerSeq chemistry (Promega) on a MiSeq FGx System (Illumina). The panel consists of 153 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that provide information about EVCs (41 SNPs for eye, hair and skin color from HIrisPlex-S) and continental BGA (115 SNPs; three overlap with the EVCs SNP set). The assay was evaluated for sensitivity, repeatability and genotyping concordance, as well as its performance with casework-type samples. This targeted MPS assay provided complete genotypes at all 153 SNPs down to 125 pg of input DNA and 99.67\% correct genotypes at 50 pg. It was robust in terms of repeatability and concordance and provided useful results with casework-type samples. The results suggest that this MPS assay is a useful tool for basic appearance and ancestry prediction in forensic genetics for users interested in applying PowerSeq chemistry and MiSeq for this purpose.

}, keywords = {DNA Fingerprinting, Eye Color, Forensic Genetics, Genetic Markers, Genotype, Hair Color, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Skin Pigmentation, Software}, issn = {2073-4425}, doi = {10.3390/genes11060708}, author = {Palencia-Madrid, Leire and Xavier, Catarina and de la Puente, Mar{\'\i}a and Hohoff, Carsten and Phillips, Christopher and Kayser, Manfred and Parson, Walther} } @article {58, title = {EphrinB2-EphB4-RASA1 Signaling in Human Cerebrovascular Development and Disease.}, journal = {Trends Mol Med}, volume = {25}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Apr}, pages = {265-286}, abstract = {

Recent whole exome sequencing studies in humans have provided novel insight into the importance of the ephrinB2-EphB4-RASA1 signaling axis in cerebrovascular development, corroborating and extending previous work in model systems. Here, we aim to review the human cerebrovascular phenotypes associated with ephrinB2-EphB4-RASA1 mutations, including those recently discovered in Vein of Galen malformation: the most common and severe brain arteriovenous malformation in neonates. We will also discuss emerging paradigms of the molecular and cellular pathophysiology of disease-causing ephrinB2-EphB4-RASA1 mutations, including the potential role of somatic mosaicism. These observations have potential diagnostic and therapeutic implications for patients with rare congenital cerebrovascular diseases and their families.

}, issn = {1471-499X}, doi = {10.1016/j.molmed.2019.01.009}, author = {Zeng, Xue and Hunt, Ava and Jin, Sheng Chih and Duran, Daniel and Gaillard, Jonathan and Kahle, Kristopher T} } @article {56, title = {Evaluation of the detection of GBA missense mutations and other variants using the Oxford Nanopore MinION.}, journal = {Mol Genet Genomic Med}, volume = {7}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 03}, pages = {e564}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Mutations in GBA cause Gaucher disease when biallelic and are strong risk factors for Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease when heterozygous. GBA analysis is complicated by the nearby pseudogene. We aimed to design and validate a method for sequencing GBA using long reads.

METHODS: We sequenced GBA on the Oxford Nanopore MinION as an 8.9~kb amplicon from 102 individuals, including patients with Parkinson{\textquoteright}s and Gaucher diseases. We used NanoOK for quality metrics, NGMLR to align data (after comparing with GraphMap), Nanopolish and Sniffles to call variants, and WhatsHap for phasing.

RESULTS: We detected all known missense mutations in these samples, including the common p.N409S (N370S) and p.L483P (L444P) in multiple samples, and nine rarer ones, as well as a splicing and a truncating mutation, and intronic SNPs. We demonstrated the ability to phase mutations, confirm compound heterozygosity, and assign haplotypes. We also detected two known risk variants in some Parkinson{\textquoteright}s patients. Rare false positives were easily identified and filtered, with the Nanopolish quality score adjusted for the number of reads a very robust discriminator. In two individuals carrying a recombinant allele, we were able to detect and fully define it in one carrier, where it included a 55-base pair deletion, but not in another one, suggesting a limitation of the PCR enrichment method. Missense mutations were detected at the correct zygosity, except for the case where the RecNciI one was missed.

CONCLUSION: The Oxford Nanopore MinION can detect missense mutations and an exonic deletion in this difficult gene, with the added advantages of phasing and intronic analysis. It can be used as an efficient research tool, but additional work is required to exclude all recombinants.

}, issn = {2324-9269}, doi = {10.1002/mgg3.564}, author = {Leija-Salazar, Melissa and Sedlazeck, Fritz J and Toffoli, Marco and Mullin, Stephen and Mokretar, Katya and Athanasopoulou, Maria and Donald, Aimee and Sharma, Reena and Hughes, Derralynn and Schapira, Anthony H V and Proukakis, Christos} } @article {28, title = {Exome sequencing reveals novel genetic loci influencing obesity-related traits in Hispanic children.}, journal = {Obesity (Silver Spring)}, volume = {25}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jul}, pages = {1270-1276}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To perform whole exome sequencing in 928 Hispanic children and identify variants and genes associated with childhood obesity.

METHODS: Single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) were identified from Illumina whole exome sequencing data using integrated read mapping, variant calling, and an annotation pipeline (Mercury). Association analyses of 74 obesity-related traits and exonic variants were performed using SeqMeta software. Rare autosomal variants were analyzed using gene-based association analyses, and common autosomal variants were analyzed at the SNV level.

RESULTS: (1) Rare exonic variants in 10 genes and 16 common SNVs in 11 genes that were associated with obesity traits in a cohort of Hispanic children were identified, (2) novel rare variants in peroxisome biogenesis factor 1 (PEX1) associated with several obesity traits (weight, weight z score, BMI, BMI z score, waist circumference, fat mass, trunk fat mass) were discovered, and (3) previously reported SNVs associated with childhood obesity were replicated.

CONCLUSIONS: Convergence of whole exome sequencing, a family-based design, and extensive phenotyping discovered novel rare and common variants associated with childhood obesity. Linking PEX1 to obesity phenotypes poses a novel mechanism of peroxisomal biogenesis and metabolism underlying the development of childhood obesity.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, ATPases Associated with Diverse Cellular Activities, Body Mass Index, Body Weight, Child, Child, Preschool, Cohort Studies, Exome, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hispanic or Latino, Humans, Membrane Proteins, Pediatric Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Software, Waist Circumference, Young Adult}, issn = {1930-739X}, doi = {10.1002/oby.21869}, author = {Sabo, Aniko and Mishra, Pamela and Dugan-Perez, Shannon and Voruganti, V Saroja and Kent, Jack W and Kalra, Divya and Cole, Shelley A and Comuzzie, Anthony G and Muzny, Donna M and Gibbs, Richard A and Butte, Nancy F} }