Akademska digitalna zbirka SLovenije - logo
E-resources
Full text
Peer reviewed
  • Identification of a deep in...
    Hiraide, Takuya; Nakashima, Mitsuko; Ikeda, Takahiro; Tanaka, Daisuke; Osaka, Hitoshi; Saitsu, Hirotomo

    Journal of human genetics, 10/2020, Volume: 65, Issue: 10
    Journal Article

    Pseudoexon inclusion caused by deep intronic variants is an important genetic cause for various disorders. Here, we present a case of a hypomyelinating leukodystrophy with developmental delay, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, and hypodontia, which are consistent with autosomal recessive POLR3-related leukodystrophy. Whole-exome sequencing identified only a heterozygous missense variant (c.1451G>A) in POLR3A. To explore possible involvement of a deep intronic variant in another allele, we performed whole-genome sequencing of the patient with variant annotation by SpliceAI, a deep-learning-based splicing prediction tool. A deep intronic variant (c.645 + 312C>T) in POLR3A, which was predicted to cause inclusion of a pseudoexon derived from an Alu element, was identified and confirmed by mRNA analysis. These results clearly showed that whole-genome sequencing, in combination with deep-learning-based annotation tools such as SpliceAI, will bring us further benefits in detecting and evaluating possible pathogenic variants in deep intronic regions.