Perinatal mortality is a heavy burden for both affected parents and physicians. However, the underlying genetic causes have not been sufficiently investigated and most cases remain without diagnosis. ...This impedes appropriate counseling or therapy. We describe four affected children of two unrelated families with cardiomyopathy, hydrops fetalis, or cystic hygroma that all deceased perinatally. In the four patients, we found the following homozygous loss of function (LoF) variants in SLC30A5 NM_022902.4:c.832_836del p.(Ile278Phefs*33) and NM_022902.4:c.1981_1982del p.(His661Tyrfs*10). Knockout of SLC30A5 has previously been shown a cardiac phenotype in mouse models and no homozygous LoF variants in SLC30A5 are currently described in gnomAD. Taken together, we present SLC30A5 as a new gene for a severe and perinatally lethal form of cardiomyopathy.
Pontocerebellar hypoplasia (PCH) describes a group of rare heterogeneous neurodegenerative diseases with prenatal onset. Here we describe eight children with PCH from four unrelated families ...harboring the homozygous MINPP1 (NM_004897.4) variants; c.75_94del, p.(Leu27Argfs*39), c.851 C > A, p.(Ala284Asp), c.1210 C > T, p.(Arg404*), and c.992 T > G, p.(Ile331Ser). The homozygous p.(Leu27Argfs*39) change is predicted to result in a complete absence of MINPP1. The p.(Arg404*) would likely lead to a nonsense mediated decay, or alternatively, a loss of several secondary structure elements impairing protein folding. The missense p.(Ala284Asp) affects a buried, hydrophobic residue within the globular domain. The introduction of aspartic acid is energetically highly unfavorable and therefore predicted to cause a significant reduction in protein stability. The missense p.(Ile331Ser) affects the tight hydrophobic interactions of the isoleucine by the disruption of the polar side chain of serine, destabilizing the structure of MINPP1. The overlap of the above-mentioned genotypes and phenotypes is highly improbable by chance. MINPP1 is the only enzyme that hydrolyses inositol phosphates in the endoplasmic reticulum lumen and several studies support its role in stress induced apoptosis. The pathomechanism explaining the disease mechanism remains unknown, however several others genes of the inositol phosphatase metabolism (e.g., INPP5K, FIG4, INPP5E, ITPR1) are correlated with phenotypes of neurodevelopmental disorders. Taken together, we present MINPP1 as a novel autosomal recessive pontocerebellar hypoplasia gene.
Genetic diagnostics of neurodevelopmental disorders with epilepsy (NDDE) are predominantly applied in children, thus limited information is available regarding adults or elderly.
We investigated 150 ...adult/elderly individuals with NDDE by conventional karyotyping, FMR1 testing, chromosomal microarray, panel sequencing, and for unresolved cases, also by exome sequencing (nsingle = 71, ntrios = 24).
We identified (likely) pathogenic variants in 71 cases (47.3%) comprising fragile X syndrome (n = 1), disease-causing copy number (n = 23), and single-nucleotide variants (n = 49). Seven individuals displayed multiple independent genetic diagnoses. The diagnostic yield correlated with the severity of intellectual disability. Individuals with anecdotal evidence of exogenic early-life events (e.g., nuchal cord, complications at delivery) with alleged/unproven association to the disorder had a particularly high yield of 58.3%. Screening for disease-specific comorbidities was indicated in 45.1% and direct treatment consequences arose in 11.8% of diagnosed individuals.
Panel/exome sequencing displayed the highest yield and should be considered as first-tier diagnostics in NDDE. This high yield and the numerous indications for additional screening or treatment modifications arising from genetic diagnoses indicate a current medical undersupply of genetically undiagnosed adult/elderly individuals with NDDE. Moreover, knowledge of the course of elderly individuals will ultimately help in counseling newly diagnosed individuals with NDDE.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a constellation of neurodevelopmental disorders with high phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity, complicating the discovery of causative genes. Through a forward ...genetics approach selecting for defective vocalization in mice, we identified
as a candidate ASD gene. To validate our discovery, we generated a
knockout mouse model (
) and confirmed that inactivating
disrupts vocalization. In addition,
mice displayed repetitive behaviors, sociability deficits, cognitive dysfunction, and abnormal dendritic morphogenesis. Loss of KDM5A also resulted in dysregulation of the hippocampal transcriptome. To determine if
mutations cause ASD in humans, we screened whole exome sequencing and microarray data from a clinical cohort. We identified pathogenic
variants in nine patients with ASD and lack of speech. Our findings illustrate the power and efficacy of forward genetics in identifying ASD genes and highlight the importance of KDM5A in normal brain development and function.
We provide a new view on the nature of the gender wage gap (GWG) by analyzing the wage differentials within establishments. Based on linked employer—employee data for Germany, we show that the GWGs ...vary tremendously across establishments, even if we assume that male and female employees have the same human capital characteristics within each establishment. This heterogeneity is linked to firm and institutional characteristics: For instance, firms with works council and those covered by collective wage agreements have smaller GWGs. Furthermore, we find some evidence that firms operating under strong product market competition behave in a more egalitarian way.
We assembled genome-wide data from 16 prehistoric Africans. We show that the anciently divergent lineage that comprises the primary ancestry of the southern African San had a wider distribution in ...the past, contributing approximately two-thirds of the ancestry of Malawi hunter-gatherers ∼8,100–2,500 years ago and approximately one-third of the ancestry of Tanzanian hunter-gatherers ∼1,400 years ago. We document how the spread of farmers from western Africa involved complete replacement of local hunter-gatherers in some regions, and we track the spread of herders by showing that the population of a ∼3,100-year-old pastoralist from Tanzania contributed ancestry to people from northeastern to southern Africa, including a ∼1,200-year-old southern African pastoralist. The deepest diversifications of African lineages were complex, involving either repeated gene flow among geographically disparate groups or a lineage more deeply diverging than that of the San contributing more to some western African populations than to others. We finally leverage ancient genomes to document episodes of natural selection in southern African populations.
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•Genome-wide analysis of 16 African individuals who lived up to 8,100 years ago•Forager populations related to southern African San were once widespread in eastern Africa•Comparison of ancient and modern Africans reveal recent genomic adaptations•Evidence for a divergent human lineage contributing to western Africans
The prehistory of African populations is explored by genome-wide analysis of 16 human remains providing insight into ancestral lineages, admixture, and genomic adaptations.
We present a high-quality genome sequence of a Neanderthal woman from Siberia. We show that her parents were related at the level of half-siblings and that mating among close relatives was common ...among her recent ancestors. We also sequenced the genome of a Neanderthal from the Caucasus to low coverage. An analysis of the relationships and population history of available archaic genomes and 25 present-day human genomes shows that several gene flow events occurred among Neanderthals, Denisovans and early modern humans, possibly including gene flow into Denisovans from an unknown archaic group. Thus, interbreeding, albeit of low magnitude, occurred among many hominin groups in the Late Pleistocene. In addition, the high-quality Neanderthal genome allows us to establish a definitive list of substitutions that became fixed in modern humans after their separation from the ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans.
We present the DNA sequence of 17,367 protein-coding genes in two Neandertals from Spain and Croatia and analyze them together with the genome sequence recently determined from a Neandertal from ...southern Siberia. Comparisons with present-day humans from Africa, Europe, and Asia reveal that genetic diversity among Neandertals was remarkably low, and that they carried a higher proportion of amino acid-changing (nonsynonymous) alleles inferred to alter protein structure or function than present-day humans. Thus, Neandertals across Eurasia had a smaller long-term effective population than present-day humans. We also identify amino acid substitutions in Neandertals and present-day humans that may underlie phenotypic differences between the two groups. We find that genes involved in skeletal morphology have changed more in the lineage leading to Neandertals than in the ancestral lineage common to archaic and modern humans, whereas genes involved in behavior and pigmentation have changed more on the modern human lineage.
ABSTRACT
Background
A rare symptom of Glut1 deficiency syndrome (Glut1 DS) is hemiplegic migraine (HM).
Case
We report a patient with Glut1 DS with a mild phenotype. His leading symptom was HM. As an ...unusual complication of the initiation of a ketogenic diet (KD), our patient developed paroxysmal nonkinesigenic dyskinesia. Paroxysmal dyskinesia occurred first and exclusively at the initiation of KD.
Literature Review
There are a few case reports for HM in Glut1 DS. All patients had additional neurological symptoms. Regarding central nervous system symptoms such as paroxysmal dyskinesia triggered by KD, we found only 1 other case report.
Discussion
HM is part of the symptom complex of Glut1 DS and can be effectively treated by KD. Paroxysmal dyskinesia trigged by the initiation of KD should not lead to the discontinuation of the diet in Glut1 DS.
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