Browsing by Author "Caulfield, Mark J."

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    Functional filter for whole-genome sequencing data identifies HHT and stress-associated non-coding SMAD4 polyadenylation site variants >5 kb from coding DNA
    (Elsevier, 2023) Xiao, Sihao; Kai, Zhentian; Murphy, Daniel; Li, Dongyang; Patel, Dilip; Bielowka, Adrianna M.; Bernabeu-Herrero, Maria E.; Abdulmogith, Awatif; Mumford, Andrew D.; Westbury, Sarah K.; Aldred, Micheala A.; Vargesson, Neil; Caulfield, Mark J.; Genomics England Research Consortium; Shovlin, Claire L.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Despite whole-genome sequencing (WGS), many cases of single-gene disorders remain unsolved, impeding diagnosis and preventative care for people whose disease-causing variants escape detection. Since early WGS data analytic steps prioritize protein-coding sequences, to simultaneously prioritize variants in non-coding regions rich in transcribed and critical regulatory sequences, we developed GROFFFY, an analytic tool that integrates coordinates for regions with experimental evidence of functionality. Applied to WGS data from solved and unsolved hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) recruits to the 100,000 Genomes Project, GROFFFY-based filtration reduced the mean number of variants/DNA from 4,867,167 to 21,486, without deleting disease-causal variants. In three unsolved cases (two related), GROFFFY identified ultra-rare deletions within the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of the tumor suppressor SMAD4, where germline loss-of-function alleles cause combined HHT and colonic polyposis (MIM: 175050). Sited >5.4 kb distal to coding DNA, the deletions did not modify or generate microRNA binding sites, but instead disrupted the sequence context of the final cleavage and polyadenylation site necessary for protein production: By iFoldRNA, an AAUAAA-adjacent 16-nucleotide deletion brought the cleavage site into inaccessible neighboring secondary structures, while a 4-nucleotide deletion unfolded the downstream RNA polymerase II roadblock. SMAD4 RNA expression differed to control-derived RNA from resting and cycloheximide-stressed peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Patterns predicted the mutational site for an unrelated HHT/polyposis-affected individual, where a complex insertion was subsequently identified. In conclusion, we describe a functional rare variant type that impacts regulatory systems based on RNA polyadenylation. Extension of coding sequence-focused gene panels is required to capture these variants.
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    Identification and validation of a novel pathogenic variant in GDF2 (BMP9) responsible for hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia and pulmonary arteriovenous malformations
    (Wiley, 2022) Balachandar, Srimmitha; Graves, Tamara J.; Shimonty, Anika; Kerr, Katie; Kilner, Jill; Xiao, Sihao; Slade, Richard; Sroya, Manveer; Alikian, Mary; Curetean, Emanuel; Thomas, Ellen; McConnell, Vivienne P. M.; McKee, Shane; Boardman-Pretty, Freya; Devereau, Andrew; Fowler, Tom A.; Caulfield, Mark J.; Alton, Eric W.; Ferguson, Teena; Redhead, Julian; McKnight, Amy J.; Thomas, Geraldine A.; Genomics England Research Consortium; Aldred, Micheala A.; Shovlin, Claire L.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is an autosomal dominant multisystemic vascular dysplasia, characterized by arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), mucocutaneous telangiectasia and nosebleeds. HHT is caused by a heterozygous null allele in ACVRL1, ENG, or SMAD4, which encode proteins mediating bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling. Several missense and stop-gain variants identified in GDF2 (encoding BMP9) have been reported to cause a vascular anomaly syndrome similar to HHT, however none of these patients met diagnostic criteria for HHT. HHT families from UK NHS Genomic Medicine Centres were recruited to the Genomics England 100,000 Genomes Project. Whole genome sequencing and tiering protocols identified a novel, heterozygous GDF2 sequence variant in all three affected members of one HHT family who had previously screened negative for ACVRL1, ENG, and SMAD4. All three had nosebleeds and typical HHT telangiectasia, and the proband also had severe pulmonary AVMs from childhood. In vitro studies showed the mutant construct expressed the proprotein but lacked active mature BMP9 dimer, suggesting the mutation disrupts correct cleavage of the protein. Plasma BMP9 levels in the patients were significantly lower than controls. In conclusion, we propose that this heterozygous GDF2 variant is a rare cause of HHT associated with pulmonary AVMs.
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    Meta-analysis of up to 622,409 individuals identifies 40 novel smoking behaviour associated genetic loci
    (Springer Nature, 2019-01-07) Erzurumluoglu, A. Mesut; Liu, Mengzhen; Jackson, Victoria E.; Barnes, Daniel R.; Datta, Gargi; Melbourne, Carl A.; Young, Robin; Batini, Chiara; Surendran, Praveen; Jiang, Tao; Adnan, Sheikh Daud; Afaq, Saima; Agrawal, Arpana; Altmaier, Elisabeth; Antoniou, Antonis C.; Asselbergs, Folkert W.; Baumbach, Clemens; Bierut, Laura; Bertelsen, Sarah; Boehnke, Michael; Bots, Michiel L.; Brazel, David M.; Chambers, John C.; Chang-Claude, Jenny; Chen, Chu; Corley, Janie; Chou, Yi-Ling; David, Sean P.; Boer, Rudolf A. de; Leeuw, Christiaan A. de; Dennis, Joe G.; Dominiczak, Anna F.; Dunning, Alison M.; Easton, Douglas F.; Eaton, Charles; Elliott, Paul; Evangelou, Evangelos; Faul, Jessica D.; Foroud, Tatiana; Goate, Alison; Gong, Jian; Grabe, Hans J.; Haessler, Jeff; Haiman, Christopher; Hallmans, Göran; Hammerschlag, Anke R.; Harris, Sarah E.; Hattersley, Andrew; Heath, Andrew; Hsu, Chris; Iacono, William G.; Kanoni, Stavroula; Kapoor, Manav; Kaprio, Jaakko; Kardia, Sharon L.; Karpe, Fredrik; Kontto, Jukka; Kooner, Jaspal S.; Kooperberg, Charles; Kuulasmaa, Kari; Laakso, Markku; Lai, Dongbing; Langenberg, Claudia; Le, Nhung; Lettre, Guillaume; Loukola, Anu; Luan, Jian’an; Madden, Pamela A. F.; Mangino, Massimo; Marioni, Riccardo E.; Marouli, Eirini; Marten, Jonathan; Martin, Nicholas G.; McGue, Matt; Michailidou, Kyriaki; Mihailov, Evelin; Moayyeri, Alireza; Moitry, Marie; Müller-Nurasyid, Martina; Naheed, Aliya; Nauck, Matthias; Neville, Matthew J.; Nielsen, Sune Fallgaard; North, Kari; Perola, Markus; Pharoah, Paul D. P.; Pistis, Giorgio; Polderman, Tinca J.; Posthuma, Danielle; Poulter, Neil; Qaiser, Beenish; Rasheed, Asif; Reiner, Alex; Renström, Frida; Rice, John; Rohde, Rebecca; Rolandsson, Olov; Samani, Nilesh J.; Samuel, Maria; Schlessinger, David; Scholte, Steven H.; Scott, Robert A.; Sever, Peter; Shao, Yaming; Shrine, Nick; Smith, Jennifer A.; Starr, John M.; Stirrups, Kathleen; Stram, Danielle; Stringham, Heather M.; Tachmazidou, Ioanna; Tardif, Jean-Claude; Thompson, Deborah J.; Tindle, Hilary A.; Tragante, Vinicius; Trompet, Stella; Turcot, Valerie; Tyrrell, Jessica; Vaartjes, Ilonca; Leij, Andries R. van der; Meer, Peter van der; Varga, Tibor V.; Verweij, Niek; Völzke, Henry; Wareham, Nicholas J.; Warren, Helen R.; Weir, David R.; Weiss, Stefan; Wetherill, Leah; Yaghootkar, Hanieh; Yavas, Ersin; Jiang, Yu; Chen, Fang; Zhan, Xiaowei; Zhang, Weihua; Zhao, Wei; Zhao, Wei; Zhou, Kaixin; Amouyel, Philippe; Blankenberg, Stefan; Caulfield, Mark J.; Chowdhury, Rajiv; Cucca, Francesco; Deary, Ian J.; Deloukas, Panos; Angelantonio, Emanuele Di; Ferrario, Marco; Ferrières, Jean; Franks, Paul W.; Frayling, Tim M.; Frossard, Philippe; Hall, Ian P.; Hayward, Caroline; Jansson, Jan-Håkan; Jukema, J. Wouter; Kee, Frank; Männistö, Satu; Metspalu, Andres; Munroe, Patricia B.; Nordestgaard, Børge Grønne; Palmer, Colin N. A.; Salomaa, Veikko; Sattar, Naveed; Spector, Timothy; Strachan, David Peter; Harst, Pim van der; Zeggini, Eleftheria; Saleheen, Danish; Butterworth, Adam S.; Wain, Louise V.; Abecasis, Goncalo R.; Danesh, John; Tobin, Martin D.; Vrieze, Scott; Liu, Dajiang J.; Howson, Joanna M. M.; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine
    Smoking is a major heritable and modifiable risk factor for many diseases, including cancer, common respiratory disorders and cardiovascular diseases. Fourteen genetic loci have previously been associated with smoking behaviour-related traits. We tested up to 235,116 single nucleotide variants (SNVs) on the exome-array for association with smoking initiation, cigarettes per day, pack-years, and smoking cessation in a fixed effects meta-analysis of up to 61 studies (up to 346,813 participants). In a subset of 112,811 participants, a further one million SNVs were also genotyped and tested for association with the four smoking behaviour traits. SNV-trait associations with P < 5 × 10−8 in either analysis were taken forward for replication in up to 275,596 independent participants from UK Biobank. Lastly, a meta-analysis of the discovery and replication studies was performed. Sixteen SNVs were associated with at least one of the smoking behaviour traits (P < 5 × 10−8) in the discovery samples. Ten novel SNVs, including rs12616219 near TMEM182, were followed-up and five of them (rs462779 in REV3L, rs12780116 in CNNM2, rs1190736 in GPR101, rs11539157 in PJA1, and rs12616219 near TMEM182) replicated at a Bonferroni significance threshold (P < 4.5 × 10−3) with consistent direction of effect. A further 35 SNVs were associated with smoking behaviour traits in the discovery plus replication meta-analysis (up to 622,409 participants) including a rare SNV, rs150493199, in CCDC141 and two low-frequency SNVs in CEP350 and HDGFRP2. Functional follow-up implied that decreased expression of REV3L may lower the probability of smoking initiation. The novel loci will facilitate understanding the genetic aetiology of smoking behaviour and may lead to the identification of potential drug targets for smoking prevention and/or cessation.