Clinical genomics

Approach studies how rare gene variant pairs contribute to disease

tulrich@broadinstitute.org — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 17:04:15 +0000

Approach studies how rare gene variant pairs contribute to disease

By Tom Ulrich December 7, 2023

Approach studies how rare gene variant pairs contribute to disease

Strategy infers whether variants that appear in the same gene are on the same copy of that gene, could improve genetic diagnosis of disease

By Tracy Hampton, Massachusetts General Hospital

December 7, 2023

Credit: Susanna Hamilton, ӳ��ý Communications

Each gene in the human genome has two copies. When researchers detect two mutations within a particular gene in a patient’s genome, it can be difficult or expensive to determine if those two mutations are present in the same copy of the gene (“in cis”) or different copies of the gene (“in trans”).

A team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the ӳ��ý of MIT and Harvard recently developed a strategy for inferring which of these phases is present for rare variant pairs within genes.

As reported in Nature Genetics, the work will be helpful for interpreting findings from clinical genetic testing — especially for recessive diseases, which arise when both copies of a gene are impacted by a damaging genetic variant.

For the study, researchers analyzed sequencing data of the expressed genes — or the protein coding regions of the genome — from 125,748 individuals from the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD), a large international public open-access human genome resource.

The team applied a statistical method called an expectation-maximization algorithm to the genetic data from gnomAD to estimate whether a pair of rare variants are seen in cis or in trans.

“Our method to estimate the phase of rare variants was 96% accurate in two independent datasets, including a set of patients with recessive Mendelian conditions,” said senior author Kaitlin Samocha, an assistant investigator in the Center for Genomic Medicine at MGH and an associated scientist in the Program in Medical and Population Genetics at ӳ��ý. “The accuracy of our approach remained high even for very rare variants and across genetic ancestry groups.”

Additionally, the investigators, including co-first authors Michael Guo and Laurent Francioli, found that only a small number of genes were impacted by loss-of-function variants predicted to be in trans, which would be predicted to lead to the complete loss of that protein.

In most individuals, if two rare loss-of-function variants were found in the same gene, the variant pair was in cis. Therefore, when a pair of rare loss-of-function variants is observed in the same gene in an individual in the general population, it is more likely that these variants are carried on the same copy of the gene rather than on different copies.

“We have publicly released phasing predictions for over five billion pairs of rare variants seen in the gnomAD dataset, as well as our counts per gene of variant pairs predicted to be in trans, at gnomad.broadinstitute.org,” Samocha said.

Although this work focused on estimating the phase of rare coding variants in expressed genes, Samocha and her colleagues hope to incorporate noncoding and other variant types in their phasing estimates.

“Additionally, as more genome sequencing data become available, we will evaluate how our approach compares with more sophisticated phasing algorithms,” she said. “Finally, we will seek out more evaluations of the utility of our approach in a clinical genetic setting.”

Adapted from a press release issued by MGH.

Funding

Support for this study was provided by the National Human Genome Research Institute.

Paper cited

Guo MH, Francioli LC, et al. Inferring compound heterozygosity from large-scale exome sequencing data. Nature Genetics. Online December 6, 2023. DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01608-3.

Tags:

Medical and Population Genetics Program

Rare Disease

Clinical genomics

ӳ��ý Clinical Labs established to expand clinical services

leah@broadinstitute.org — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 12:00:00 +0000

Approach studies how rare gene variant pairs contribute to disease

By Tom Ulrich December 7, 2023

Approach studies how rare gene variant pairs contribute to disease

Strategy infers whether variants that appear in the same gene are on the same copy of that gene, could improve genetic diagnosis of disease

By Tracy Hampton, Massachusetts General Hospital

December 7, 2023

Credit: Susanna Hamilton, ӳ��ý Communications

The team applied a statistical method called an expectation-maximization algorithm to the genetic data from gnomAD to estimate whether a pair of rare variants are seen in cis or in trans.

Adapted from a press release issued by MGH.

Funding

Support for this study was provided by the National Human Genome Research Institute.

Paper cited

Guo MH, Francioli LC, et al. Inferring compound heterozygosity from large-scale exome sequencing data. Nature Genetics. Online December 6, 2023. DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01608-3.

Tags:

Medical and Population Genetics Program

Rare Disease

Clinical genomics

Clinical genomics

Approach studies how rare gene variant pairs contribute to disease

Approach studies how rare gene variant pairs contribute to disease

Approach studies how rare gene variant pairs contribute to disease

ӳ����ý Clinical Labs established to expand clinical services

Approach studies how rare gene variant pairs contribute to disease

Approach studies how rare gene variant pairs contribute to disease

ӳ��ý Clinical Labs established to expand clinical services