Developmental and temporal characteristics of clonal sperm mosaicism
Cell. 2021 Aug 7:S0092-8674(21)00883-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.024. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Throughout development and aging, human cells accumulate mutations resulting in genomic mosaicism and genetic diversity at the cellular level. Mosaic mutations present in the gonads can affect both the individual and the offspring and subsequent generations. Here, we explore patterns and temporal stability of […]
Exome sequencing of child-parent trios with bladder exstrophy: Findings in 26 children
Am J Med Genet A. 2021 Aug 5. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.a.62439. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Bladder exstrophy (BE) is a rare, lower ventral midline defect with the bladder and part of the urethra exposed. The etiology of BE is unknown but thought to be influenced by genetic variation with more recent studies suggesting a role […]
Use of Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing to Identify Pathogens in Pediatric Osteoarticular Infections
Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 Jul 17;8(7):ofab346. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofab346. eCollection 2021 Jul. ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Osteoarticular infections (OAIs) are frequently encountered in children. Treatment may be guided by isolation of a pathogen; however, operative cultures are often negative. Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) allows for broad and sensitive pathogen detection that is culture-independent. We sought to evaluate […]
A human three-dimensional neural-perivascular ‘assembloid’ promotes astrocytic development and enables modeling of SARS-CoV-2 neuropathology
Nat Med. 2021 Jul 9. doi: 10.1038/s41591-021-01443-1. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Clinical evidence suggests the central nervous system is frequently impacted by SARS-CoV-2 infection, either directly or indirectly, although the mechanisms are unclear. Pericytes are perivascular cells within the brain that are proposed as SARS-CoV-2 infection points. Here we show that pericyte-like cells (PLCs), […]
Functional and structural analyses of novel Smith-Kingsmore Syndrome-Associated MTOR variants reveal potential new mechanisms and predictors of pathogenicity
PLoS Genet. 2021 Jul 1;17(7):e1009651. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009651. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Smith-Kingsmore syndrome (SKS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by macrocephaly/megalencephaly, developmental delay, intellectual disability, hypotonia, and seizures. It is caused by dominant missense mutations in MTOR. The pathogenicity of novel variants in MTOR in patients with neurodevelopmental disorders can be difficult to […]
Uncertain, Not Unimportant: Callosal Dysgenesis and Variants of Uncertain Significance in ROBO1
Pediatrics. 2021 Jun 30:e2020019000. doi: 10.1542/peds.2020-019000. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Congenital anomalies affect 3% to 5% of births and remain the leading cause of infant death in the United States. As whole exome and genome sequencing are increasingly used to diagnose underlying genetic disease, the patient’s clinical presentation remains the most important context for […]
Biallelic variants in KARS1 are associated with neurodevelopmental disorders and hearing loss recapitulated by the knockout zebrafish
Genet Med. 2021 Jun 25. doi: 10.1038/s41436-021-01239-1. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT PURPOSE: Pathogenic variants in Lysyl-tRNA synthetase 1 (KARS1) have increasingly been recognized as a cause of early-onset complex neurological phenotypes. To advance the timely diagnosis of KARS1-related disorders, we sought to delineate its phenotype and generate a disease model to understand its function […]
Pathogenic variants in PIDD1 lead to an autosomal recessive neurodevelopmental disorder with pachygyria and psychiatric features
Eur J Hum Genet. 2021 Jun 24. doi: 10.1038/s41431-021-00910-0. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT The PIDDosome is a multiprotein complex, composed by the p53-induced death domain protein 1 (PIDD1), the bipartite linker protein CRADD (also known as RAIDD) and the proform of caspase-2 that induces apoptosis in response to DNA damage. In the recent years, […]
Sperm mosaicism: implications for genomic diversity and disease
Trends Genet. 2021 Jun 19:S0168-9525(21)00139-6. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2021.05.007. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT While sperm mosaicism has few consequences for men, the offspring and future generations are unwitting recipients of gonadal cell mutations, often yielding severe disease. Recent studies, fueled by emergent technologies, show that sperm mosaicism is a common source of de novo mutations (DNMs) […]
Postmortem whole-genome sequencing on a dried blood spot identifies a novel homozygous SUOX variant causing isolated sulfite oxidase deficiency
Cold Spring Harb Mol Case Stud. 2021 Jun 11;7(3):a006091. doi: 10.1101/mcs.a006091. Print 2021 Jun. ABSTRACT Rapid whole-genome sequencing (rWGS) has shown that genetic diseases are a common cause of infant mortality in neonatal intensive care units. Dried blood spots collected for newborn screening allow investigation of causes of infant mortality that were not diagnosed during […]