Long-Read Sequencing Identifies the First Retrotransposon Insertion and Resolves Structural Variants Causing Antithrombin Deficiency.
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Authors
Stephens, Jonathan
Stefanucci, Luca
Padilla, José
Miñano, Antonia
Gleadall, Nicholas
García, Juan Luis
López-Fernández, María Fernanda
Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel
Puurunen, Marja
Undas, Anetta
Raymond, Frances Lucy
Vicente, Vicente
Ouwehand, Willem H
Corral, Javier
Sanchis-Juan, Alba
NIHR BioResource
Publication Date
2022-08Journal Title
Thromb Haemost
ISSN
0340-6245
Publisher
Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
de la Morena-Barrio, B., Stephens, J., de la Morena-Barrio, M. E., Stefanucci, L., Padilla, J., Miñano, A., Gleadall, N., et al. (2022). Long-Read Sequencing Identifies the First Retrotransposon Insertion and Resolves Structural Variants Causing Antithrombin Deficiency.. Thromb Haemost https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1749345
Abstract
The identification of inherited antithrombin deficiency (ATD) is critical to prevent potentially life-threatening thrombotic events. Causal variants in SERPINC1 are identified for up to 70% of cases, the majority being single-nucleotide variants and indels. The detection and characterization of structural variants (SVs) in ATD remain challenging due to the high number of repetitive elements in SERPINC1. Here, we performed long-read whole-genome sequencing on 10 familial and 9 singleton cases with type I ATD proven by functional and antigen assays, who were selected from a cohort of 340 patients with this rare disorder because genetic analyses were either negative, ambiguous, or not fully characterized. We developed an analysis workflow to identify disease-associated SVs. This approach resolved, independently of its size or type, all eight SVs detected by multiple ligation-dependent probe amplification, and identified for the first time a complex rearrangement previously misclassified as a deletion. Remarkably, we identified the mechanism explaining ATD in 2 out of 11 cases with previous unknown defect: the insertion of a novel 2.4 kb SINE-VNTR-Alu retroelement, which was characterized by de novo assembly and verified by specific polymerase chain reaction amplification and sequencing in the probands and affected relatives. The nucleotide-level resolution achieved for all SVs allowed breakpoint analysis, which revealed repetitive elements and microhomologies supporting a common replication-based mechanism for all the SVs. Our study underscores the utility of long-read sequencing technology as a complementary method to identify, characterize, and unveil the molecular mechanism of disease-causing SVs involved in ATD, and enlarges the catalogue of genetic disorders caused by retrotransposon insertions.
Sponsorship
Funding has also been provided by the National Institute for Health Research England
Funder references
Medical Research Council (MR/P02002X/1)
British Heart Foundation (RE/18/1/34212)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1749345
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/333584
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