Articles in 2014

Genomic aberrations affecting genes in B cell differentiation are hallmarks of B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). A new whole-genome sequencing study of ETV6-RUNX1–positive ALL has now identified RAG-mediated recombination, which specifically targets genes and regulatory elements active during B cell differentiation, as the underlying mechanism.

The price of DNA sequencing has never been lower. However, there is little consensus as to when the identification of a genetic variant is clinically useful. Clinical geneticists carrying out systematic community reviews of evidence for the pathogenicity of variants collected in locus-specific and disease-specific databases are beginning to bridge the gap between research evidence and rules used to make clinical decisions.

Although dozens of common variants have been associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), the mechanisms by which these variants increase disease susceptibility are largely unknown. A new study mapping the human pancreatic islet cistrome provides a roadmap for exploring the effects of these variants and suggests that altered enhancer function might be a common contributor to the genetic risk of T2D.

Alkes Price, Peter Visscher and colleagues provide recommendations on the application of mixed-linear-model association methods across a range of study designs.

Francis Drobniewski and colleagues report the whole-genome sequencing of 1,000 Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains obtained prospectively from patients over a 2-year period in Samara, Russia, a region with a high incidence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis. They compare these strains to a diverse panel of strains isolated from across the UK and characterize the patterns of the emergence and evolution of drug resistance.

Unnur Thorsteinsdottir, Kari Stefansson and colleagues identify low-frequency and rare sequence variants associated with elevated or reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. The newly discovered variants include an intronic variant associated with altered expression of CCND2, two independent missense variants in PAM and a rare frameshift variant in PDX1.

Makedonka Mitreva and colleagues report the genome sequence and transcriptome analysis of the hookworm Necator americanus, a prevalent soil-transmitted human parasite and the cause of necatoriasis. They develop a hookworm protein microarray to examine the host parasite interaction and immune response, tested on blood samples from 200 individuals in an endemic region.

Doil Choi and colleagues report the genome sequence of the hot pepper, Capsicum annuum, as well as the resequencing of two cultivated peppers and a wild species, Capsicum chinense. Comparative genomic analysis across Solanaceae provides insights into genome expansion, pungency, ripening and disease resistance in hot peppers.

Douglas Higgs and colleagues report a high-throughput approach, called Capture-C, to analyze interactions between cis regulatory elements. Using Capture-C, the authors interrogated hundreds of specific interactions at high resolution in a single experiment.

Adolfo Ferrando and colleagues report the exome sequencing of peripheral T cell lymphomas. They identified recurrent mutations in RHOA, TET2, DNMT3A, IDH2, FYN, ATM, B2M and CD58.

Jorge Ferrer and colleagues have mapped regulatory SNP variants associated in GWAS with type 2 diabetes risk and glycemic traits to large clusters of enhancer elements regulating the transcriptional identity of pancreatic β cells via a highly connected transcription factor network.

Sandro Santagata, Gad Getz and colleagues report the discovery of a recurrent mutation in the oncogene BRAF in papillary craniopharyngiomas that does not occur in the histologically related adamantinomatous form. Their results have the potential to aid in diagnosis and treatment of these intracranial tumors.

Shigeru Chiba and colleagues report exome sequencing of angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma (AITL) and other peripheral T cell lymphomas and identify a recurrent somatic RHOA mutation encoding a p.Gly17Val alteration in 68% of AITL samples.

Peter Campbell, Mel Greaves and colleagues use exome and whole-genome sequencing to characterize somatic mutations in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemias with the ETV6-RUNX1 fusion gene. They find that RAG-mediated deletions are the dominant mutational process.

Neil Hunter and colleagues show that the HEI10 ubiquitin ligase regulates meiotic recombination by limiting the colocalization of RNF212 and MSH4-MSH5 to future crossover sites. At later stages, they find that HEI10 accumulates stably at designated crossover sites and facilitates clearance of RNF212 and MSH4-MSH5 complexes to promote the final steps of meiotic recombination.

Gong-Hong Wei, Jussi Taipale and colleagues show that a prostate cancer risk allele at 6q22 enhances HOXB13 chromatin binding at this locus, leading to increased allele-specific expression of RFX6. They further show that RFX6 suppression reduces the proliferation, migration and invasion of prostate cancer cells and that RFX6 expression in clinical samples correlates with tumor progression and metastasis.