SCAPER localizes to primary cilia and its mutation affects cilia length, causing Bardet-Biedl syndrome.

Studies of ciliopathies have served in elucidating much of our knowledge of structure and function of primary cilia. We report humans with Bardet-Biedl syndrome who display intellectual disability, retinitis pigmentosa, obesity, short stature and brachydactyly, stemming from a homozyogous truncation mutation in SCAPER, a gene previously associated with mitotic progression. Our findings, based on linkage analysis and exome sequencing studies of two remotely related large consanguineous families, are in line with recent reports of SCAPER variants associated with intellectual disability and retinitis pigmentosa. Using immuno-fluorescence and live cell imaging in NIH/3T3 fibroblasts and SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell lines over-expressing SCAPER, we demonstrate that both wild type and mutant SCAPER are expressed in primary cilia and co-localize with tubulin, forming bundles of microtubules. While wild type SCAPER was rarely localized along the ciliary axoneme and basal body, the aberrant protein remained sequestered to the cilia, mostly at the ciliary tip. Notably, longer cilia were demonstrated both in human affected fibroblasts compared to controls, as well as in NIH/3T3 cells transfected with mutant versus wildtype SCAPER. As SCAPER expression is known to peak at late G1 and S phase, overlapping the timing of ciliary resorption, our data suggest a possible role of SCAPER in ciliary dynamics and disassembly, also affecting microtubule-related mitotic progression. Thus, we outline a human ciliopathy syndrome and demonstrate that it is caused by a mutation in SCAPER, affecting primary cilia.

Combined CNV, haplotyping and whole exome sequencing enable identification of two distinct novel EYS mutations causing RP in a single inbred tribe.

Whole exome sequencing (WES) has become routine in clinical practice, especially in studies of recessive hereditary diseases in inbred consanguineous families, where homozygosity of a founder mutation is assumed. Multiple members of two consanguineous families of a single Bedouin tribe were diagnosed with apparently autosomal recessive/pseudo-dominant retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Affected individuals exhibited severe visual impairment with nyctalopia, marked constriction of visual fields, markedly reduced and delayed responses on electro-retinography (ERG) and eventual loss of central vision. Combined copy-number variant (CNV) analysis, haplotype reconstruction and WES of the kindred identified two distinct novel mutations in EYS (RP25): a p.(W1817*) nonsense mutation (identified through WES) and a large deletion encompassing 9 of the 43 exons, that was missed by WES and was identified through microarray CNV analysis. Segregation analysis of both mutations demonstrated that all affected individuals were either homozygous for one of the mutations, or compound heterozygous for both. The two mutations are predicted to cause loss of function of the encoded protein and were not present in screening of 200 ethnically-matched controls. Our findings of two distinct mutations in the same gene in a single inbred kindred, identified only through combined WES and microarray CNV analysis, highlight the limitations of either CNV or WES alone, as the heterozygous deletion had normal WES read-depth values. Moreover, they demonstrate pitfalls in homozygosity mapping for disease-causing variant identification in inbred communities.