Positive selection of somatically mutated clones identifies adaptive pathways in metabolic liver disease.

Somatic mutations in nonmalignant tissues accumulate with age and injury, but whether these mutations are adaptive on the cellular or organismal levels is unclear. To interrogate genes in human metabolic disease, we performed lineage tracing in mice harboring somatic mosaicism subjected to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Proof-of-concept studies with mosaic loss of Mboat7, a membrane lipid acyltransferase, showed that increased steatosis accelerated clonal disappearance. Next, we induced pooled mosaicism in 63 known NASH genes, allowing us to trace mutant clones side by side. This in vivo tracing platform, which we coined MOSAICS, selected for mutations that ameliorate lipotoxicity, including mutant genes identified in human NASH. To prioritize new genes, additional screening of 472 candidates identified 23 somatic perturbations that promoted clonal expansion. In validation studies, liver-wide deletion of Tbx3, Bcl6, or Smyd2 resulted in protection against hepatic steatosis. Selection for clonal fitness in mouse and human livers identifies pathways that regulate metabolic disease.

Developmental and temporal characteristics of clonal sperm mosaicism.

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 clonal mosaic mutations in male gonads by sequencing ejaculated sperm. Through 300× whole-genome sequencing of blood and sperm from healthy men, we find each ejaculate carries on average 33.3 ± 12.1 (mean ± SD) clonal mosaic variants, nearly all of which are detected in serial sampling, with the majority absent from sampled somal tissues. Their temporal stability and mutational signature suggest origins during embryonic development from a largely immutable stem cell niche. Clonal mosaicism likely contributes a transmissible, predicted pathogenic exonic variant for 1 in 15 men, representing a life-long threat of transmission for these individuals and a significant burden on human population health.

Efficient embryonic homozygous gene conversion via RAD51-enhanced interhomolog repair.

Searching for factors to improve knockin efficiency for therapeutic applications, biotechnology, and generation of non-human primate models of disease, we found that the strand exchange protein RAD51 can significantly increase Cas9-mediated homozygous knockin in mouse embryos through an interhomolog repair (IHR) mechanism. IHR is a hallmark of meiosis but only occurs at low frequencies in somatic cells, and its occurrence in zygotes is controversial. Using multiple approaches, we provide evidence for an endogenous IHR mechanism in the early embryo that can be enhanced by RAD51. This process can be harnessed to generate homozygotes from wild-type zygotes using exogenous donors and to convert heterozygous alleles into homozygous alleles without exogenous templates. Furthermore, we identify additional IHR-promoting factors and describe features of IHR events. Together, our findings show conclusive evidence for IHR in mouse embryos and describe an efficient method for enhanced gene conversion.

Pathogenic Mechanisms of Somatic Mutation and Genome Mosaicism in Aging.

Age-related accumulation of postzygotic DNA mutations results in tissue genetic heterogeneity known as somatic mosaicism. Although implicated in aging as early as the 1950s, somatic mutations in normal tissue have been difficult to study because of their low allele fractions. With the recent emergence of cost-effective high-throughput sequencing down to the single-cell level, enormous progress has been made in our capability to quantitatively analyze somatic mutations in human tissue in relation to aging and disease. Here we first review how recent technological progress has opened up this field, providing the first broad sets of quantitative information on somatic mutations in vivo necessary to gain insight into their possible causal role in human aging and disease. We then propose three major mechanisms that can lead from accumulated de novo mutations across tissues to cell functional loss and human disease.

Clonal hematopoiesis, somatic mosaicism, and age-associated disease.

Somatic mosaicism, the occurrence of multiple genetically distinct cell clones within the same tissue, is an evitable consequence of human aging. The hematopoietic system is no exception to this, where studies have revealed the presence of expanded blood cell clones carrying mutations in preleukemic driver genes and/or genetic alterations in chromosomes. This phenomenon is referred to as clonal hematopoiesis and is remarkably prevalent in elderly individuals. While clonal hematopoiesis represents an early step toward a hematological malignancy, most individuals will never develop blood cancer. Somewhat unexpectedly, epidemiological studies have found that clonal hematopoiesis is associated with an increase in the risk of all-cause mortality and age-related disease, particularly in the cardiovascular system. Studies using murine models of clonal hematopoiesis have begun to shed light on this relationship, suggesting that driver mutations in mature blood cells can causally contribute to aging and disease by augmenting inflammatory processes. Here we provide an up-to-date review of clonal hematopoiesis within the context of somatic mosaicism and aging and describe recent epidemiological studies that have reported associations with age-related disease. We will also discuss the experimental studies that have provided important mechanistic insight into how driver mutations promote age-related disease and how this knowledge could be leveraged to treat individuals with clonal hematopoiesis.

Ubiquitous L1 mosaicism in hippocampal neurons.

Somatic LINE-1 (L1) retrotransposition during neurogenesis is a potential source of genotypic variation among neurons. As a neurogenic niche, the hippocampus supports pronounced L1 activity. However, the basal parameters and biological impact of L1-driven mosaicism remain unclear. Here, we performed single-cell retrotransposon capture sequencing (RC-seq) on individual human hippocampal neurons and glia, as well as cortical neurons. An estimated 13.7 somatic L1 insertions occurred per hippocampal neuron and carried the sequence hallmarks of target-primed reverse transcription. Notably, hippocampal neuron L1 insertions were specifically enriched in transcribed neuronal stem cell enhancers and hippocampus genes, increasing their probability of functional relevance. In addition, bias against intronic L1 insertions sense oriented relative to their host gene was observed, perhaps indicating moderate selection against this configuration in vivo. These experiments demonstrate pervasive L1 mosaicism at genomic loci expressed in hippocampal neurons.

Chromothriptic cure of WHIM syndrome.

Chromothripsis is a catastrophic cellular event recently described in cancer in which chromosomes undergo massive deletion and rearrangement. Here, we report a case in which chromothripsis spontaneously cured a patient with WHIM syndrome, an autosomal dominant combined immunodeficiency disease caused by gain-of-function mutation of the chemokine receptor CXCR4. In this patient, deletion of the disease allele, CXCR4(R334X), as well as 163 other genes from one copy of chromosome 2 occurred in a hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) that repopulated the myeloid but not the lymphoid lineage. In competitive mouse bone marrow (BM) transplantation experiments, Cxcr4 haploinsufficiency was sufficient to confer a strong long-term engraftment advantage of donor BM over BM from either wild-type or WHIM syndrome model mice, suggesting a potential mechanism for the patient's cure. Our findings suggest that partial inactivation of CXCR4 may have general utility as a strategy to promote HSC engraftment in transplantation.

Genetic drivers and cellular selection of female mosaic X chromosome loss.

Mosaic loss of the X chromosome (mLOX) is the most common clonal somatic alteration in leukocytes of female individuals1,2, but little is known about its genetic determinants or phenotypic consequences. Here, to address this, we used data from 883,574 female participants across 8 biobanks; 12% of participants exhibited detectable mLOX in approximately 2% of leukocytes. Female participants with mLOX had an increased risk of myeloid and lymphoid leukaemias. Genetic analyses identified 56 common variants associated with mLOX, implicating genes with roles in chromosomal missegregation, cancer predisposition and autoimmune diseases. Exome-sequence analyses identified rare missense variants in FBXO10 that confer a twofold increased risk of mLOX. Only a small fraction of associations was shared with mosaic Y chromosome loss, suggesting that distinct biological processes drive formation and clonal expansion of sex chromosome missegregation. Allelic shift analyses identified X chromosome alleles that are preferentially retained in mLOX, demonstrating variation at many loci under cellular selection. A polygenic score including 44 allelic shift loci correctly inferred the retained X chromosomes in 80.7% of mLOX cases in the top decile. Our results support a model in which germline variants predispose female individuals to acquiring mLOX, with the allelic content of the X chromosome possibly shaping the magnitude of clonal expansion.

Cell-type-resolved mosaicism reveals clonal dynamics of the human forebrain.

Debate remains around the anatomical origins of specific brain cell subtypes and lineage relationships within the human forebrain1-7. Thus, direct observation in the mature human brain is critical for a complete understanding of its structural organization and cellular origins. Here we utilize brain mosaic variation within specific cell types as distinct indicators for clonal dynamics, denoted as cell-type-specific mosaic variant barcode analysis. From four hemispheres and two different human neurotypical donors, we identified 287 and 780 mosaic variants, respectively, that were used to deconvolve clonal dynamics. Clonal spread and allele fractions within the brain reveal that local hippocampal excitatory neurons are more lineage-restricted than resident neocortical excitatory neurons or resident basal ganglia GABAergic inhibitory neurons. Furthermore, simultaneous genome transcriptome analysis at both a cell-type-specific and a single-cell level suggests a dorsal neocortical origin for a subgroup of DLX1+ inhibitory neurons that disperse radially from an origin shared with excitatory neurons. Finally, the distribution of mosaic variants across 17 locations within one parietal lobe reveals that restriction of clonal spread in the anterior-posterior axis precedes restriction in the dorsal-ventral axis for both excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Thus, cell-type-resolved somatic mosaicism can uncover lineage relationships governing the development of the human forebrain.

Of Mosaicism and Mechanisms: How JAK1 Goes Awry.

Personalized medicines require understanding the molecular causes of disease. In this issue of Immunity, Gruber et al. reveal that a gain-of-function JAK1 genetic variant results in a mutant protein with mosaic expression that drives multi-organ immune dysregulation via kinase dependent and independent mechanisms. The work highlights how biochemistry can inform therapies to resolve complex immune disorders.

Complex Autoinflammatory Syndrome Unveils Fundamental Principles of JAK1 Kinase Transcriptional and Biochemical Function.

Autoinflammatory disease can result from monogenic errors of immunity. We describe a patient with early-onset multi-organ immune dysregulation resulting from a mosaic, gain-of-function mutation (S703I) in JAK1, encoding a kinase essential for signaling downstream of >25 cytokines. By custom single-cell RNA sequencing, we examine mosaicism with single-cell resolution. We find that JAK1 transcription was predominantly restricted to a single allele across different cells, introducing the concept of a mutational "transcriptotype" that differs from the genotype. Functionally, the mutation increases JAK1 activity and transactivates partnering JAKs, independent of its catalytic domain. S703I JAK1 is not only hypermorphic for cytokine signaling but also neomorphic, as it enables signaling cascades not canonically mediated by JAK1. Given these results, the patient was treated with tofacitinib, a JAK inhibitor, leading to the rapid resolution of clinical disease. These findings offer a platform for personalized medicine with the concurrent discovery of fundamental biological principles.

Generation of gene-modified cynomolgus monkey via Cas9/RNA-mediated gene targeting in one-cell embryos.

Monkeys serve as important model species for studying human diseases and developing therapeutic strategies, yet the application of monkeys in biomedical researches has been significantly hindered by the difficulties in producing animals genetically modified at the desired target sites. Here, we first applied the CRISPR/Cas9 system, a versatile tool for editing the genes of different organisms, to target monkey genomes. By coinjection of Cas9 mRNA and sgRNAs into one-cell-stage embryos, we successfully achieve precise gene targeting in cynomolgus monkeys. We also show that this system enables simultaneous disruption of two target genes (Ppar-γ and Rag1) in one step, and no off-target mutagenesis was detected by comprehensive analysis. Thus, coinjection of one-cell-stage embryos with Cas9 mRNA and sgRNAs is an efficient and reliable approach for gene-modified cynomolgus monkey generation.

A new avialan theropod from an emerging Jurassic terrestrial fauna.

Birds are descended from non-avialan theropod dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic period, but the earliest phase of this evolutionary process remains unclear owing to the exceedingly sparse and spatio-temporally restricted fossil record1-5. Information about the early-diverging species along the avialan line is crucial to understand the evolution of the characteristic bird bauplan, and to reconcile phylogenetic controversies over the origin of birds3,4. Here we describe one of the stratigraphically youngest and geographically southernmost Jurassic avialans, Fujianvenator prodigiosus gen. et sp. nov., from the Tithonian age of China. This specimen exhibits an unusual set of morphological features that are shared with other stem avialans, troodontids and dromaeosaurids, showing the effects of evolutionary mosaicism in deep avialan phylogeny. F. prodigiosus is distinct from all other Mesozoic avialan and non-avialan theropods in having a particularly elongated hindlimb, suggestive of a terrestrial or wading lifestyle-in contrast with other early avialans, which exhibit morphological adaptations to arboreal or aerial environments. During our fieldwork in Zhenghe where F. prodigiosus was found, we discovered a diverse assemblage of vertebrates dominated by aquatic and semi-aquatic species, including teleosts, testudines and choristoderes. Using in situ radioisotopic dating and stratigraphic surveys, we were able to date the fossil-containing horizons in this locality-which we name the Zhenghe Fauna-to 148-150 million years ago. The diversity of the Zhenghe Fauna and its precise chronological framework will provide key insights into terrestrial ecosystems of the Late Jurassic.

Injury prevents Ras mutant cell expansion in mosaic skin.

Healthy skin is a mosaic of wild-type and mutant clones1,2. Although injury can cooperate with mutated Ras family proteins to promote tumorigenesis3-12, the consequences in genetically mosaic skin are unknown. Here we show that after injury, wild-type cells suppress aberrant growth induced by oncogenic Ras. HrasG12V/+ and KrasG12D/+ cells outcompete wild-type cells in uninjured, mosaic tissue but their expansion is prevented after injury owing to an increase in the fraction of proliferating wild-type cells. Mechanistically, we show that, unlike HrasG12V/+ cells, wild-type cells respond to autocrine and paracrine secretion of EGFR ligands, and this differential activation of the EGFR pathway explains the competitive switch during injury repair. Inhibition of EGFR signalling via drug or genetic approaches diminishes the proportion of dividing wild-type cells after injury, leading to the expansion of HrasG12V/+ cells. Increased proliferation of wild-type cells via constitutive loss of the cell cycle inhibitor p21 counteracts the expansion of HrasG12V/+ cells even in the absence of injury. Thus, injury has a role in switching the competitive balance between oncogenic and wild-type cells in genetically mosaic skin.

Widespread somatic L1 retrotransposition in normal colorectal epithelium.

Throughout an individual's lifetime, genomic alterations accumulate in somatic cells1-11. However, the mutational landscape induced by retrotransposition of long interspersed nuclear element-1 (L1), a widespread mobile element in the human genome12-14, is poorly understood in normal cells. Here we explored the whole-genome sequences of 899 single-cell clones established from three different cell types collected from 28 individuals. We identified 1,708 somatic L1 retrotransposition events that were enriched in colorectal epithelium and showed a positive relationship with age. Fingerprinting of source elements showed 34 retrotransposition-competent L1s. Multidimensional analysis demonstrated that (1) somatic L1 retrotranspositions occur from early embryogenesis at a substantial rate, (2) epigenetic on/off of a source element is preferentially determined in the early organogenesis stage, (3) retrotransposition-competent L1s with a lower population allele frequency have higher retrotransposition activity and (4) only a small fraction of L1 transcripts in the cytoplasm are finally retrotransposed in somatic cells. Analysis of matched cancers further suggested that somatic L1 retrotransposition rate is substantially increased during colorectal tumourigenesis. In summary, this study illustrates L1 retrotransposition-induced somatic mosaicism in normal cells and provides insights into the genomic and epigenomic regulation of transposable elements over the human lifetime.

Single-cell brain organoid screening identifies developmental defects in autism.

The development of the human brain involves unique processes (not observed in many other species) that can contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders1-4. Cerebral organoids enable the study of neurodevelopmental disorders in a human context. We have developed the CRISPR-human organoids-single-cell RNA sequencing (CHOOSE) system, which uses verified pairs of guide RNAs, inducible CRISPR-Cas9-based genetic disruption and single-cell transcriptomics for pooled loss-of-function screening in mosaic organoids. Here we show that perturbation of 36 high-risk autism spectrum disorder genes related to transcriptional regulation uncovers their effects on cell fate determination. We find that dorsal intermediate progenitors, ventral progenitors and upper-layer excitatory neurons are among the most vulnerable cell types. We construct a developmental gene regulatory network of cerebral organoids from single-cell transcriptomes and chromatin modalities and identify autism spectrum disorder-associated and perturbation-enriched regulatory modules. Perturbing members of the BRG1/BRM-associated factor (BAF) chromatin remodelling complex leads to enrichment of ventral telencephalon progenitors. Specifically, mutating the BAF subunit ARID1B affects the fate transition of progenitors to oligodendrocyte and interneuron precursor cells, a phenotype that we confirmed in patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell-derived organoids. Our study paves the way for high-throughput phenotypic characterization of disease susceptibility genes in organoid models with cell state, molecular pathway and gene regulatory network readouts.

Mosaicism in Human Health and Disease.

Mosaicism refers to the occurrence of two or more genomes in an individual derived from a single zygote. Germline mosaicism is a mutation that is limited to the gonads and can be transmitted to offspring. Somatic mosaicism is a postzygotic mutation that occurs in the soma, and it may occur at any developmental stage or in adult tissues. Mosaic variation may be classified in six ways: (a) germline or somatic origin, (b) class of DNA mutation (ranging in scale from single base pairs to multiple chromosomes), (c) developmental context, (d) body location(s), (e) functional consequence (including deleterious, neutral, or advantageous), and (f) additional sources of mosaicism, including mitochondrial heteroplasmy, exogenous DNA sources such as vectors, and epigenetic changes such as imprinting and X-chromosome inactivation. Technological advances, including single-cell and other next-generation sequencing, have facilitated improved sensitivity and specificity to detect mosaicism in a variety of biological contexts.

Somatic mosaicism reveals clonal distributions of neocortical development.

The structure of the human neocortex underlies species-specific traits and reflects intricate developmental programs. Here we sought to reconstruct processes that occur during early development by sampling adult human tissues. We analysed neocortical clones in a post-mortem human brain through a comprehensive assessment of brain somatic mosaicism, acting as neutral lineage recorders1,2. We combined the sampling of 25 distinct anatomic locations with deep whole-genome sequencing in a neurotypical deceased individual and confirmed results with 5 samples collected from each of three additional donors. We identified 259 bona fide mosaic variants from the index case, then deconvolved distinct geographical, cell-type and clade organizations across the brain and other organs. We found that clones derived after the accumulation of 90-200 progenitors in the cerebral cortex tended to respect the midline axis, well before the anterior-posterior or ventral-dorsal axes, representing a secondary hierarchy following the overall patterning of forebrain and hindbrain domains. Clones across neocortically derived cells were consistent with a dual origin from both dorsal and ventral cellular populations, similar to rodents, whereas the microglia lineage appeared distinct from other resident brain cells. Our data provide a comprehensive analysis of brain somatic mosaicism across the neocortex and demonstrate cellular origins and progenitor distribution patterns within the human brain.

The mosaic oat genome gives insights into a uniquely healthy cereal crop.

Cultivated oat (Avena sativa L.) is an allohexaploid (AACCDD, 2n = 6x = 42) thought to have been domesticated more than 3,000 years ago while growing as a weed in wheat, emmer and barley fields in Anatolia1,2. Oat has a low carbon footprint, substantial health benefits and the potential to replace animal-based food products. However, the lack of a fully annotated reference genome has hampered efforts to deconvolute its complex evolutionary history and functional gene dynamics. Here we present a high-quality reference genome of A. sativa and close relatives of its diploid (Avena longiglumis, AA, 2n = 14) and tetraploid (Avena insularis, CCDD, 2n = 4x = 28) progenitors. We reveal the mosaic structure of the oat genome, trace large-scale genomic reorganizations in the polyploidization history of oat and illustrate a breeding barrier associated with the genome architecture of oat. We showcase detailed analyses of gene families implicated in human health and nutrition, which adds to the evidence supporting oat safety in gluten-free diets, and we perform mapping-by-sequencing of an agronomic trait related to water-use efficiency. This resource for the Avena genus will help to leverage knowledge from other cereal genomes, improve understanding of basic oat biology and accelerate genomics-assisted breeding and reanalysis of quantitative trait studies.

Environmental signal in the evolutionary diversification of bird skeletons.

Characterizing how variation in the tempo and mode of evolution has structured the phenotypic diversity of extant species is a central goal of macroevolution1-3. However, studies are typically limited to a handful of traits4-6, providing incomplete information. We analyse morphological diversification in living birds, an ecologically diverse group7, documenting structural scales from 'pan-skeletal' proportions down to the localized three-dimensional shape changes of individual bones. We find substantial variation in evolutionary modes among avian subgroups and among skeletal parts, indicating widespread mosaicism and possible differences in the structure of the macroevolutionary landscape across Earth's main environments. Water-linked groups, especially Aequorlitornithes (waterbirds), have repeatedly explored a large portion of their total morphospace, emphasizing variation in body proportions and in the shape of bones close to the body core, which are functionally related to the mechanics of locomotion8. By contrast, landbirds (Inopinaves) evolved distinct, group-specific body forms early in the aftermath of the K-Pg and subsequently emphasized local shape variation, especially in the head and distal limb bones, which interact more directly with the environment. Passerines, which comprise more than half of all bird species, show a conservative evolutionary dynamic that resulted in low disparity across all skeletal parts. Evidence for early establishment of the morphospace of living birds is clear for some skeletal parts, including beaks and the combined skeletal morphology. However, we find little evidence for early partitioning of that morphospace, contrary to more specific predictions of 'niche-filling' models1,9. Nevertheless, early divergence among broad environmental types may have caused an early divergence of evolutionary modes, suggesting an important role for environmental divergence in structuring the radiation of crown-group birds.