Frequent copy number variants in a cohort of Mexican-Mestizo individuals.

BACKGROUND: The human genome presents variation at distinct levels, copy number variants (CNVs) are DNA segments of variable lengths that range from several base pairs to megabases and are present at a variable number of copies in human genomes. Common CNVs have no apparent influence on the phenotype; however, some rare CNVs have been associated with phenotypic traits, depending on their size and gene content. CNVs are detected by microarrays of different densities and are generally visualized, and their frequencies analysed using the HapMap as default reference population. Nevertheless, this default reference is inadequate when the samples analysed are from people from Mexico, since population with a Hispanic genetic background are minimally represented. In this work, we describe the variation in the frequencies of four common CNVs in Mexican-Mestizo individuals. RESULTS: In a cohort of 147 unrelated Mexican-Mestizo individuals, we found that the common CNVs 2p11.2 (99.6%), 8p11.22 (54.5%), 14q32.33 (100%), and 15q11.2 (71.1%) appeared with unexpectedly high frequencies when contrasted with the HapMap reference (ChAS). Yet, while when comparing to an ethnically related reference population, these differences were significantly reduced or even disappeared. CONCLUSION: The findings in this work contribute to (1) a better description of the CNVs characteristics of the Mexican Mestizo population and enhance the knowledge of genome variation in different ethnic groups. (2) emphasize the importance of contrasting CNVs identified in studied individuals against a reference group that-as best as possible-share the same ethnicity while keeping this relevant information in mind when conducting CNV studies at the population or clinical level.

TGFß pathway is required for viable gestation of Fanconi anemia embryos.

Overexpression of the TGFß pathway impairs the proliferation of the hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) pool in Fanconi anemia (FA). TGFß promotes the expression of NHEJ genes, known to function in a low-fidelity DNA repair pathway, and pharmacological inhibition of TGFß signaling rescues FA HSPCs. Here, we demonstrate that genetic disruption of Smad3, a transducer of the canonical TGFß pathway, modifies the phenotype of FA mouse models deficient for Fancd2. We observed that the TGFß and NHEJ pathway genes are overexpressed during the embryogenesis of Fancd2-/- mice and that the Fancd2-/-Smad3-/- double knockout (DKO) mice undergo high levels of embryonic lethality due to loss of the TGFß-NHEJ axis. Fancd2-deficient embryos acquire extensive genomic instability during gestation which is not reversed by Smad3 inactivation. Strikingly, the few DKO survivors have activated the non-canonical TGFß-ERK pathway, ensuring expression of NHEJ genes during embryogenesis and improved survival. Activation of the TGFß-NHEJ axis was critical for the survival of the few Fancd2-/-Smad3-/- DKO newborn mice but had detrimental consequences for these surviving mice, such as enhanced genomic instability and ineffective hematopoiesis.

Fanconi Anemia Patients from an Indigenous Community in Mexico Carry a New Founder Pathogenic Variant in FANCG.

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare genetic disorder caused by pathogenic variants (PV) in at least 22 genes, which cooperate in the Fanconi anemia/Breast Cancer (FA/BRCA) pathway to maintain genome stability. PV in FANCA, FANCC, and FANCG account for most cases (~90%). This study evaluated the chromosomal, molecular, and physical phenotypic findings of a novel founder FANCG PV, identified in three patients with FA from the Mixe community of Oaxaca, Mexico. All patients presented chromosomal instability and a homozygous PV, FANCG: c.511-3_511-2delCA, identified by next-generation sequencing analysis. Bioinformatic predictions suggest that this deletion disrupts a splice acceptor site promoting the exon 5 skipping. Analysis of Cytoscan 750 K arrays for haplotyping and global ancestry supported the Mexican origin and founder effect of the variant, reaffirming the high frequency of founder PV in FANCG. The degree of bone marrow failure and physical findings (described through the acronyms VACTERL-H and PHENOS) were used to depict the phenotype of the patients. Despite having a similar frequency of chromosomal aberrations and genetic constitution, the phenotype showed a wide spectrum of severity. The identification of a founder PV could help for a systematic and accurate genetic screening of patients with FA suspicion in this population.

Microarray analysis of microRNA expression in mouse fetus at 13.5 and 14.5 days post-coitum in ear and back skin tissues.

There is no information regarding the role of microRNAs in the development of the external ear in mammals. The purpose of this study was to determine the stage-specific expression of microRNA during external ear development in mice under normal conditions. GeneChip miRNA 3.0 arrays by Affymetrix were used to obtain miRNA expression profiles from mice fetal pinnae and back skin tissues at 13.5 days-post-coitum (dpc) and 14.5 dpc. Biological triplicates for each tissue were analyzed; one litter represents one biological replica, each litter had 16 fetuses on average. The results were analyzed with Affymetrix's Transcriptome Analysis Console software to identify differentially expressed miRNAs. The inquiry showed significant differential expression of 25 miRNAs at 13.5 dpc and 31 at 14.5 dpc, some of these miRNAs were predicted to target genes implicated in external ear development. One example is mmu-miR-10a whose low expression in pinnae is known to impact ear development by modulating Hoxa1 mRNA levels Garzon et al. (2006), Gavalas et al. (1998) [1], [2]. Other findings like the upregulation of mmu-miR-200c and mmu-miR-205 in the pinnae tissues of healthy mice are in agreement with what has been reported in human patients with microtia, in which down regulation of both miRNAs has been found Li et al. (2013) [3]. This study uncovered a spatiotemporal pattern of miRNA expression in the external ear, which results from continuous transcriptional changes during normal development of body structures. All microarray data are available at the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) at NCBI under accession number GSE64945.

Fanconi anemia cells with unrepaired DNA damage activate components of the checkpoint recovery process.

BACKGROUND: The FA/BRCA pathway repairs DNA interstrand crosslinks. Mutations in this pathway cause Fanconi anemia (FA), a chromosome instability syndrome with bone marrow failure and cancer predisposition. Upon DNA damage, normal and FA cells inhibit the cell cycle progression, until the G2/M checkpoint is turned off by the checkpoint recovery, which becomes activated when the DNA damage has been repaired. Interestingly, highly damaged FA cells seem to override the G2/M checkpoint. In this study we explored with a Boolean network model and key experiments whether checkpoint recovery activation occurs in FA cells with extensive unrepaired DNA damage. METHODS: We performed synchronous/asynchronous simulations of the FA/BRCA pathway Boolean network model. FA-A and normal lymphoblastoid cell lines were used to study checkpoint and checkpoint recovery activation after DNA damage induction. The experimental approach included flow cytometry cell cycle analysis, cell division tracking, chromosome aberration analysis and gene expression analysis through qRT-PCR and western blot. RESULTS: Computational simulations suggested that in FA mutants checkpoint recovery activity inhibits the checkpoint components despite unrepaired DNA damage, a behavior that we did not observed in wild-type simulations. This result implies that FA cells would eventually reenter the cell cycle after a DNA damage induced G2/M checkpoint arrest, but before the damage has been fixed. We observed that FA-A cells activate the G2/M checkpoint and arrest in G2 phase, but eventually reach mitosis and divide with unrepaired DNA damage, thus resolving the initial checkpoint arrest. Based on our model result we look for ectopic activity of checkpoint recovery components. We found that checkpoint recovery components, such as PLK1, are expressed to a similar extent as normal undamaged cells do, even though FA-A cells harbor highly damaged DNA. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that FA cells, despite extensive DNA damage, do not loss the capacity to express the transcriptional and protein components of checkpoint recovery that might eventually allow their division with unrepaired DNA damage. This might allow cell survival but increases the genomic instability inherent to FA individuals and promotes cancer.

External ear microRNA expression profiles during mouse development.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) comprise a class of approximately 22 nucleotide regulatory non-coding RNAs that play several roles in diverse biological processes. Recent reports suggest that embryonic development in mammals is accompanied by dynamic changes in miRNA expression; however, there is no information regarding the role of miRNAs in the development of the external ear. The aim of this study was to determine the stage-specific expression of miRNAs during mouse external ear development in order to identify potentially implicated miRNAs along with their possible targets. miRNA expression profiles from fetal mice pinnae and back skin tissues at 13.5 dpc and 14.5 dpc were obtained using an Affymetrix GeneChip miRNA 3.0 array. Biological triplicates for both tissues, each collected from a litter averaging 16 fetuses, were analyzed. The results were analyzed with Affymetrix's Transcriptome Analysis Console software to identify differentially expressed miRNAs. We observed differential expression of 40 miRNAs including some predicted to target genes implicated in external ear development, such as mmu-miR-10a, an miRNA known to modulate Hoxa1 mRNA levels, and mmu-miR-200c and mmu-miR-205. To our knowledge, this is the first miRNA expression profiling study of external ear development in mammals. These data could set the basis to understand the implications of miRNAs in normal external ear development.