High-throughput, high-accuracy array-based resequencing.

Although genomewide association studies have successfully identified associations of many common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with common diseases, the SNPs implicated so far account for only a small proportion of the genetic variability of tested diseases. It has been suggested that common diseases may often be caused by rare alleles missed by genomewide association studies. To identify these rare alleles we need high-throughput, high-accuracy resequencing technologies. Although array-based genotyping has allowed genomewide association studies of common SNPs in tens of thousands of samples, array-based resequencing has been limited for 2 main reasons: the lack of a fully multiplexed pipeline for high-throughput sample processing, and failure to achieve sufficient performance. We have recently solved both of these problems and created a fully multiplexed high-throughput pipeline that results in high-quality data. The pipeline consists of target amplification from genomic DNA, followed by allele enrichment to generate pools of purified variant (or nonvariant) DNA and ends with interrogation of purified DNA on resequencing arrays. We have used this pipeline to resequence approximately 5 Mb of DNA (on 3 arrays) corresponding to the exons of 1,500 genes in >473 samples; in total >2,350 Mb were sequenced. In the context of this large-scale study we obtained a false positive rate of approximately 1 in 500,000 bp and a false negative rate of approximately 10%.

Rapid identification of somatic mutations in colorectal and breast cancer tissues using mismatch repair detection (MRD).

Mismatch repair detection (MRD) was used to screen 93 matched tumor-normal sample pairs and 22 cell lines for somatic mutations in 30 cancer relevant genes. Using a starting amount of only 150 ng of genomic DNA, we screened 102 kb of sequence for somatic mutations in colon and breast cancer. A total of 152 somatic mutations were discovered, encompassing previously reported mutations, such as BRAF V600E and KRAS G12S, G12V, and G13D, as well as novel mutations, including some in genes in which somatic mutations have not previously been reported, such as MAP2K1 and MAP2K2. The distribution of mutations ranged widely within and across tumor types. The functional significance of many of these mutations is not understood, with patterns of selection only evident in KRAS and BRAF in colon cancer. These results present a novel approach to high-throughput mutation screening using small amounts of starting material and reveal a mutation spectrum across 30 genes in a large cohort of breast and colorectal cancers.

Multiplexed variation scanning for 1,000 amplicons in hundreds of patients using mismatch repair detection (MRD) on tag arrays.

Identification of the genetic basis of common disease may require comprehensive sequence analysis of coding regions and regulatory elements in patients and controls to find genetic effects caused by rare or heterogeneous mutations. In this study, we demonstrate how mismatch repair detection on tag arrays can be applied in a case-control study. Mismatch repair detection allows >1,000 amplicons to be screened for variations in a single laboratory reaction. Variation scanning in 939 amplicons, mostly in coding regions within a linkage peak, was done for 372 patients and 404 controls. In total, >180 Mb of DNA was scanned. Several variants more prevalent in patients than in controls were identified. This study demonstrates an approach to the discovery of susceptibility genes for common disease: large-scale direct sequence comparison between patients and controls. We believe this approach can be scaled up to allow sequence comparison in the whole-genome coding regions among large sets of cases and controls at a reasonable cost in the near future.