An exome sequencing strategy to diagnose lethal autosomal recessive disorders.

ABSTRACT: Rare disorders resulting in prenatal or neonatal death are genetically heterogeneous. For some conditions, affected fetuses can be diagnosed by ultrasound scan, but this is not usually possible until mid-gestation. There is often limited fetal DNA available for investigation. We investigated a strategy for diagnosing autosomal recessive lethal disorders in non-consanguineous pedigrees with multiple affected fetuses. Exome sequencing was performed to identify genes where each parent is heterozygous for a rare non-synonymous-coding or splicing variant. Putative pathogenic variants were tested for cosegregation in affected fetuses and unaffected siblings. In eight couples of European ancestry, we found on average 1.75 genes (range 0-4) where both parents were heterozygous for rare potentially

SUBMITTER: Ellard S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4205099 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature