Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-2-2023

Identifier

DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.01.001

Abstract

Spinal muscular atrophy, a leading cause of early infant death, is caused by bi-allelic mutations of SMN1. Sequence analysis of SMN1 is challenging due to high sequence similarity with its paralog SMN2. Both genes have variable copy numbers across populations. Furthermore, without pedigree information, it is currently not possible to identify silent carriers (2+0) with two copies of SMN1 on one chromosome and zero copies on the other. We developed Paraphase, an informatics method that identifies full-length SMN1 and SMN2 haplotypes, determines the gene copy numbers, and calls phased variants using long-read PacBio HiFi data. The SMN1 and SMN2 copy-number calls by Paraphase are highly concordant with orthogonal methods (99.2% for SMN1 and 100% for SMN2). We applied Paraphase to 438 samples across 5 ethnic populations to conduct a population-wide haplotype analysis of these highly homologous genes. We identified major SMN1 and SMN2 haplogroups and characterized their co-segregation through pedigree-based analyses. We identified two SMN1 haplotypes that form a common two-copy SMN1 allele in African populations. Testing positive for these two haplotypes in an individual with two copies of SMN1 gives a silent carrier risk of 88.5%, which is significantly higher than the currently used marker (1.7%-3.0%). Extending beyond simple copy-number testing, Paraphase can detect pathogenic variants and enable potential haplotype-based screening of silent carriers through statistical phasing of haplotypes into alleles. Future analysis of larger population data will allow identification of more diverse haplotypes and genetic markers for silent carriers.

Journal Title

American journal of human genetics

Volume

110

Issue

2

First Page

240

Last Page

250

MeSH Keywords

Infant; Humans; Muscular Atrophy, Spinal; Mutation; Gene Dosage; Pedigree; Sequence Analysis; Survival of Motor Neuron 1 Protein; Survival of Motor Neuron 2 Protein

Keywords

PacBio HiFi; bioinformatics; carrier screening; copy number variations; genetic diseases; genomics; homologous genes; long-read sequencing; segmental duplications; spinal muscular atrophy

Comments

This article is available under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license and permits non-commercial use of the work as published, without adaptation or alteration provided the work is fully attributed.

Publisher's Link: https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(23)00001-0

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