Of 7028 disorders with suspected Mendelian inheritance, 1139 are recessive and have an established molecular basis. Although individually uncommon, Mendelian diseases collectively account for ~20% of infant mortality and ~10% of pediatric hospitalizations. Preconception screening, together with genetic counseling of carriers, has resulted in remarkable declines in the incidence of several severe recessive diseases including Tay-Sachs disease and cystic fibrosis. However, extension of preconception screening to most severe disease genes has hitherto been impractical. Here, we report a preconception carrier screen for 448 severe recessive childhood diseases. Rather than costly, complete sequencing of the human genome, 7717 regions from 437 target genes were enriched by hybrid capture or microdroplet polymerase chain reaction, sequenced by next-generation sequencing (NGS) to a depth of up to 2.7 gigabases, and assessed with stringent bioinformatic filters. At a resultant 160× average target coverage, 93% of nucleotides had at least 20× coverage, and mutation detection/genotyping had ~95% sensitivity and ~100% specificity for substitution, insertion/deletion, splicing, and gross deletion mutations and single-nucleotide polymorphisms. In 104 unrelated DNA samples, the average genomic carrier burden for severe pediatric recessive mutations was 2.8 and ranged from 0 to 7. The distribution of mutations among sequenced samples appeared random. Twenty-seven percent of mutations cited in the literature were found to be common polymorphisms or misannotated, underscoring the need for better mutation databases as part of a comprehensive carrier testing strategy. Given the magnitude of carrier burden and the lower cost of testing compared to treating these conditions, carrier screening by NGS made available to the general population may be an economical way to reduce the incidence of and ameliorate suffering associated with severe recessive childhood disorders.

Monozygotic (MZ) or “identical” twins have been widely studied to dissect the relative contributions of genetics and environment in human diseases. In multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune demyelinating disease and common cause of neurodegeneration and disability in young adults, disease discordance in MZ twins has been interpreted to indicate environmental importance in its pathogenesis1–8. However, genetic and epigenetic differences between MZ twins have been described, challenging the accepted experimental paradigm in disambiguating effects of nature and nurture.9–12 Here, we report the genome sequences of one MS-discordant MZ twin pair and messenger RNA (mRNA) transcriptome and epigenome sequences of CD4+ lymphocytes from three MS-discordant, MZ twin pairs. No reproducible differences were detected between co-twins among ~3.6 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or ~0.2 million insertion-deletion polymorphisms (indels). Nor were any reproducible differences observed between siblings of the three twin pairs in HLA haplotypes, confirmed MS-susceptibility SNPs, copy number variations, mRNA and genomic SNP and indel genotypes, or expression of ~19,000 genes in CD4+ T cells. Only two to 176 differences in methylation of ~2 million CpG dinucleotides were detected between siblings of the three twin pairs, in contrast to ~800 methylation differences between T cells of unrelated individuals and several thousand differences between tissues or normal and cancerous tissues. In the first systematic effort to estimate sequence variation among MZ co-twins, we did not find evidence for genetic, epigenetic or transcriptome differences that explained disease discordance. These are the first female, twin and autoimmune disease individual genome sequences reported.

Self-perpetuating protein aggregates transmit prion diseases in mammals and heritable traits in yeast. De novo prion formation can be induced by transient overproduction of the corresponding prion-forming protein or its prion domain. Here, we demonstrate that the yeast prion protein Sup35 interacts with various proteins of the actin cortical cytoskeleton that are involved in endocytosis. Sup35-derived aggregates, generated in the process of prion induction, are associated with the components of the endocytic/vacuolar pathway. Mutational alterations of the cortical actin cytoskeleton decrease aggregation of overproduced Sup35 and de novo prion induction and increase prion-related toxicity in yeast. Deletion of the gene coding for the actin assembly protein Sla2 is lethal in cells containing the prion isoforms of both Sup35 and Rnq1 proteins simultaneously. Our data are consistent with a model in which cytoskeletal structures provide a scaffold for generation of large aggregates, resembling mammalian aggresomes. These aggregates promote prion formation. Moreover, it appears that the actin cytoskeleton also plays a certain role in counteracting the toxicity of the overproduced potentially aggregating proteins.Prions are protein isoforms that cause transmissible neurodegenerative diseases in mammals (for review, see reference 50) and control heritable traits in fungi (for review, see references 10 to 12). Most known prions are self-perpetuating amyloid-like ordered fibrous protein aggregates which propagate the prion state by immobilizing the soluble protein molecules of the same amino acid sequence. Saccharomyces cerevisiae prion [PSI ϩ ] is an aggregate of the translation termination factor Sup35. The prion domain of Sup35 is rich in glutamine (Q) and asparagine (N) residues, resembling poly-Q proteins, such as huntingtin, which is involved in Huntington's disease (for review, see reference 53). While recent data shed light on the major steps of propagation of the preexisting [PSI ϩ ] aggregates in yeast cells (for review, see references 12 and 47), the mechanism of initial prion formation from nonprion protein remains a mystery. It has been shown that de novo formation of the [PSI ϩ ] prion is induced by transient overproduction of the Sup35 protein or its prion domain (14,19). This process is usually efficient only in cells containing other QNrich protein aggregates, such as [PIN ϩ ], a prion form of Rnq1 (20, 22). Likewise, preexisting QN-rich prions promote aggregation and aggregation-related toxicity of heterologous poly-Q proteins expressed in yeast cells (33,38). Possibly, preexisting QN-rich aggregates either provide initial nucleation centers for aggregation of other QN-rich proteins or sequester unknown antiaggregation factors.Assembly of amyloid fibers resembles the assembly of cytoskeletal structures such as actin filaments. The QN-rich domain of Sup35 was shown to interact with the actin assembly protein Sla1 in the two-hybrid assay (4). Deletion of SLA1 decreases de novo induction of [PSI ϩ ] ...

A new cysteine anchoring method was developed for the synthesis of peptides containing C-terminal cysteine methyl esters. This method consists of attachment of Fmoc-Cys-OCH3 to either 2-ClTrt-Cl or Trt-Cl resins (via the side-chain thiol) followed by preparation of the desired peptide using Fmoc-based SPPS. We applied this method to the synthesis of the mating pheromone a-factor and a 5-FAM labeled a-factor analog. The peptides were obtained with high yield and purity and were shown to be bioactive in a growth arrest assay.

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