Importance Inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs) are a group of monogenic diseases, one of the leading causes of blindness. Background Introducing a comprehensive genetic testing strategy by combining single gene Sanger sequencing, next‐generation sequencing (NGS) including whole exome sequencing (WES), and a specific hereditary eye disease enrichment panel (HEDEP) sequencing, to identify the disease‐causing variants of 800 Chinese probands affected with non‐syndromic IRDs. Design Retrospective analysis. Participants Eight hundred Chinese non‐syndromic IRDs probands and their families. Methods A total of 149 patients were subjected to Sanger sequencing. Of the 651 patients subjected to NGS, 86 patients underwent WES and 565 underwent HEDEP. Patients that likely carried copy number variations (CNVs) detected by HEDEP were further validated by multiplex ligation‐dependent probe amplification (MLPA) or quantitative fluorescence PCR (QF‐PCR). Main Outcome Measures The diagnostic rate. Results (Likely) pathogenic variants were determined in 481 cases (60.13% detection rate). The detection rates of single gene Sanger sequencing, WES and HEDEP were 86.58%, 31.40% and 56.99%, respectively. Approximately 11.64% of 481 cases carried autosomal dominant variants, 72.97% carried AR variants and 15.39% were found to be X‐linked. CNVs were confirmed by MLPA or QF‐PCR in 17 families. Fourteen genes that each caused disease in 1% or more of the cohort were detected, and these genes were collectively responsible for disease in almost one half (46.38%) of the families. Conclusions and Relevance Sanger sequencing is ideal to detect pathogenic variants of clinical homogeneous diseases, whereas NGS is more appropriate for patients without an explicit clinical diagnosis.

This study provides important data on the pattern of CYP2C19 polymorphisms in Chinese Han subjects, using the largest group of individuals. Furthermore, the study also detects the largest number of novel alleles in one population. These findings are of potential benefit to the development of personalized medicine for the Chinese Han population.

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Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous disorder characterized by night blindness, visual field constriction, and severely reduced visual acuity. Despite a number of genes being implicated in RP pathogenesis, the genetic etiology of the disease remains unknown in many patients. In this study, our aim was to identify the disease-causing mutation of a large Chinese family with autosomal dominant RP (adRP). Targeted exon capture sequencing was initially performed to screen mutations in known disease-causing genes, followed by exome sequencing. In doing so, a heterozygous mutation in ADIPOR1 (c.929A > G) that results in an amino acid substitution (p.Y310C) was identified to co-segregate with the disease phenotype in this family. Adipor1 is wildly expressed throughout the body, but appears to be enriched in the photoreceptor inner and outer segments. The p.Y310C mutation, predicted to affect the structure and function of the protein, was confirmed to affect protein folding and its subcellular localization in vitro. In addition, knockdown of adipor1 expression in a zebrafish model with morpholino (MO) preferentially reduced the number of rod photoreceptors, with no effect on the number of cones, a phenotype that is characteristic of RP. Furthermore, the knockdown phenotype was partially rescued by injecting wild-type, but not mutant, human ADIPOR1 mRNA. We conclude that ADIPOR1 is a novel adRP-causing gene and plays an important role in rod development and maintenance.