A common intronic single nucleotide variant modifies PKD1 expression level

Abstract

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), caused by mutations in PKD1 and PKD2 (PKD1/2), has unexplained phenotypic variability likely affected by environmental and other genetic factors. Approximately 10% of individuals with ADPKD phenotype have no causal mutation detected, possibly due to unrecognized risk variants of PKD1/2. This study was designed to identify risk variants of PKD genes through population genetic analyses. We used Wright's F‐statistics (Fst) to evaluate common single nucleotide variants (SNVs) potentially favored by positive natural selection in PKD1 from 1000 Genomes Project (1KG) and genotyped 388 subjects from the Rogosin Institute ADPKD Data Repository. The variants with >90th percentile Fst scores underwent further investigation by in silico analysis and molecular genetics analyses. We identified a deep intronic SNV, rs3874648G> A, located in a conserved binding site of the splicing regulator Tra2‐β in PKD1 intron 30. Reverse‐transcription PCR (RT‐PCR) of peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) from an ADPKD patient homozygous for rs3874648‐A identified an atypical PKD1 splice form. Functional analyses demonstrated that rs3874648‐A allele increased Tra2‐β binding affinity and activated a cryptic acceptor splice‐site, causing a frameshift that introduced a premature stop codon in mRNA, thereby decreasing PKD1 full‐length transcript level. PKD1 transcript levels were lower in PBL from rs3874648‐G/A carriers than in rs3874648‐G/G homozygotes in a small cohort of normal individuals and patients with PKD2 inactivating mutations. Our findings indicate that rs3874648G > A is a PKD1 expression modifier attenuating PKD1 expression through Tra2‐β, while the derived G allele advantageously maintains PKD1 expression and is predominant in all subpopulations.

Regulating PCCA gene expression by modulation of pseudoexon splicing patterns to rescue enzyme activity in propionic acidemia

“…Similarly, other deep-intronic sequence variations have been identified as modifiers of gene expression and possible disease risk factors from disturbing the regulation of splicing that includes the normal repression of cryptic splice sites. 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 …”

RegulatingPCCAgene expression by modulation of pseudoexon splicing patterns to rescue enzyme activity in propionic acidemia

“…This SNP may be a genetic determinant of a lower-level pseudoexon activation event that will affect the functional expression of PCCA, like other deep intronic sequence variations have been identified as modifiers of gene expression and possible disease risk factors as a consequence of their impact on splicing regulation and the use of cryptic splice sites. [46][47][48][49][50][51] By blocking inclusion of the PCCA pseudoexon using an SSO targeting the splicing regulatory region altered by the pathogenic pseudoexon activating variation, we can increase the activity of the heterododecameric PCC enzyme by modulating the levels of just one subunit, as PCCA expression is a limiting factor for both PCC subunits. This suggests that the activity of other multisubunit proteins also may be increased by increasing the levels of functional mRNA of only one of the subunits, despite the apparently fixed stoichiometry of the subunits in the functional protein.…”