Research
De novo truncating mutations in ASXL3 are associated with a novel clinical phenotype with similarities to Bohring-Opitz syndrome
Genome Medicine 2013, 5:11 doi:10.1186/gm415
Published: 5 February 2013Abstract (provisional)
Background
Molecular diagnostics can resolve locus heterogeneity underlying clinical phenotypes that may otherwise be co-assigned as a specific syndrome based on shared clinical features, as well as associate phenotypically diverse diseases to a single locus through allelic affinity. Here we describe a novel syndrome, likely caused by de novo truncating mutations in ASXL3, which shares characteristics with Bohring-Opitz syndrome, a disease associated with de novo truncating mutations in ASXL1.
Methods
We used whole genome and whole exome sequencing to interrogate the genomes of 4 subjects with an undiagnosed syndrome.
Results
Using genome wide sequencing we identified heterozygous, de novo truncating mutations in ASXL3, a transcriptional repressor related to ASXL1, in four unrelated probands. We found that these probands shared similar phenotypes including severe feeding difficulties, failure-to-thrive and neurologic abnormalities with significant developmental delay. Further, they showed less phenotypic overlap with patients who had de novo truncating mutations in ASXL1.
Conclusion
We have identified truncating mutations in ASXL3 as the likely cause of a novel syndrome with phenotypic overlap with Bohring-Opitz syndrome.
