Structural variation analysis of 6,500 whole genome sequences in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Ahmad Al Khleifat, Alfredo Iacoangeli, Joke J.F.A. van Vugt, Harry Bowles, Matthieu Moisse, Ramona A.J. Zwamborn, Rick A.A. van der Spek, Aleksey Shatunov, Johnathan Cooper-Knock, Simon Topp, Ross Byrne, Cinzia Gellera, Victoria López, Ashley R. Jones, Sarah Opie-Martin, Atay Vural, Yolanda Campos, Wouter van Rheenen, Brendan Kenna, Kristel R. Van EijkKevin Kenna, Markus Weber, Bradley Smith, Isabella Fogh, Vincenzo Silani, Karen E. Morrison, Richard Dobson, Michael A. van Es, Russell L. McLaughlin, Patrick Vourc’h, Adriano Chio, Philippe Corcia, Mamede de Carvalho, Marc Gotkine, Monica P. Panades, Jesus S. Mora, Pamela J. Shaw, John E. Landers, Jonathan D. Glass, Christopher E. Shaw, Nazli Basak, Orla Hardiman, Wim Robberecht, Philip Van Damme, Leonard H. van den Berg, Jan H. Veldink, Ammar Al-Chalabi*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

There is a strong genetic contribution to Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) risk, with heritability estimates of up to 60%. Both Mendelian and small effect variants have been identified, but in common with other conditions, such variants only explain a little of the heritability. Genomic structural variation might account for some of this otherwise unexplained heritability. We therefore investigated association between structural variation in a set of 25 ALS genes, and ALS risk and phenotype. As expected, the repeat expansion in the C9orf72 gene was identified as associated with ALS. Two other ALS-associated structural variants were identified: inversion in the VCP gene and insertion in the ERBB4 gene. All three variants were associated both with increased risk of ALS and specific phenotypic patterns of disease expression. More than 70% of people with respiratory onset ALS harboured ERBB4 insertion compared with 25% of the general population, suggesting respiratory onset ALS may be a distinct genetic subtype.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8
Journalnpj Genomic Medicine
Volume7
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Structural variation analysis of 6,500 whole genome sequences in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this