linkstream2 microblog

Genic Intolerance to Functional Variation & the Interpretation of Personal Genomes
http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1003709 Nice plot of the number of rare v common variants in each gene to find outliers particularly tolerant to impactful (eg #LOF) mutations

http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1003709

Petrovski et al ’13

QT:{{”
“We have around 24,000 genes that make us uniquely human and, until now, it was thought that if any were missing it could cause serious problems.

But new research has found that around 200 of these genes may in fact be completely redundant, without posing any such risk.

By studying the genomes of 2,500 people, researchers have said they were surprised to see around one per cent of these genes were missing entirely in some participants.

More importantly, these particular people had no significant health defects that would be explained by the missing genes.
“}}

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3256030/More-200-genes-USELESS-Genome-project-finds-not-need-DNA-survive.html

Analysis of #LOF variants & 20 risk factor phenotypes in 8.6K individuals identifies loci [both well known & new]
http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng.3270.html

NATURE GENETICS | LETTER

Analysis of loss-of-function variants and 20 risk factor phenotypes in 8,554 individuals identifies loci influencing chronic disease

Alexander H Li,
Alanna C Morrison,
Christie Kovar,
L Adrienne Cupples,
Jennifer A Brody,
Linda M Polfus,
Bing Yu,
Ginger Metcalf,
Donna Muzny,
Narayanan Veeraraghavan,
Xiaoming Liu,
Thomas Lumley,
Thomas H Mosley,
Richard A Gibbs
& Eric Boerwinkle

The Race to Clone #BRCA1 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6178/1462.abstract
Lessons on #LOF mutations, synthetic lethality, silly gene names & the 2-hit hypothesis

synthetic lethality (PARP inhibitors), gene names (RING fingers)

#PCSK9 Inhibitors Near Market Entry
http://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i13/Cholesterol-Lowering-PCSK9-Inhibitors-Near.html Suggested by natural #LOF lowering LDL via promoting recycling of its receptor

A large set [1171] of rare complete human knockouts
http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng.3243.html ~8% Icelanders have one; from a larger set of ~5K genes w/ #LOFs

Also:

In Iceland’s DNA, New Clues to Disease-Causing Genes – NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/science/in-icelands-dna-clues-to-what-genes-may-cause-disease.html

by Carl Zimmer
QT:{{”
The Decode researchers looked for human knockouts in Iceland — and found a lot of them. Nearly 8 percent of Icelanders lack a working version of a gene. All told, the Decode team identified 1,171 genes shut down in Icelandic knockouts.
In a 2012 study, Dr. MacArthur and his colleagues were able to identify just 253 genes knocked out in humans.
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Genotype to phenotype relationships in ASD http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v18/n2/abs/nn.3907.html Expression differences in #brain development for LOF-containing, M v F, &c

Also, netbag finds subnets assoc w autism

Removing deleterious mutations in Europeans [v] Africans
http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng.3186.html Comparing nonsynonymous freq. betw. populations HT @obahcall

Sequenced genomes reveal mutations that disable single genes and can point to new drugs.

Ewen Callaway

28 October 2014 Corrected:
29 October 2014

http://www.nature.com/news/geneticists-tap-human-knockouts-1.16239

You should also read the Corrections to this article
http://www.nature.com/news/geneticists-tap-human-knockouts-1.16239#/correction1

QT:{{”

The poster child for human-knockout efforts is a new class of drugs that block a gene known as PCSK9 (see Nature 496, 152–155; 2013). The gene was discovered in French families with extremely high cholesterol levels in the early 2000s. But researchers soon found that people with rare mutations that inactivate one copy ofPCSK9 have low cholesterol and rarely develop heart disease. The first PCSK9-blocking drugs should hit pharmacies next year, with manufacturers jostling for a share of a market that could reach US$25 billion in five years.

“I think there are hundreds more stories like PCSK9 out there, maybe even thousands,” in which a drug can mimic an advantageous
loss-of-function mutation, says Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, California. Mark Gerstein, a bio­informatician at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, predicts that human knockouts will be especially useful for identifying drugs that treat diseases of ageing. “You could imagine there’s a gene that is beneficial to you as a 25-year-old, but the thing is not doing a good job for you when you’re 75.”

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http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1003757