Gene networks underlying convergent and pleiotropic phenotypes in a large and systematically-phenotyped cohort with heterogeneous developmental disorders.

Readily-accessible and standardised capture of genotypic variation has revolutionised our understanding of the genetic contribution to disease. Unfortunately, the corresponding systematic capture of patient phenotypic variation needed to fully interpret the impact of genetic variation has lagged far...

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Main Authors: Tallulah Andrews, Stephen Meader, Anneke Vulto-van Silfhout, Avigail Taylor, Julia Steinberg, Jayne Hehir-Kwa, Rolph Pfundt, Nicole de Leeuw, Bert B A de Vries, Caleb Webber
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2015-03-01
Series:PLoS Genetics
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1005012&type=printable
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author Tallulah Andrews
Stephen Meader
Anneke Vulto-van Silfhout
Avigail Taylor
Julia Steinberg
Jayne Hehir-Kwa
Rolph Pfundt
Nicole de Leeuw
Bert B A de Vries
Caleb Webber
author_facet Tallulah Andrews
Stephen Meader
Anneke Vulto-van Silfhout
Avigail Taylor
Julia Steinberg
Jayne Hehir-Kwa
Rolph Pfundt
Nicole de Leeuw
Bert B A de Vries
Caleb Webber
author_sort Tallulah Andrews
collection DOAJ
description Readily-accessible and standardised capture of genotypic variation has revolutionised our understanding of the genetic contribution to disease. Unfortunately, the corresponding systematic capture of patient phenotypic variation needed to fully interpret the impact of genetic variation has lagged far behind. Exploiting deep and systematic phenotyping of a cohort of 197 patients presenting with heterogeneous developmental disorders and whose genomes harbour de novo CNVs, we systematically applied a range of commonly-used functional genomics approaches to identify the underlying molecular perturbations and their phenotypic impact. Grouping patients into 408 non-exclusive patient-phenotype groups, we identified a functional association amongst the genes disrupted in 209 (51%) groups. We find evidence for a significant number of molecular interactions amongst the association-contributing genes, including a single highly-interconnected network disrupted in 20% of patients with intellectual disability, and show using microcephaly how these molecular networks can be used as baits to identify additional members whose genes are variant in other patients with the same phenotype. Exploiting the systematic phenotyping of this cohort, we observe phenotypic concordance amongst patients whose variant genes contribute to the same functional association but note that (i) this relationship shows significant variation across the different approaches used to infer a commonly perturbed molecular pathway, and (ii) that the phenotypic similarities detected amongst patients who share the same inferred pathway perturbation result from these patients sharing many distinct phenotypes, rather than sharing a more specific phenotype, inferring that these pathways are best characterized by their pleiotropic effects.
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spelling doaj-art-20e7df67f86d4563b9dccd366ca531d42025-08-20T02:34:09ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Genetics1553-73901553-74042015-03-01113e100501210.1371/journal.pgen.1005012Gene networks underlying convergent and pleiotropic phenotypes in a large and systematically-phenotyped cohort with heterogeneous developmental disorders.Tallulah AndrewsStephen MeaderAnneke Vulto-van SilfhoutAvigail TaylorJulia SteinbergJayne Hehir-KwaRolph PfundtNicole de LeeuwBert B A de VriesCaleb WebberReadily-accessible and standardised capture of genotypic variation has revolutionised our understanding of the genetic contribution to disease. Unfortunately, the corresponding systematic capture of patient phenotypic variation needed to fully interpret the impact of genetic variation has lagged far behind. Exploiting deep and systematic phenotyping of a cohort of 197 patients presenting with heterogeneous developmental disorders and whose genomes harbour de novo CNVs, we systematically applied a range of commonly-used functional genomics approaches to identify the underlying molecular perturbations and their phenotypic impact. Grouping patients into 408 non-exclusive patient-phenotype groups, we identified a functional association amongst the genes disrupted in 209 (51%) groups. We find evidence for a significant number of molecular interactions amongst the association-contributing genes, including a single highly-interconnected network disrupted in 20% of patients with intellectual disability, and show using microcephaly how these molecular networks can be used as baits to identify additional members whose genes are variant in other patients with the same phenotype. Exploiting the systematic phenotyping of this cohort, we observe phenotypic concordance amongst patients whose variant genes contribute to the same functional association but note that (i) this relationship shows significant variation across the different approaches used to infer a commonly perturbed molecular pathway, and (ii) that the phenotypic similarities detected amongst patients who share the same inferred pathway perturbation result from these patients sharing many distinct phenotypes, rather than sharing a more specific phenotype, inferring that these pathways are best characterized by their pleiotropic effects.https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1005012&type=printable
spellingShingle Tallulah Andrews
Stephen Meader
Anneke Vulto-van Silfhout
Avigail Taylor
Julia Steinberg
Jayne Hehir-Kwa
Rolph Pfundt
Nicole de Leeuw
Bert B A de Vries
Caleb Webber
Gene networks underlying convergent and pleiotropic phenotypes in a large and systematically-phenotyped cohort with heterogeneous developmental disorders.
PLoS Genetics
title Gene networks underlying convergent and pleiotropic phenotypes in a large and systematically-phenotyped cohort with heterogeneous developmental disorders.
title_full Gene networks underlying convergent and pleiotropic phenotypes in a large and systematically-phenotyped cohort with heterogeneous developmental disorders.
title_fullStr Gene networks underlying convergent and pleiotropic phenotypes in a large and systematically-phenotyped cohort with heterogeneous developmental disorders.
title_full_unstemmed Gene networks underlying convergent and pleiotropic phenotypes in a large and systematically-phenotyped cohort with heterogeneous developmental disorders.
title_short Gene networks underlying convergent and pleiotropic phenotypes in a large and systematically-phenotyped cohort with heterogeneous developmental disorders.
title_sort gene networks underlying convergent and pleiotropic phenotypes in a large and systematically phenotyped cohort with heterogeneous developmental disorders
url https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1005012&type=printable
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