1. A trans-acting protein effect causes severe eye malformation in the Mp mouse
- Author
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Jeffrey T.-J. Huang, Margaret A. Keighren, Lynne Y. Sakai, Douglas R. Keene, Lorraine Rose, Joe Rainger, Ian J. Jackson, Malcolm E. Fisher, Sebastien Mella, Rob van't Hof, Noe L. Charbonneau, David R. FitzPatrick, and Jacqueline K. Rainger
- Subjects
Cancer Research ,lcsh:QH426-470 ,Fibrillin-2 ,Nonsense-mediated decay ,Biology ,medicine.disease_cause ,Eye ,Fibrillins ,Microphthalmia ,Frameshift mutation ,Fusion gene ,Exon ,Mice ,Genetics ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Microphthalmos ,Eye Abnormalities ,Frameshift Mutation ,Molecular Biology ,Gene ,Wnt Signaling Pathway ,Genetics (clinical) ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Mutation ,Microfilament Proteins ,Exons ,medicine.disease ,Molecular biology ,Stop codon ,lcsh:Genetics ,Phenotype ,Chromosome Inversion ,Syndactyly ,Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18 ,Research Article - Abstract
Mp is an irradiation-induced mouse mutation associated with microphthalmia, micropinna and hind limb syndactyly. We show that Mp is caused by a 660 kb balanced inversion on chromosome 18 producing reciprocal 3-prime gene fusion events involving Fbn2 and Isoc1. The Isoc1-Fbn2 fusion gene (Isoc1Mp) mRNA has a frameshift and early stop codon resulting in nonsense mediated decay. Homozygous deletions of Isoc1 do not support a significant developmental role for this gene. The Fbn2-Isoc1 fusion gene (Fbn2 Mp) predicted protein consists of the N-terminal Fibrillin-2 (amino acids 1–2646, exons 1–62) lacking the C-terminal furin-cleavage site with a short out-of-frame extension encoded by the final exon of Isoc1. The Mp limb phenotype is consistent with that reported in Fbn2 null embryos. However, severe eye malformations, a defining feature of Mp, are not seen in Fbn2 null animals. Fibrillin-2Mp forms large fibrillar structures within the rough endoplasmic reticulum (rER) associated with an unfolded protein response and quantitative mass spectrometry shows a generalised defect in protein secretion in conditioned media from mutant cells. In the embryonic eye Fbn2 is expressed within the peripheral ciliary margin (CM). Mp embryos show reduced canonical Wnt-signalling in the CM – known to be essential for ciliary body development - and show subsequent aplasia of CM-derived structures. We propose that the Mp “worse-than-null” eye phenotype plausibly results from a failure in normal trafficking of proteins that are co-expressed with Fbn2 within the CM. The prediction of similar trans-acting protein effects will be an important challenge in the medical interpretation of human mutations from whole exome sequencing., Author Summary With the current increase in large-scale sequencing efforts, correct interpretation of mutation consequences has never been more important. Here, we present evidence for a trans-acting protein effect in a novel mutation of Fbn2, associated with severe developmental eye defects not found in loss of function Fibrillin-2 alleles. The mutant protein is expressed in the developing eye but is unable to exit the cells, instead forming large protein aggregates within the endoplasmic reticulum. We observed ER-stress in mutant eyes, and detected a general reduction to secretion of co-expressed proteins in cell cultures. We propose that similar effects could be caused by mutations to other proteins that are trafficked through the ER, highlighting a disease mechanism that results in different clinical outcomes than observed, or predicted, from loss-off-function alleles.
- Published
- 2013
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