Faculty Bibliography

The modern synthetic view of human evolution proposes that the fixation of novel mutations is driven by the balance among selective advantage, selective disadvantage, and genetic drift. When considering the global architecture of the human genome, the same model can be applied to understanding the rapid acquisition and proliferation of exogenous DNA. To explore the evolutionary forces that might have morphed human genome architecture, we investigated the origin, composition, and functional potential of numts (nuclear mitochondrial pseudogenes), partial copies of the mitochondrial genome found abundantly in chromosomal DNA. Our data indicate that these elements are unlikely to be advantageous, since they possess no gross positional, transcriptional, or translational features that might indicate beneficial functionality subsequent to integration. Using sequence analysis and fossil dating, we also show a probable burst of integration of numts in the primate lineage that centers on the prosimian-anthropoid split, mimics closely the temporal distribution of Alu and processed pseudogene acquisition, and coincides with the major climatic change at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary. We therefore propose a model according to which the gross architecture and repeat distribution of the human genome can be largely accounted for by a population bottleneck early in the anthropoid lineage and subsequent effectively neutral fixation of repetitive DNA, rather than positive selection or unusual insertion pressures.

The Family Blood Pressure Program (FBPP) has data on 387 microsatellite markers in 13,524 subjects from four major ethnic groups. We investigated genetic association with hypertension of the linkage markers. Family-based methods were used to test association of the 387 loci with resting blood pressures (BPs) [systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP)] and the hypertension status (HT). We applied a vote-counting approach to pool results across the three correlated traits, network samples, and ethnic groups to refine the selection of susceptibility loci. The association analyses captured signals missed by previous linkage scans. We found 71 loci associated with at least one of the three traits in at least one of the four ethnic groups at the significance level of 0.01. After validation across multiple samples and related traits, we identified by vote-counting 21 candidate loci for hypertension. Two loci, D3S2459 and D10S1412 confirmed findings in Network-specific linkage scans (GENOA and SAPPHIRe). Many of the candidate loci were reported by others in linkage to BPs, body weight, heart disease, and diabetes. We also observed frequent presence of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) involved in autoimmune and neurological disorders (e.g., NOD2). The vote-counting method of pooling results recognizes the potential that a gene may be involved in varying ways among different samples, which we believe is responsible for identifying genes in the less explored inflammatory pathways to hypertension.

In a Muslim Arab village, relatively isolated because of the preference of consanguineous marriages, we studied the fate of 12 mutations in 5 different genes. The study was based on carriers detected among relatives of affected patients and of carriers discovered in a random sample of 424 adults. Most of the mutations have been introduced by a carrier(s) originating from another village, but a few have been de novo events. Mutations that are very frequent in the entire village were introduced soon after the foundation of the village. Examples of such mutations are [GBJ2, 35Gdel] and [MEFV, M680I], with a carrier frequency of 7.8% and 6.2%, respectively. Many of the other mutations that are rare were introduced recently into the village and are frequent only among the descendants of the first couple carrying the mutation. For instance all the carriers of [ARSA, Q190H], responsible for metachromatic leukodystrophy, were found among the 218 descendants of a couple who were living in the village 4 generations ago. Since the village is typical for the region this study allows for some general conclusions to be drawn. In a population with a high degree of inbreeding the diagnosis of a single family with a patient(s) affected with a recessive disorder points to a recent event, while the finding of a rare disease in several families from an inbred population points to an older mutation. Mutations are often "exported" from one population to another by marriage. In the new inbred population this novel mutation will either be lost or will become frequent as the result of a founder effect. These observations are important for genetic counselling in the case of a recent mutation, since only the descendants of the founder couple are at risk, while in the case of older mutations the risk may be for the entire village. In the case of those frequent ancient mutations, the risk for a relative of an affected individual will be similar whether he marries a close relative or any random individual in the village.

Essential hypertension, defined as elevated levels of blood pressure (BP) without any obvious cause, is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, stroke, and renal disease. BP levels and susceptibility to development of essential hypertension are partially determined by genetic factors that are poorly understood. Similar to other efforts to understand complex, non-Mendelian phenotypes, genetic dissection of hypertension-related traits employs genomewide linkage analyses of families and association studies of patient cohorts, to uncover rare and common disease alleles, respectively. Family-based mapping studies of elevated BP cover the large intermediate ground for identification of genes with common variants of significant effect. Our genomewide linkage and candidate-gene-based association studies demonstrate that a replicated linkage peak for BP regulation on human chromosome 1q, homologous to mouse and rat quantitative trait loci for BP, contains at least three genes associated with BP levels in multiple samples: ATP1B1, RGS5, and SELE. Individual variants in these three genes account for 2-5-mm Hg differences in mean systolic BP levels, and the cumulative effect reaches 8-10 mm Hg. Because the associated alleles in these genes are relatively common (frequency >5%), these three genes are important contributors to elevated BP in the population at large.

Genomic changes such as copy number alterations are thought to be one of the major underlying causes of human phenotypic variation among normal and disease subjects [23,11,25,26,5,4,7,18]. These include chromosomal regions with so-called copy number alterations: instead of the expected two copies, a section of the chromosome for a particular individual may have zero copies (homozygous deletion) I one copy (hemizygous deletions) I or more than two copies (amplifications). The canonical example is Down syndrome which is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21. Identification of such abnormalities in smaller regions has been of great interest, because it is believed to be an underlying cause of cancer. More than one decade ago comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) technology was developed to detect copy number changes in a highthroughput fashion. However, this technology only provides a 10 MB resolution which limits the ability to detect copy number alterations spanning small regions. It is widely believed that a copy number alteration as small as one base can have significant downstream effects, thus microarray manufacturers have developed technologies that provide much higher resolution. Unfortunately, strong probe effects and variation introduced by sample preparation procedures have made single-point copy numberestimates too imprecise to be useful. CGH arrays use a two-color hybridization, usually comparing a sample of interest to a reference sample, which to some degree removes the probe effect. However, the resolution is not nearly high enough to provide single-point copy number estimates. Various groups have proposed statistical procedures that pool data from neighboring locations to successfully improve precision. However, these procedure need to average across relatively large regions to work effectively thus greatly reducing the resolution. Recently, regression-type models that account for probe-effect have been proposed and appear to improve accuracy as well as precision. In this paper, we propose a mixture model solution specifically designed for single-point estimation, that provides various advantages over the existing methodology. We use a 314 sample database, constructed with public datasets, to motivate and fit models for the conditional distribution of the observed intensities given allele specific copy numbers. With the estimated models in place we can compute posterior probabilities that provide a useful prediction rule as well as a confidence measure for each call. Software to implement this procedure will be available in the Bioconductor oligo package (http://www.bioconductor.org).

BACKGROUND: Through a genome-wide association study, we discovered an association of the electrocardiographic QT interval with polymorphisms in the NOS1AP (CAPON) gene. The purpose of the current study was to replicate this association in the Old Order Amish. METHODS: Four NOS1AP SNPs were selected that captured all major haplotypes in the region of interest ( approximately 120 kb segment). Genotyping was completed in 763 subjects from the Heredity and Phenotype Intervention (HAPI) Heart Study. Association analyses were performed using a variance components methodology, accounting for relatedness of individuals. RESULTS: Heritability of the QT interval was 0.50 +/- 0.09 (p = 1.9 x 10(-9)). All four SNPs were common with a high degree of correlation between SNPs. Two of the four SNPs (pairwise r(2) = 0.86) were significantly associated with variation in adjusted QT interval (rs1415262, p = 0.02 and rs10494366, p = 0.006, additive models for both). SNP rs10494366 explained 0.9% of QT interval variability, with an average genetic effect of 6.1 ms. Haplotypes that contained the minor allele for rs10494366 were associated with longer QT interval. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides further evidence that NOS1AP variants influence QT interval and further validates the utility of genome-wide association studies, a relatively new approach to gene discovery.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Neonatal intestinal obstruction (meconium ileus [MI]) occurs in 15% of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Our aim was to determine the relative contribution of genetic and nongenetic modifiers to the development of this major complication of CF. METHODS: A total of 65 monozygous twin pairs, 23 dizygous twin/triplet sets, and 349 sets of siblings with CF were analyzed for MI status, significant covariates, and genome-wide linkage. RESULTS: Specific mutations in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), the gene responsible for CF, correlated with MI, indicating a role for CFTR genotype. Monozygous twins showed substantially greater concordance for MI than dizygous twins and siblings (P = 1 x 10(-5)), showing that modifier genes independent of CFTR contribute substantially to this trait. Regression analysis revealed that MI was correlated with distal intestinal obstruction syndrome (P = 8 x 10(-4)). Unlike MI, concordance analysis indicated that the risk for development of distal intestinal obstruction syndrome in CF patients is caused primarily by nongenetic factors. Regions of suggestive linkage (logarithm of the odds of linkage >2.0) for modifier genes that cause MI (chromosomes 4q35.1, 8p23.1, and 11q25) or protect from MI (chromosomes 20p11.22 and 21q22.3) were identified by genome-wide analyses. These analyses did not support the existence of a major modifier gene on chromosome 19 in a region previously linked to MI. CONCLUSIONS: The CFTR gene along with 2 or more modifier genes are the major determinants of intestinal obstruction in newborn CF patients, whereas intestinal obstruction in older CF patients is caused primarily by nongenetic factors.