Diagnostic Exome Sequencing and Tailored Bioinformatics of the Parents of a Deceased Child with Cobalamin Deficiency Suggests Digenic Inheritance of the MTR and LMBRD1 Genes

Abstract

Disorders of cobalamin deficiency are a heterogeneous group of disorders with at least 19 autosomal recessive-associated genes. Familial samples of an infant who died due to presumed cobalamin deficiency were referred for clinical exome sequencing. The patient died before obtaining a blood sample or skin biopsy, autopsy was declined, and DNA yielded from the newborn screening blood spot was insufficient for diagnostic testing. Whole-exome sequencing of the mother, father, and unaffected sister and tailored bioinformatics analysis was applied to search for mutations in underlying disorders with recessive inheritance. This approach identified alterations within two genes, each of which was carried by one parent. The mother carried a missense alteration in the MTR gene (c.3518C>T; p.P1173L) which was absent in the father and the sister. The father carried a translational frameshift alteration in the LMBRD1 gene (c.1056delG; p.L352Lfs*18) which was absent in the mother and present in the heterozygous state in the sister. These mutations in the MTR (MIM# 156570) and LMBRD1 (MIM# 612625) genes have been described in patients with disorders of cobalamin metabolism complementation groups cblG and cblF, respectively. The child's clinical presentation and biochemical results demonstrated overlap with both cblG and cblF. Sanger sequencing using DNA from the infant's blood spot confirmed the inheritance of the two alterations in compound heterozygous form. We present the first example of exome sequencing leading to a diagnosis in the absence of the affected patient. Furthermore, the data support the possibility for potential digenic inheritance associated with cobalamin deficiency.

Fig. 1

Pedigree and MTR c.3518C>T (p.P1173L) and LMBRD1 c.1056delG (p.L352fsX18) mutations. (a) Familial pedigree. Shaded shapes indicate affected individuals. Asterisk (*) indicates whole-exome sequencing performed. (b) An electropherogram of the MTR c.3518C>T (p.P1173L) and LMBRD1 c.1056delG (p.L352fsX18) alterations in the proband. (c) Sequence conservation plots at the MTR p.P1173L mutated site amino acid position across different species