Russian Regional Differences in Allele Frequencies of CFTR Gene Variants: Genetic Monitoring of Infertile Couples

Abstract

A male factor, commonly associated with poor semen quality, is revealed in about 50% of infertile couples. CFTR gene (Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conduction Regulator) variants are one of the common genetic causes of azoospermia-related male infertility. Notably, the spectrum and frequency of pathogenic CFTR variants vary between populations and geographical regions. In this work, we made an attempt to evaluate the allele frequency (AF) of 12 common CFTR variants in infertile Russian men and healthy individuals from different districts of Russia. Because of the limited number of population-based studies on Russian individuals, we characterized the population AFs based on data from the Registry of Russian cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. In addition to the CF patient registry, we estimated the local frequencies of the same set of variants based on the results of genotyping of CF patients in local biocollections (from St. Petersburg and Yugra regions). AFs of common CFTR variants calculated based on registry and biocollection data showed good concordance with directly measured population AFs. The estimated region-specific frequencies of CFTR variants allowed us to uncover statistically significant regional differences in the frequencies of the F508del (c.1521_1523del; p.Phe508del) and CFTRdele2,3(21kb) (c.54-5940_273+10250del21kb; p.Ser18ArgfsX) variants. The data from population-based studies confirmed previous observations that F508del, CFTRdele2,3(21kb), and L138ins (c.413_415dup; p.Leu138dup)variants are the most abundant among infertile patients, and their frequencies are significantly lower in healthy individuals and should be taken into account during genetic monitoring of the reproductive health of Russian individuals.

Keywords: CFTR gene; allele frequency; genetic monitoring; genetic variants; male infertility.