Journal: Maturitas
Article Title: New insights into the genetic basis of premature ovarian insufficiency: Novel causative variants and candidate genes revealed by genomic sequencing.
doi: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2020.06.004
Figure Lengend Snippet: Fig. 1. Likely pathogenic variants in GDF9. 1a: Familial pedigree of Patient 2. The proband is indicated by an arrow. Small solid black circles represent voluntary termination of pregnancy (II5, II6, and II7) or miscarriage (III3). Information on height is given for individuals I1, I2, II1, II2, II3 and II4. Years of birth are indicated for the sibling II1, II2, II3, and II4. GH: growth hormone. 1b: Sequencing results of Patient 2. Top: IGV visualization of the GDF9 variants in Patient 2, showing variants physically close to each other. Middle: Sanger sequencing of GDF9 in Patient 2 confirming the presence of heterozygous variants. Bottom: Variant phasing, showing phased variants, and confirming compound heterozygosity (presence of one variant per clone, each clone corresponding to one line). 1c: Gene diagram showing variants position with respect to previously reported variants involved in POI (premature ovarian insufficiency), DOR (diminished ovarian reserve), PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), and DZT (dizygotic twin). Reported variants are heterozygous except one homozygous (hom.) NH2: Amino terminal domain, COOH: Carboxy terminal domain. One star: functional studies showing weak reduction of expression, two stars: functional studies showing strong reduction of expression, three stars: functional studies showing loss of expression, underline: non-sense variants, bold: variants observed in our patient. 1d: Western blot of GDF9 in vitro expression. Left: Variants impair protein production/secretion in conditioned media. Detection of WT GDF9 (rhGDF9: recombinant human and GDF9-His8: HIS-tagged GDF9) and poor/absent detection of GDF9-P374L and GDF9-L265* (black box), indicating the variants impair the production of GDF9 and/or its secretion into conditioned media. Middle: Analysis of precursor and mature GDF9 intracellularly. Successful processing of WT HIS-tagged GDF9 (3). Detection of precursor GDF9-P374L without detection of mature protein suggesting impaired processing (4). Absence of detection of precursor and mature GDF9-L265* confirming lack of expression resulting from premature stop codon (5). Right: Variants impair BMP15-GDF9 interaction intracellularly. Detection of HIS-tagged BMP15 and WT GDF9 indicating they complement each other. Weak detection of HIS-tagged BMP15 and either GDF9-P374L or GDF9-L265* (black box), indicating the complementary interaction is not achieved with mutant GDF9.
Article Snippet: Recombinant human GDF9 mature domain (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN, USA - 8266-G9-010) was used as reference.
Techniques: Sequencing, Variant Assay, Functional Assay, Expressing, Western Blot, In Vitro, Recombinant, Mutagenesis