Volume 50 Issue 8, August 2018

A combined analysis of participants from the UK Biobank and the International Glaucoma Genetic Consortium identifies 85 new loci for intraocular pressure (IOP). Pathway analysis uncovers new pathways associated with both IOP and glaucoma.

Genome-wide association analyses identify new risk loci for allergic rhinitis and for sensitization to inhalant allergens. The associated regions implicate immune-related pathways, including innate and adaptive IgE-related mechanisms.

A genome-wide study identifies common variation near IRF6 associated with liver injury induced by IFN-β in individuals treated for multiple sclerosis. The risk locus is associated with differential expression of IRF6 and may help guide safer use of this biologic.

High levels of fumarate or succinate suppress the homologous-recombination DNA-repair pathway in cancer cells that are deficient for FH or SDH, respectively. These tumor cells are vulnerable to PARP inhibitors.

Biallelic truncating mutations in CTNNA2, encoding αN-catenin, cause a new pachygyria syndrome associated with actin regulation and ARP2 and ARP3 repression in neurons.

The assembly of the genome of the koala provides insights into its adaptive biology and identifies gene expansions that contribute to its ability to detoxify eucalyptus-derived compounds and perceive plant secondary metabolites.

Gene discovery and polygenic predictions from a genome-wide association study of educational attainment in 1.1 million individuals.

Coding variants in peptidylglycine α-amidating monooxygenase (PAM) associated with type 2 diabetes risk negatively impact overall PAM activity via defects in expression and catalytic function, resulting in reduced insulin content and altered dynamics of insulin secretion.

A coupled knockdown-editing screen shows that CRISPR–Cas9 editing in human cells requires the Fanconi anemia pathway, which acts by diverting double-strand break repair away from non-homologous end joining toward single-strand template repair.

Analysis of ATAC-seq and RNA-seq data from stimulated T cells identifies genetic variants that disrupt transcription factor binding sites within ATAC-seq peaks. ATAC quantitative trait loci (ATAC-QTLs) are enriched for autoimmune disease-associated variants.

Multi-contact 4C (MC-4C) sequencing analyzes multi-way conformations of individual alleles. MC-4C identifies the β-globin superenhancer as a hub that can accommodate two genes simultaneously and shows that CTCF-anchored loops collide in WAPL-depleted cells.

Using common variants in six non-human primate species, the authors train a deep neural network that identifies pathogenic mutations in patients with rare disease with 88% accuracy and enables the discovery of 14 new candidate genes in intellectual disability.

ExPecto is a deep learning–based framework that can predict the tissue-specific transcriptional effects of mutations on the basis of DNA sequence alone. ExPecto can prioritize causal variants from GWAS loci and be used to predict the disease risk of a variant.

A high-throughput method for functional SNP identification uses enzymatic restriction to detect altered regulatory protein binding and identifies 148 candidate fSNPs associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, including two that regulate STAT4 via the regulatory proteins SATB2 and H1.2.

The authors identify whole-genome doubling (WGD) in 30% of ~10,000 sequenced tumors from patients with advanced cancer. WGD correlates with increased risk of death across cancer types.