Volume 55 Issue 6, June 2023

Keeping up with the latest variant-related research is vital for genomic medicine. Here we present LitVar 2.0, a significantly improved web-based system to accurately search for genetic variants in the unstructured literature. LitVar 2.0 provides a unified search of full text and supplementary data, and improved variant recognition accuracy.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of type 2 diabetes have identified few loci connected to muscle biology. A GWAS of post-glucose-challenge measures of insulin has now identified loci related to insulin resistance and GLUT4 regulation in skeletal muscle, illustrating the benefit of studying dynamic glycemic measures.

Two studies describe kinase fusion proteins (KFPs) that regulate the perception and deception of wheat pathogens. These highlight the emergence of KFPs as plant immune regulators and emphasize the importance of crop wild relatives as a reservoir for resistance breeding and global food security.

An extra copy of a chromosome region that includes four genes encoding interferon receptors contributes to immune dysregulation, heart malformations, developmental delays, cognitive deficits and craniofacial abnormalities in a mouse model of Down syndrome.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), an important cause of myocardial infarction, identified 11 risk loci that involve genes related to artery integrity and tissue-mediated coagulation. Evidence supports SCAD as a genetically distinct condition from atherosclerotic coronary artery disease.

The resistance gene Lr9, which was introduced into bread wheat from the wild grass species Aegilops umbellulata, encodes an unusual tandem kinase fusion protein that confers wheat leaf rust resistance.

The resistance gene Sr43, which was crossed into bread wheat from the wild grass Thinopyrum elongatum, encodes an unusual protein kinase fusion protein that confers wheat stem rust resistance.

Analysis of rare coding variants in the UK Biobank identifies eight genes associated with adult cognitive function, including KDM5B. Rare and common variant signals overlap and contribute additively to the phenotype.

MEGAnE is a new tool to detect and genotype mobile element variants (MEVs) from short-read whole-genome sequencing datasets. Genetic analyses implicate MEVs as population-specific drivers of gene expression variation and disease risk.

Analyses of whole-genome and RNA sequencing data from 2,733 African American, Puerto Rican and Mexican American individuals reveal ancestry-specific patterns in the genetic architecture of whole-blood gene expression.

Genome-wide association analyses identify risk loci for spontaneous coronary artery dissection and implicate arterial integrity and tissue-mediated coagulation in the disease etiology. Several risk variants show opposite effects on coronary artery disease risk.

Genome-wide association analyses of two oral glucose tolerance test-derived measures of postprandial insulin resistance discover ten new loci. Functional characterization identifies nine candidate genes implicated in the regulation of GLUT4.

Single-cell multiomic and functional characterization of human pancreatic islets identifies two beta cell subtypes correlated with type 2 diabetes progression that exhibit distinct gene regulatory programs and electrophysiological phenotypes.

Genome-wide studies of 1,916 plasma and urine metabolites from 5,023 participants of the German Chronic Kidney Disease study provide insights into systemic and kidney-specific enzymatic and transport processes.

Recurrent somatic mutations altering residues in the transmembrane domain of CADM1 are identified in aldosterone-producing adenomas. Follow-up studies implicate a role of gap junction communication in regulating aldosterone production.

Genomic and transcriptomic analysis of 470 mostly high-risk neuroblastomas collected from 283 patients delineates subtype-specific evolutionary patterns and progression-related convergent evolution and describes the clonal dynamics of metastases.

A mouse model of Down syndrome (DS) highlights the importance of triplication of the IFNR gene cluster for a variety of DS-associated traits. Copy number correction resulted in amelioration of multiple phenotypes associated with the condition.

Region Capture Micro-C (RCMC) combines MNase-based 3C with a tiling region-capture method. Profiling mouse embryonic stem cells with RCMC identifies nested microcompartments, which connect enhancers and promoters.

Causal robust mapping method in meta-analysis (CARMA) studies incorporates flexible prior distributions, joint modeling of summary statistics and functional annotations and outlier detection for improved causal variant fine-mapping in genome-wide association meta-analyses.

GASPACHO is a statistical method that identifies nonlinear dynamic genetic effects using single-cell RNA-seq data. Analysis of an antiviral response in human fibroblasts identifies 1,275 expression QTLs, many of which colocalize with risk loci for autoimmune and infectious diseases.