Congenital Pouch Colon with Double Meckel’s Diverticulae

Lnc-EPB41-Protein Interactions Associated with Congenital Pouch Colon

Congenital Pouch Colon (CPC) is a rare anorectal anomaly common to northwestern India, specifically Rajasthan. Despite efforts to understand the clinical genetic makeup of CPC, no attempt on identifying non-coding RNAs was done. We have earlier reported CPC’s rare variants from whole exome sequencing (WES) across 18 affected samples in a total of 64 subjects. A Smith–Waterman algorithm was used to infer a couple of lncRNAs from WES samples of CPC with predictions from the Noncode database. Further screening and quantification using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), we ascertained interactions using Micro Scale Thermophoresis (MST). We report the role of lnc-EPB41-1-1 shown to be promiscuously interacting with KIF13A substantiating their role in regulation.

Whole exome sequencing reveals rare variants linked to congenital pouch colon

We demonstrate the application of whole exome sequencing to discover the rare variants for congenital pouch colon, acronymed CPC. For 18 affected individuals in a total of 64 samples, we sequenced coding regions to a mean coverage of 100×. A sufficient depth of ca. 94% of targeted exomes was achieved. Filtering against the public SNP/variant repositories, we identified a host of candidate genes, EPB41L4A and CTC1 associated with colon, neural/brain muscles and Dyskeratosis Congenita maladies. Furthermore, the stop gain mutations in the form of JAG1,OR5AR1,SLC22A24,PEX16,TSPAN32,TAF1B,MAP2K3 and SLC25A19 appears to be localized to Chromosomes 2, 11, 17 and 20 in addition to the three stop lost mutants across three genes, viz. OAS2, GBA3 and PKD1L2 affecting the colon tissue. While our results have paved way for transcendence of monogenic traits in identifying the genes underlying rare genetic disorders, it will provide helpful clues for further investigating genetic factors associated with anorectal anomalies, particularly CPC.