Faculty Collaboration Database

Whole-Exome Sequencing Identifies Loci Associated with Blood Cell Traits and Reveals a Role for Alternative GFI1B Splice Variants in Human Hematopoiesis. Am J Hum Genet 2016 Aug 04;99(2):481-8

Date

08/04/2016

Pubmed ID

27486782

Pubmed Central ID

PMC4974169

DOI

10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.06.016

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-84994157724 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   41 Citations

Abstract

Circulating blood cell counts and indices are important indicators of hematopoietic function and a number of clinical parameters, such as blood oxygen-carrying capacity, inflammation, and hemostasis. By performing whole-exome sequence association analyses of hematologic quantitative traits in 15,459 community-dwelling individuals, followed by in silico replication in up to 52,024 independent samples, we identified two previously undescribed coding variants associated with lower platelet count: a common missense variant in CPS1 (rs1047891, MAF = 0.33, discovery + replication p = 6.38 × 10(-10)) and a rare synonymous variant in GFI1B (rs150813342, MAF = 0.009, discovery + replication p = 1.79 × 10(-27)). By performing CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in hematopoietic cell lines and follow-up targeted knockdown experiments in primary human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, we demonstrate an alternative splicing mechanism by which the GFI1B rs150813342 variant suppresses formation of a GFI1B isoform that preferentially promotes megakaryocyte differentiation and platelet production. These results demonstrate how unbiased studies of natural variation in blood cell traits can provide insight into the regulation of human hematopoiesis.

Author List

Polfus LM, Khajuria RK, Schick UM, Pankratz N, Pazoki R, Brody JA, Chen MH, Auer PL, Floyd JS, Huang J, Lange L, van Rooij FJ, Gibbs RA, Metcalf G, Muzny D, Veeraraghavan N, Walter K, Chen L, Yanek L, Becker LC, Peloso GM, Wakabayashi A, Kals M, Metspalu A, Esko T, Fox K, Wallace R, Franceschini N, Matijevic N, Rice KM, Bartz TM, Lyytikäinen LP, Kähönen M, Lehtimäki T, Raitakari OT, Li-Gao R, Mook-Kanamori DO, Lettre G, van Duijn CM, Franco OH, Rich SS, Rivadeneira F, Hofman A, Uitterlinden AG, Wilson JG, Psaty BM, Soranzo N, Dehghan A, Boerwinkle E, Zhang X, Johnson AD, O'Donnell CJ, Johnsen JM, Reiner AP, Ganesh SK, Sankaran VG

Author

Paul L. Auer PhD Professor in the Data Science Institute department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Alternative Splicing
Blood Platelets
CRISPR-Cas Systems
DNA Mutational Analysis
Exome
Gene Editing
Genetic Loci
Hematopoiesis
Hematopoietic Stem Cells
Humans
Megakaryocytes
Platelet Count
Proto-Oncogene Proteins
Repressor Proteins