TY - JOUR T1 - Exome sequencing reveals a high genetic heterogeneity on familial Hirschsprung disease. JF - Scientific reports Y1 - 2015 A1 - Luzón-Toro, Berta A1 - Gui, Hongsheng A1 - Ruiz-Ferrer, Macarena A1 - Sze-Man Tang, Clara A1 - Fernández, Raquel M A1 - Sham, Pak-Chung A1 - Torroglosa, Ana A1 - Kwong-Hang Tam, Paul A1 - Espino-Paisán, Laura A1 - Cherny, Stacey S A1 - Bleda, Marta A1 - Enguix-Riego, María Del Valle A1 - Joaquín Dopazo A1 - Antiňolo, Guillermo A1 - Garcia-Barceló, Maria-Mercè A1 - Borrego, Salud KW - babelomics KW - Hirschprung KW - NGS KW - prioritization AB - Hirschsprung disease (HSCR; OMIM 142623) is a developmental disorder characterized by aganglionosis along variable lengths of the distal gastrointestinal tract, which results in intestinal obstruction. Interactions among known HSCR genes and/or unknown disease susceptibility loci lead to variable severity of phenotype. Neither linkage nor genome-wide association studies have efficiently contributed to completely dissect the genetic pathways underlying this complex genetic disorder. We have performed whole exome sequencing of 16 HSCR patients from 8 unrelated families with SOLID platform. Variants shared by affected relatives were validated by Sanger sequencing. We searched for genes recurrently mutated across families. Only variations in the FAT3 gene were significantly enriched in five families. Within-family analysis identified compound heterozygotes for AHNAK and several genes (N = 23) with heterozygous variants that co-segregated with the phenotype. Network and pathway analyses facilitated the discovery of polygenic inheritance involving FAT3, HSCR known genes and their gene partners. Altogether, our approach has facilitated the detection of more than one damaging variant in biologically plausible genes that could jointly contribute to the phenotype. Our data may contribute to the understanding of the complex interactions that occur during enteric nervous system development and the etiopathology of familial HSCR. VL - 5 UR - http://www.nature.com/articles/srep16473 ER -