Abstract
Whole exome sequencing (WES) is an emerging technique in prenatal diagnosis. In this retrospective study, we examined diagnostic utility and limitations of WES in prenatal cases with structural birth defects. DNA from 20 trios (fetal and parental), with normal karyotype and microarray findings, underwent WES and variant interpretation at a reference laboratory. The WES results were later re-evaluated in our academic center utilizing prenatal and postnatal phenotyping. Initial analysis using only prenatal ultrasound findings revealed no pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in 20 pregnancies with structural birth defects. Re-analysis of WES variants and combination of prenatal and postnatal phenotyping yielded pathogenic variants in at least 20% of cases including PORCN gene in a fetus with split-hand/foot malformation, as well as variants of uncertain significance in NEB and NOTCH1 in fetuses with postnatal muscle weakness and Adams–Oliver syndrome, respectively. Furthermore, Sanger sequencing in a patient with holoprosencephaly, elucidated by postnatal MRI, revealed a pathogenic 47-base pairs deletion in ZIC2 which was missed by prenatal WES. This study suggests that incomplete prenatal phenotyping and lack of prenatal ultrasound-genotype databases are the limiting factors for current interpretation of WES data in prenatal diagnosis. Development of prenatal phenotype–genotype databases would significantly help WES interpretation in this setting. Patients who underwent prenatal clinical WES may benefit from the re-analysis based on detailed postnatal findings.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the families for participation in this study.
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This study was supported (to AR) by Magee-Womens Research Institute and Foundation.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board (#PRO16070068).
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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All the genetic and genomic data generated during this study are included in this manuscript and its supplementary files.
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Aarabi, M., Sniezek, O., Jiang, H. et al. Importance of complete phenotyping in prenatal whole exome sequencing. Hum Genet 137, 175–181 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-017-1860-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-017-1860-1