Genome-wide sequencing as a first-tier screening test for short tandem repeat expansions

作者：Indhu‐Shree Rajan‐Babu, Junran J. Peng, Readman Chiu, IMAGINE Study, Patricia Birch, Madeline Couse, Colleen Guimond, Anna Lehman, Jill Mwenifumbo, Clara van Karnebeek, Jan M. Friedman, CAUSES Study, Shelin Adam, Christèle du Souich, Alison M. Elliott, Anna Lehman, Jill Mwenifumbo, Tanya N. Nelson, Clara van Karnebeek, Jan M. Friedman, Chenkai Li, Arezoo Mohajeri, Egor Dolzhenko, Michael A. Eberle, İnanç Birol, Jan M. Friedman · 发表于：Genome Medicine · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1186/s13073-021-00932-9 · 被引用次数：53 · 研究领域：Genetic Neurodegenerative Diseases、Genomics and Rare Diseases、Hereditary Neurological Disorders

BACKGROUND: Screening for short tandem repeat (STR) expansions in next-generation sequencing data can enable diagnosis, optimal clinical management/treatment, and accurate genetic counseling of patients with repeat expansion disorders. We aimed to develop an efficient computational workflow for reliable detection of STR expansions in next-generation sequencing data and demonstrate its clinical utility. METHODS: We characterized the performance of eight STR analysis methods (lobSTR, HipSTR, RepeatSeq, ExpansionHunter, TREDPARSE, GangSTR, STRetch, and exSTRa) on next-generation sequencing datasets of samples with known disease-causing full-mutation STR expansions and genomes simulated to harbor repeat expansions at selected loci and optimized their sensitivity. We then used a machine learning decision tree classifier to identify an optimal combination of methods for full-mutation detection. In Burrows-Wheeler Aligner (BWA)-aligned genomes, the ensemble approach of using ExpansionHunter, STRetch, and exSTRa performed the best (precision = 82%, recall = 100%, F1-score = 90%). We applied this pipeline to screen 301 families of children with suspected genetic disorders. RESULTS: We identified 10 individuals with full-mutations in the AR, ATXN1, ATXN8, DMPK, FXN, or HTT disease STR locus in the analyzed families. Additional candidates identified in our analysis include two probands with borderline ATXN2 expansions between the established repeat size range for reduced-penetrance and ...