A synthetic genomics approach for characterizing Age-Related Macular Degeneration-associated genetic variation

项目摘要 老年性黄斑变性(AMD)是发达国家致盲的主要原因，而AS 随着人口老龄化，AMD将成为我们医疗保健系统日益沉重的负担。眼睛代表着 为数不多的几个组织之一，适用于当前的基因治疗技术，从而识别特定的基因 导致AMD的变化将是开发纠正AMD的基因疗法的关键一步。朝向这个方向 最后，最近的遗传关联研究已经确定了一个基因组区域，它代表着一个主要的风险基因座 AMD。该地区与AMD相关的风险等位基因具有显著和大的优势比。 (&gt；5)，这意味着这是疾病易感性的一个主要决定因素。 AMD相关区域位于染色体位置10q26。该地区包括全部或部分三个 基因，HTRA1，ARMS2和PLEKHA1，所有这些都是影响视网膜的候选基因，并是 AMD开发。此外，关联性研究中使用的基因分型数据的性质意味着 关联的SNP实际上是代表包含许多其他SNP的大单倍型块的SNPs 变种。因此，很难评估哪一个SNP或Indel实际上对任何功能影响负责 导致了疾病的发生。最近的一项重新测序工作发现，至少有67个变异位于 位于10q26的AMD相关基因座，其中任何或许多都可能是功能性的。有限的功能研究 区域导致了关于哪些变异位点具有功能以及哪个基因是靶点的相互矛盾的报道 一些证据支持HTRA1和ARMS2中的一个或两个作为关键的功能靶点。 为了有效地在如此大的基因组区域中分析和鉴定功能变异，该实验室开发了新的 组装非常大的DNA分子的技术。到目前为止，这些技术已经用于 组装百万数据库大小的酵母染色体，以及无数的新陈代谢途径和人类基因座。 此外，将这些大组件有效地结合到各种哺乳动物的基因组中的方法 已经描述了细胞类型。这些所谓的“组装”的组装策略允许组合 结合可变片段，从而能够对单个或多个变体进行系统的功能分析 平行的。拟议的研究将结合使用这些技术来快速识别和描述In AMD相关变异体在细胞中的体外和体内效应。因果变异的识别将使 用于AMD诊断的靶向基因分型以及最终用于改善AMD的靶向基因治疗的发展 症状。

Project Summary Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the primary cause of blindness in the developed world, and as populations age, AMD will become an increasingly large burden on our health care system. The eye represents one of the few tissues amenable to current gene therapy techniques, and thus identifying specific genetic changes giving rise to AMD would be a critical step in developing AMD-correcting gene therapies. Toward this end, recent genetic association studies have identified a genomic region that represents a major risk locus for AMD. The risk alleles associated with AMD in this region are characterized by significant and large odds ratios (>5), implicating this as a major determinant of disease susceptibility. The AMD-associated region lies at chromosomal location 10q26. The region encompasses all or part of three genes, HTRA1, ARMS2, and PLEKHA1, all of which are candidates to affect the retina and be a causal factor in AMD development. Further, the nature of genotyping data used in the association studies means that the associated SNPs are actually ‘sentinel’ SNPs representing a large haplotype block containing many other variants. It is therefore difficult to assess which SNP or indel is actually responsible for any functional effect contributing to the disease. A recent resequencing effort has identified at least 67 variants located within the AMD-associated locus at 10q26, any or many of which could be functional. Limited functional studies in the region have led to conflicting reports regarding which variant sites are functional, and which gene is the target of those sites, with some evidence supporting either or both of HTRA1 and ARMS2 as the key functional target. To efficiently assay and identify functional variants in such large genomic regions, the lab has developed new technologies for the assembly of very large DNA molecules. These techniques have been used to date for assembling megabase-sized yeast chromosomes, as well as myriad metabolic pathways and human gene loci. Further, methods for efficient incorporation of these large assemblies into the genome of various mammalian cell types have been described. The assembly strategy for these so-called ‘assemblons’ allows combinatorial incorporation of variable segments, thus enabling systematic functional analysis of single or multiple variants in parallel. The proposed study will utilize these technologies together to rapidly identify and characterize the in vitro and in vivo effects of AMD-associated variants in cells. Identification of the causal variants will enable targeted genotyping for AMD diagnosis and eventually development of targeted gene therapy to ameliorate AMD symptoms.