Congenital diaphragmatic hernia candidate genes derived from embryonic transcriptomes.

Authors

Meaghan K Russell
Mauro Longoni
Julie Wells
Faouzi I Maalouf
Adam A Tracy
Maria Loscertales
Kate G Ackerman
Barbara R Pober
Kasper Lage
Carol J BultFollow
Patricia K Donahoe

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-21-2012

Keywords

Animals, Diaphragm, Embryo, Mammalian, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Genetic Association Studies, Hernia, Diaphragmatic, Homeodomain Proteins, Lasers, Mesoderm, Mice, Mice, Knockout, Models, Biological, Signal Transduction, Time Factors, Transcription Factors, Transcription, Genetic, Transcriptome

JAX Source

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2012 Feb 21; 109(8):2978-83.

Abstract

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a common (1 in 3,000 live births) major congenital malformation that results in significant morbidity and mortality. The discovery of CDH loci using standard genetic approaches has been hindered by its genetic heterogeneity. We hypothesized that gene expression profiling of developing embryonic diaphragms would help identify genes likely to be associated with diaphragm defects. We generated a time series of whole-transcriptome expression profiles from laser captured embryonic mouse diaphragms at embryonic day (E)11.5 and E12.5 when experimental perturbations lead to CDH phenotypes, and E16.5 when the diaphragm is fully formed. Gene sets defining biologically relevant pathways and temporal expression trends were identified by using a series of bioinformatic algorithms. These developmental sets were then compared with a manually curated list of genes previously shown to cause diaphragm defects in humans and in mouse models. Our integrative filtering strategy identified 27 candidates for CDH. We examined the diaphragms of knockout mice for one of the candidate genes, pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor 1 (Pbx1), and identified a range of previously undetected diaphragmatic defects. Our study demonstrates the utility of genetic characterization of normal development as an integral part of a disease gene identification and prioritization strategy for CDH, an approach that can be extended to other diseases and developmental anomalies.

Recommended Citation

Russell M, Longoni M, Wells J, Maalouf F, Tracy A, Loscertales M, Ackerman K, Pober B, Lage K, Bult C, Donahoe P. Congenital diaphragmatic hernia candidate genes derived from embryonic transcriptomes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2012 Feb 21; 109(8):2978-83.