ABSTRACT
Asthenoteratozoospermia is one of the most severe types of qualitative sperm defects. Most cases are due to mutations in genes encoding the components of sperm flagella, which have an ultrastructure similar to that of motile cilia. Coiled-coil domain containing 103 (CCDC103) is an outer dynein arm assembly factor, and pathogenic variants of CCDC103 cause primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD). However, whether CCDC103 pathogenic variants cause severe asthenoteratozoospermia has yet to be determined. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) was performed for two individuals with nonsyndromic asthenoteratozoospermia in a consanguineous family. A homozygous CCDC103 variant segregating recessively with an infertility phenotype was identified (ENST00000035776.2, c.461A>C, p.His154Pro). CCDC103 p.His154Pro was previously reported as a high prevalence mutation causing PCD, though the reproductive phenotype of these PCD individuals is unknown. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of affected individuals' spermatozoa showed that the mid-piece was severely damaged with disorganized dynein arms, similar to the abnormal ultrastructure of respiratory ciliary of PCD individuals with the same mutation. Thus, our findings expand the phenotype spectrum of CCDC103 p.His154Pro as a novel pathogenic gene for nonsyndromic asthenospermia.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Asthenozoospermia/pathology , Dyneins/genetics , Homozygote , Microtubule-Associated Proteins , Mutation , Mutation, Missense , Sperm Tail/metabolismABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE@#To explore the clinical feature and gene variant for two cases of primary male infertility caused by severe asthenospermia and to analyze the etiology of the disease.@*METHODS@#Genomic DNA of peripheral blood samples of patients and their parents was extracted and gene variant analysis of the patients was conducted by using whole exome sequencing. Suspected pathogenic variant was verified by Sanger sequencing and pathogenic analysis.@*RESULTS@#Whole exome sequencing showed that the DNAH1 gene of patient 1 had two heterozygous variants of c.2016T>G(p.Y672X) and c.6017T>G (p.V2006G). The DNAH1 gene of patient 2 had a homozygous variant of c.2610G>A(p.W870X), which were inherited from his father and mother, respectively. According to American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics standards and guidelines, the c.2016T>G (p.Y672X) and c.2610G>A (p.W870X) varaints of DNAH1 gene were predicted to be pathogenic (PVS1+PM2+PM3+PP3).@*CONCLUSION@#The two patients of multiple morphological abnormalities of the sperm flagella may be caused by DNAH1 gene variant, which has resulted in primary male infertility.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Dyneins/genetics , Genomics , Infertility, Male/genetics , Mutation , Sperm Tail/pathology , Exome SequencingABSTRACT
La disquinesia ciliar primaria (DCP) corresponde a una enfermedad genética heterogénea, que se produce por una alteración estructural o funcional de los cilios. Es de difícil diagnóstico tanto por su variada sintomatología como por la existencia de métodos de screening y diagnóstico complejos. El método que hasta ahora ha sido considerado como gold standard es el análisis de la estructura ciliar por medio de la microscopía electrónica de transmisión (MET). Esta técnica tiene limitaciones porque permite analizar un número limitado de axonemas ciliares y puede excluir del diagnóstico a pacientes con axonema normal pero con alteración funcional y clínica clásicas. En los últimos años se han desarrollado métodos diagnósticos sobre la base de un mejor conocimiento de la estructura proteica de los cilios, de los genes que codifican estas proteínas y de las mutaciones asociadas a DCP. Estos nuevos métodos consisten en un análisis genético y un estudio de la expresión de proteínas ciliares en los pacientes afectados. Esta publicación tiene como objetivo realizar una revisión de la fisiopatología de la DCP, los métodos diagnósticos actuales y resumir el desarrollo del diagnóstico genético en la literatura internacional y su posible aplicación en nuestro medio.
Primary cilliary dyskinesia (PCD) is an heterogeneous genetic disease caused by a structural and/or functional alteration of the ciliary skeleton. It is a diagnostic challenge due to its protean clinical presentation and to the complexity of screening and diagnostic methods. The method hitherto regarded as the gold standard is the analysis of ciliary structure by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This presents limitations because analyzes a limited number of ciliary axonemes, and may exclude cases with typical functional and clinical presentation. In recent years new diagnostic methods have been developed based on novel knowledge of the structural ciliary proteins, the genes encoding these proteins and mutations associated to DCP. These new methods include genetic analysis and the study of protein expression in cilia of the affected patients. This paper reviews DCP pathophysiology, the current diagnostic methods applied, and summarizes the international literature regarding the diagnosis of DCP based on genetic screening.