A Monoallelic Variant in REST Is Associated with Non-Syndromic Autosomal Dominant Hearing Impairment in a South African Family
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2021-11-06
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Abstract
Hearing impairment (HI) is a sensory disorder with a prevalence of 0.0055 live births in South Africa. DNA samples from a South African family presenting with progressive, autosomal dominant non-syndromic HI were subjected to whole-exome sequencing, and a novel monoallelic variant in <i>REST</i> [c.1244GC; p.(C415S)], was identified as the putative causative variant. The co-segregation of the variant was confirmed with Sanger Sequencing. The variant is absent from databases, 103 healthy South African controls, and 52 South African probands with isolated HI. In silico analysis indicates that the p.C415S variant in <i>REST</i> substitutes a conserved cysteine and results in changes to the surrounding secondary structure and the disulphide bonds, culminating in alteration of the tertiary structure of REST. Localization studies using ectopically expressed GFP-tagged Wild type (WT) and mutant <i>REST</i> in HEK-293 cells show that WT REST localizes exclusively to the nucleus; however, the mutant protein localizes throughout the cell. Additionally, mutant REST has an impaired ability to repress its known target <i>AF1q</i>. The data demonstrates that the identified mutation compromises the function of <i>REST</i> and support its implication in HI. This study is the second report, worldwide, to implicate <i>REST</i> in HI and suggests that it should be included in diagnostic HI panels.
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Manyisa, N., Schrauwen, I., de Souza Rios, L.A., Mowla, S., Tekendo-Ngongang, C., Popel, K., Esoh, K. & Bharadwaj, T. et al. 2021. A Monoallelic Variant in REST Is Associated with Non-Syndromic Autosomal Dominant Hearing Impairment in a South African Family. Genes. 12(11):1765. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35396