Biology subjects

Hartl, I.

Publications and source records attributed to Hartl, I..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Mutations in ErbB2 accumulating in the male germline measured by error-corrected sequencing

Mutations in the male germline are a driving force behind rare genetic diseases. Driver mutations enjoying a selective advantage expand to mutant clusters within the aged testis and are thus overrepresented in sperm with age. Other kinds of driver mutations, occurring prepubescently, have been the focus of recent attention given their high occurrence rate independent of age. Here, we investigated the ErbB2 gene via error-corrected sequencing and detected a high percentage of missense mutations, including recurrent mutations, which were observed mainly in the tyrosine kinase domain with likely functional consequences, as we verified for a subset via biophysical methods. While these mutations increased with age, we found no evidence that they originated from mutational clusters in the aged testis, and young donors also showed an accumulation of driver mutations, suggesting that mutational enrichment is not exclusive to the sexually mature germline but can occur earlier during germline development, and are likely evenly distributed in the testis and stable in size.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2022

Activating mutations in FGFR3 are associated with clonal expansion events and high de novo rates in the male germline

Delayed fatherhood results in a higher risk to inherit a new germline mutation that might result in a congenital disorder in the offspring. In particular, some FGFR3 mutations increase in frequency with age, but there are still a large number of uncharacterized FGFR3 mutations that could be expanding in the male germline with potentially early or late-onset effects in the offspring. Here, we investigated the mutation frequency in the DNA of human testis and sperm and the activation state of the expressed mutant protein of eight different FGFR3 variants categorized by ClinVar as deleterious, benign, or not reported. Overall, the ligand-independent activation of the mutant protein resulted in a increased number of mutant sperm; although, strong activating mutations did not necessarily result in the highest frequencies. Moreover, only two mutants c.952G>A and c.1620C>A showed an increase with the donors age; the latter also forming larger clonal expansions in the testis. We also showed that the prediction of deleteriousness of a mutation is not always accurate, and similar in silico scores can reflect either a gain-of-function or loss-of-function. Our approach led to the discovery of two novel variants c.1261G>A and c.952G>A to have promiscuous FGFR3 activation and increased mutation frequencies in the male germline. The large fraction of donors with mutations suggests a high de novo rate potentially explained by a selective advantage before the maturation of the male germline. This sequence-function study provides important data for the evaluation and interpretation of variants with relevant clinical implications.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2022

Quantitation of FGFR3 signaling via GRB2 recruitment on micropatterned surfaces

Fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs) initiate signal transduction via the RAS/MAPK pathway by their tyrosine-kinase activation known to determine cell-growth, tissue differentiation and apoptosis. Recently, many missense mutations have been reported for FGFR3, but we only know the functional effect for a handful of them. Some of these mutations result in aberrant FGFR3 signaling and are associated with various genetic disorders and oncogenic conditions. Here we employed micropatterned surfaces to specifically enrich fluorophore-tagged FGFR3 (mGFP-FGFR3) in certain areas of the plasma membrane of living cells. Receptor activation was then quantified via the recruitment of the downstream signal transducer GRB2 tagged with mScarlet (GRB2-mScarlet) to FGFR3 patterns. With this system, we tested the activation of FGFR3 upon ligand addition (fgf1 and fgf2) in the wildtype (WT), as well as in different FGFR3 mutants associated with congenital disorders (G380R, Y373C, K650Q, K650E). Our data showed that the addition of ligands increased GRB2 recruitment to WT FGFR3, with fgf1 having a stronger effect than fgf2. For all mutants, we found an increased basal receptor activity, and only for two of the four mutants (G380R and K650Q), activity was further increased upon ligand addition. Compared to previous reports, two mutant receptors (K650Q and K650E) had either an unexpectedly high or low activation state, respectively. This may be explained by the different receptor populations probed, since the micropatterning method specifically reports on signaling events at the plasma membrane. Graphical AbstractSpecifications: The maximum size of the image should be 200 x 500 pixels with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, using Arial font with a size of 10-16 points; Preferred file types: TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=120 SRC="FIGDIR/small/487861v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (33K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@4a279eorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@6f35d1org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@13661e7org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@155b480_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG Research HighlightsO_LIQuantification of FGFR3 signaling in live cells on micropatterned surfaces C_LIO_LIAnalysis of GRB2 recruitment to the mature receptor at the plasma membrane C_LIO_LILigand-independent kinase activation of FGFR3 mutants C_LIO_LIActivation of FGFR3 at the cell surface can be different than in bulk cell extracts C_LI

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Discovery of an unusual high number of de novo mutations in sperm of older men using duplex sequencing

De novo mutations (DNMs) are an important player in heritable diseases and evolution. Of particular interest are highly recurrent DNMs associated with congenital disorders that have been described as selfish mutations expanding in the male germline, thus becoming more frequent with age. Here, we have adapted duplex sequencing (DS), an ultra-deep sequencing method that renders sequence information on both DNA strands; thus, one mutation can be reliably called in millions of sequenced bases. With DS, we examined [~]4.5 kb of the FGFR3 coding region in sperm DNA from older and younger donors. We identified sites with variant frequencies of 10-4 to 10-5, with an overall mutation frequency of the region of [~]6x10-7. Some of the substitutions were re-current and were found at a higher variant frequency in older donors than in younger ones, or exclusively, in older donors. Also, older donors harbored more mutations associated with congenital disorders. Other mutations were present in both age groups suggesting that these might result from a different mechanism (e.g., post-zygotic mosaicism). We also observed that independent of age, the frequency and deleteriousness of the mutational spectra was more similar to COSMIC than to gnomAD variants. Our approach is an important strategy to identify mutations that could be associated with a gain-of-function of the receptor tyrosine kinase activity, with unexplored consequences in a society with delayed fatherhood.

genetics↗