Rare Diseases Symptoms Automatic Extraction

The genome sequencing of an albino Western lowland gorilla reveals inbreeding in the wild.

[oculocutaneous albinism]

The only known albino gorilla, named Snowflake, was a male wild born individual from Equatorial Guinea who lived at the Barcelona Zoo for almost 40 years. He was diagnosed with non-syndromic oculocutaneous albinism, i.e. white hair, light eyes, pink skin, photophobia and reduced visual acuity. Despite previous efforts to explain the genetic cause, this is still unknown. Here, we study the genetic cause of his albinism and making use of whole genome sequencing data we find a higher inbreeding coefficient compared to other gorillas.We successfully identified the causal genetic variant for Snowflake's albinism, a non-synonymous single nucleotide variant located in a transmembrane region of SLC45A2. This transporter is known to be involved in oculocutaneous albinism type 4 (OCA4) in humans. We provide experimental evidence that shows that this amino acid replacement alters the membrane spanning capability of this transmembrane region. Finally, we provide a comprehensive study of genome-wide patterns of autozygogosity revealing that Snowflake's parents were related, being this the first report of inbreeding in a wild born Western lowland gorilla.In this study we demonstrate how the use of whole genome sequencing can be extended to link genotype and phenotype in non-model organisms and it can be a powerful tool in conservation genetics (e.g., inbreeding and genetic diversity) with the expected decrease in sequencing cost.

Diseases presenting "first report" symptom

  • achondroplasia
  • alexander disease
  • aniridia
  • cadasil
  • canavan disease
  • child syndrome
  • cohen syndrome
  • congenital toxoplasmosis
  • cowden syndrome
  • cushing syndrome
  • cutaneous mastocytosis
  • cystinuria
  • dedifferentiated liposarcoma
  • dentinogenesis imperfecta
  • dracunculiasis
  • dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa
  • epidermolysis bullosa simplex
  • erdheim-chester disease
  • esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
  • fabry disease
  • familial mediterranean fever
  • focal myositis
  • harlequin ichthyosis
  • hirschsprung disease
  • hodgkin lymphoma, classical
  • holt-oram syndrome
  • homocystinuria without methylmalonic aciduria
  • inclusion body myositis
  • junctional epidermolysis bullosa
  • kabuki syndrome
  • kindler syndrome
  • krabbe disease
  • lamellar ichthyosis
  • liposarcoma
  • lymphangioleiomyomatosis
  • monosomy 21
  • neonatal adrenoleukodystrophy
  • neuralgic amyotrophy
  • oculocutaneous albinism
  • oligodontia
  • omenn syndrome
  • pendred syndrome
  • pleomorphic liposarcoma
  • primary hyperoxaluria type 1
  • pyomyositis
  • pyruvate dehydrogenase deficiency
  • scrub typhus
  • severe combined immunodeficiency
  • sneddon syndrome
  • triple a syndrome
  • typhoid
  • waldenström macroglobulinemia
  • werner syndrome
  • wiskott-aldrich syndrome
  • x-linked adrenoleukodystrophy
  • zellweger syndrome

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