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Guillaume Lettre, Alexander Reiner, George Diaz and colleagues use an exome array to identify rare and low-frequency coding variants influencing hematological traits. They find several missense variants in CXCR2 associated with reduced white blood cell counts, and, in a separate family-based study, they identify a homozygous CXCR2 frameshift mutation in two siblings with congenital neutropenia.
Lars Forsberg, Jan Dumanski and colleagues report that age-related loss of chromosome Y in peripheral blood is associated with increased risks of all-cause mortality, cancer mortality and non-hematological cancer mortality.
Bruce Gelb and colleagues identify rare RAF1 mutations in individuals with childhood-onset dilated cardiomyopathy in three cohorts from South India, North India and Japan. Variant RAF1 proteins show altered kinase activity that causes AKT hyperactivation.
Piero Carninci and colleagues report the discovery of a large class of noncoding RNAs, non-annotated stem cell transcripts (NASTs), which are implicated in the regulation of stem cell properties. The authors identify 8,873 mouse and 3,042 human NASTs and functionally validate 4 as having an important role in the maintenance of pluripotency.
Christel Depienne, Eric LeGuern and colleagues report the identification of 5 de novo missense mutations in HCN1 in individuals with early-onset epileptic encephalopathy. Functional studies confirmed the pathogenic nature of these mutations.
Richard Lifton and colleagues identify a recurrent activating mutation in PRKACA, which encodes the catalytic subunit of protein kinase A, in cortisol-producing adrenal tumors. They further show that the mutation results in loss of binding by the regulatory subunit PRKAR1A, leading to increased phosphorylation of downstream targets.
David Weinstock and colleagues identify a triplication at chromosome 21q22 that is associated with development of B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) that causes B cell self renewal in vitro. They further demonstrate that this triplication leads to overexpression of the nucleosome remodeling protein HMGN1 and loss of H3K27me3, implicating these changes in B-ALL.
Jérôme Bertherat, Aurélien de Reyniès and colleagues perform integrated genomic analyses of adrenocortical carcinomas. They discover recurrent alterations in several new driver genes, including ZNRF3, DAXX, TERT and MED12, and identify two distinct molecular subgroups with opposite clinical outcomes.
Heymut Omran and colleagues show that biallelic mutations in CCNO cause a chronic destructive lung disease resulting from loss of multiple motile cilia from the surface of respiratory epithelial cells. Subcellular analyses suggest that CCNO deficiency leads to defective centriole amplification and migration, leading to reduced ciliogenesis.
Fred Wright, Patrick Sullivan and colleagues present the results of a large expression QTL study of peripheral blood using a classic twin design with follow-up replication in independent samples. Their results enable a more precise estimate of the heritability of gene expression and provide a useful resource for exploring the genetic control of transcription.
Mike Stratton and colleague show that carriers of a germline copy number polymorphism involving APOBEC3A and APOBEC3B, which has been associated with increased risk of breast cancer, show more mutations characteristic of APOBEC-dependent mutational processes than cancers in non-carriers.
Kari Stefansson and colleagues performed a genome-wide association study for severe hand osteoarthritis and found associated variants within the ALDH1A2 gene and at 1p31.
Suzanne Baker, Jinghui Zhang and colleagues report the identification of recurrent somatic mutations in the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) receptor ACVR1 in 32% of diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas.
Nada Jabado and colleagues report identification of gain-of-function mutations in ACVR1, which encodes activin A receptor type I, in midline pediatric high-grade astrocytomas.
Eamonn Sheridan, Elizabeth Ross and colleagues report discovery of a new megalencephaly syndrome caused by de novo missense mutations in CCND2. They show that these mutations lead to stabilization of cyclin D2, and they present evidence that cyclin D2 stabilization may be a common downstream mechanism in PI3K-AKT–associated megalencephaly syndromes.
Yanick Crow, Sun Hur and colleagues show that gain-of-function mutations in IFIH1 cause a spectrum of neural and immunological phenotypes associated with enhanced interferon signaling. The mutations increase the affinity of IFIH1 for RNA, leading to immune upregulation and inflammatory disease.
De-Chen Lin, Ming-Rong Wang and colleagues report exome sequencing, RNA sequencing, and copy number analyses of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. They identified recurrent mutations in FAT1, FAT2, ZNF750, EP300 and KMT2D.
Maria Teresa Landi and colleagues identify a rare missense variant in POT1 shared by five melanoma-prone families from Italy and associated with increased telomere length and telomere fragility. They also identify additional familial melanoma cases with rare missense variants in POT1 and find a significant excess of rare exonic POT1 variants in melanoma cases compared to controls, implicating POT1 variants in melanoma susceptibility.
