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A novel missense variant c.71G > T (p.Gly24Val) of the CRYBA4 gene contributes to autosomal-dominant congenital cataract in a Chinese family

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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the potential genetic defects in a five-generation Chinese family with autosomal dominant congenital cataract (ADCC).

Methods

Whole exome sequencing was performed to search the variants in the candidate genes associated with congenital cataract. Sanger sequencing was used to validate the variants and examine their co-segregation in the patients and their relatives. The potential effect of the variants was analyzed using several bioinformatic methods and further examined through Western blotting and co-immunoprecipitation.

Results

A missense variant c. 71 G > T (p. Gly24Val) in the CRYBA4 gene, a known ADCC candidate gene, was identified to be heterozygously present in the patients and co-segregate with cataract in the family. The mutation was absent in all of the searched databases, including our in-house exome sequences of 10,000 Chinese. The alignments of the amino acid sequences of CRYBA4 in a variety of species revealed that the amino acid residue Gly24 was evolutionarily highly conserved, and the in silico analysis predicted that the missense mutation of Gly24Val was damaging for the protein structure and function of CRYBA4. Then, the in vitro expression analysis further revealed that the Gly24Val mutation in CRYBA4 inhibited its binding with CRYBB1. The impaired interaction of β-crystallin proteins may affect their water-solubility and contribute to the formation of precipitates in lens fiber cells.

Conclusion

We identified a novel missense variant in the CRYBA4 gene as a pathogenic mutation of ADCC in a Chinese family. Our finding expanded the CRYBA4 variation spectrum associated with congenital cataracts.

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Data availability

The data used to support this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.81773159).

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: No.81773159).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Genetics, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, West China Medical School, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Xinyue Zhang, Man Liu, Zhaokun Wang, Xiangyou Leng, Shengyu Xie, Xiaolan Tan, Yuan Yang & Yunqiang Liu

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China

    Chen Liang, Man Liu, Zhaokun Wang, Xiangyou Leng, Shengyu Xie & Xiaolan Tan

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  1. Xinyue Zhang
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Contributions

XZ: participated in the whole study, drafting of the manuscript, and data analysis; XZ, CL, ML, XL, ZW, SX and XT: carried out the experiments; YY: contributed to data curation; YL: contributed to writing—review, editing, correspondence, and proofs of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chen Liang or Yunqiang Liu.

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The current study was reviewed and approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the West China Hospital, West China Medical School, Sichuan University (2019–772).

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Zhang, X., Liang, C., Liu, M. et al. A novel missense variant c.71G > T (p.Gly24Val) of the CRYBA4 gene contributes to autosomal-dominant congenital cataract in a Chinese family. Int Ophthalmol 43, 43–50 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-022-02386-3

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