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1 From the Department of Molecular Genetics, Institute of Ophthalmology, London, United Kingdom; and 3 Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
| Abstract |
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METHODS. Linkage was sought to polymorphic microsatellite markers distributed around the CNA2 and microphthalmia loci (arCMIC, adCMIC, NNO1, and CHX10) using PCR and nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis before KERA was directly sequenced for mutations.
RESULTS. Positive lod scores were obtained with markers encompassing the
CNA2 locus, the maximum two-point lod scores of 2.18 at
recombination fraction
= 0 was obtained with markers D12S95
and D12S327. Mutation screening of KERA revealed a novel
single-nucleotide substitution at codon 215, which results in the
substitution of lysine for threonine at the start of a highly conserved
leucine-rich repeat motif. Structural modeling predicts that the motifs
are stacked into an arched ß-sheet array and that the effect of the
mutation is to alter the length and position of one of these motifs.
CONCLUSIONS. This report describes a novel mutation in KERA that alters a highly conserved motif and is predicted to affect the tertiary structure of the molecule. Normal corneal function is dependent on the regular spacing of collagen fibrils, and the predicted alteration of the tertiary structure of KERA is the probable mechanism of the cornea plana phenotype.
| Introduction |
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The combined phenotype of cornea plana and microphthalmia has not been previously described. Microphthalmia is a heterogeneous group of developmental anomalies in which the eye fails to attain its normal dimensions with the axial diameter reduced to less than the age-adjusted 5th centile.4 The condition occurs either in a nonsyndromic ocular form or in conjunction with a diverse range of systemic malformations, including mental retardation (OMIM 251500), esophageal atresia (OMIM 600992), and dwarfism (OMIM 309700). Autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, and X-linked inheritance patterns of microphthalmia have been reported and one developmental gene, CHX10, (OMIM 142993) has so far been shown to cause the phenotype in humans.5 Three loci have also been identified on 11p,6 14q32,7 and 15q12-q15,8 and syndromic forms of microphthalmia and anophthalmia9 10 11 12 that do not map to these loci suggest the existence of further genetic heterogeneity.
We report the mapping of a family with cornea plana to the CNA2 locus on 12q21 in which the phenotype is caused by a novel mutation in KERA, leading to an amino acid substitution in a highly conserved portion of the protein. Protein modeling suggests that this mutation alters the tertiary structure of the protein resulting in the disease phenotype. An interesting feature of this family is that reduced axial length cosegregates with the cornea plana phenotype. The implications of this observation are discussed.
| Materials and Methods |
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Linkage Analysis and Mutation Detection
Pedigree data were collated with pedigree maping software
(Cyrillic, Setauket, NY) and two-point linkage analysis performed using
the MLINK component of the LINKAGE program, version 5.113
using an autosomal recessive model, equal allele frequencies, a gene
frequency of 10-4, and a mutation rate of
10-6 (Table1).
PCR amplification of KERA gene sequences was performed in 20-µl reactions using published primers.14 After purification with columns (QIAquick; Qiagen, Crawley, UK) samples were sequenced bidirectionally with fluorescent dideoxynucleotides (PE Biosystems, Foster City, CA) on an automated sequencer using standard conditions (model 373; PE Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA).
Protein Modeling
A three-dimensional structure of keratocan was modeled based on
a theoretical structure of the acid-labile subunit (ALS) of a serum
insulin-like growth factor15
using the Swiss Model server
program16
17
and the viewing programs (Swiss Pdb Viewer
ver. 3.7b218
and Rasmol ver. 2.6 (available at:
http://ca.expasy.org/spdbv/mainpage.htm and
http://www.bio.cam.ac.uk/doc/rasmol.html respectively).
| Results |
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Positive lod scores were obtained with markers in a region on
chromosome 12q21 spanning approximately 3 centimorgans (cM), whereas
the arCMIC, adCMIC, CHX10, and
NNO1 loci were excluded from linkage. The maximum two-point
lod scores were obtained with markers D12S95 and D12S327 (2.18 at
= 0); the markers and the lod scores are summarized in Table 1
. This interval includes a region of homozygosity of 1 cM
between markers D12S351 and D12S95 that encompasses the
CNA2 locus.
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AAA at codon 215) results in an amino acid substitution
from threonine (T) to lysine (K). All four affected siblings were
homozygous for the mutated allele, whereas both parents and one of the
unaffected siblings were heterozygous. The other two siblings were
homozygous for the normal ACA allele. The mutated sequence does not
generate or alter a restriction enzyme site. Primary sequence analysis
indicates that the T215K substitution occurs at the start of a
leucine-rich repeat (LRR) motif, the seventh of 10 such motifs present
in the sequence.20 A relatively high degree of sequence identity (30.5%) was found with the protein ALS, which also contains a series of LRR motifs. The availability of a theoretical structural model for ALS facilitated the generation of a partial three-dimensional model for keratocan (Fig. 2a) . Although the model is incomplete at the N- and C-termini (the homology was limited to the region of the protein comprising LRRs 19), nonetheless it was possible to examine the structural implication of the mutation at site 215, which is located at the start of LRR7. The model indicates that in the protein the LRR motifs form a series of parallel ß-strands, which stack into an arched ß-sheet array. The mutation reduces the effective length of LRR7 and causes the loop connecting LRR6 to LRR7 to be laterally displaced (Fig. 2b) .
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| Discussion |
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AGC transition at codon 247 and a homozygous CAG
TAG
transversion causing a stop mutation) both occurred in a conserved
domain and resulted in the typical cornea plana phenotype. Our data
demonstrate that a novel ACA
AAA mutation at codon 215 from a family
of different ethnicity also causes cornea plana. This mutation
substitutes the polar residue threonine for the positively charged
amino acid lysine at the start of the seventh LRR motif. Threonine is
conserved at this position in all described KERA proteins (human,
bovine, murine, and chicken) and the substitution of this highly
conserved amino acid may explain the different phenotype observed in
this family. In common with other members of the keratan sulfate proteoglycan subgroup of the SLRP family, KERA includes a series of LRR motifs with a consensus sequence of LXXLXLXXNXL.20 Similar LRR motifs are found in the structure of porcine RNase inhibitor whose crystalloid structure has been determined.21 This defined protein structure has been used to model the structures of other proteins containing analogous LRR motifs, such as the protein ALS.15 It has previously been suggested that the structure of keratocan includes a similar ß-sheet array22 and the model presented here supports this. The modeling predicts that the structural consequence of the mutation is to cause substantial displacement of one of the loops holding together the ß-sheet structure. However, it should be noted that this conclusion is based on theoretical considerations only. The regular LRR motif arrangement has been proposed to be important in the spacing of collagen fibrils on which corneal transparency depends, and this is compatible with the observation that mutations in KERA result in corneal opacity.
A particularly interesting feature of this consanguineous pedigree is the cosegregation of cornea plana with reduced axial length. This may indicate that a single KERA mutation causes both phenotypes although the alternative hypothesisthat this represents the chance cosegregation of the two phenotypes due to separate mutations, cannot be excluded, even though no linkage was found to the known microphthalmia loci. The hypothesis that a single mutation in KERA causes the combined cornea plana and microphthalmia is supported, but not proven, by the novel nature of the mutation observed in a conserved portion of KERA; the low probability that the two phenotypes cosegregate by chance in four out of seven offspring: 1 in 607 or 0.16% [(1/4)4 x (3/4)3; and the observation of KERA expression in bovine23 24 and murine sclera.20
SLRPs are important mediators of normal connective tissue assembly that influence, through collagen binding, the rate of assembly and diameter of collagen fibrils.25 In decorin, one of several corneal-expressed SLRPs, this collagen-regulating activity is believed to be mediated by the central LRR region26 27 28 and it is likely that the evolutionarily conserved structure of SLRPs reflects a common mechanism of collagen interaction.25 The T215K substitution in keratocan is predicted to induce a conformational change in the LRR domain and may also affect collagen binding. This would provide a potential mechanism by which the observed corneal and scleral phenotypes could be caused by alterations in the diameter or in the spacing of collagen fibrils.
Microphthalmia has a wide spectrum of disease severity with minor degrees of congenital microphthalmia to anophthalmia coexisting in the same pedigree.4 Because KERA is only (transiently) expressed in early embryonic murine sclera,20 it may not be possible to verify whether the same applies to human embryonic tissue. The generation of a murine model with the T215K substitution may represent an alternative means of testing the hypothesis. The phenotype reported is compatible with reports of altered scleral thickness and abnormal collagen bundles in histologic specimens from microphthalmia cases29 and although they lie at the milder end of the disease spectrum, the axial lengths overlap those of the arCMIC30 and NNO16 pedigrees. The milder degree of microphthalmia observed may reflect KERAs presumed structural role, and contrasts with the more severe phenotype observed with mutations in the developmental gene CHX10.5
In summary, we have identified a novel mutation in KERA in a large Bangladeshi family with cornea plana. The mutation alters a highly conserved motif and is predicted to affect the tertiary structure of the molecule, This change is responsible for the corneal phenotype observed. The cosegregation of cornea plana with reduced axial length raises the intriguing possibility that mutations in keratocan may have a wider phenotype than one solely involving the cornea.
| Acknowledgements |
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| Footnotes |
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Supported by grants from the International Glaucoma Association; used equipment provided by a grant from the Glaucoma Research Foundation; and a support levy provided by the National Health Service Research and Development.
Submitted for publication March 15, 2001; revised June 14, 2001; accepted July 18, 2001.
Commercial relationships policy: N.
The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page
charge payment. This article must therefore be marked
"advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C.
1734
solely to indicate this fact.
Corresponding author: Ordan J. Lehmann, Department of Molecular Genetics, Institute of Ophthalmology, Bath Street, London, UK EC1V 9EL. ojlehmann{at}yahoo.com
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