Identification of FUS p.R377W in essential tremor

Abstract

Background and purpose: Exome sequencing analysis has recently identified a nonsense mutation in fused in sarcoma (FUS) segregating with essential tremor (ET) within a large French-Canadian family. Further characterization of FUS resulted in the identification of additional mutations in ET patients; however, their pathogenicity still remains to be confirmed. The role of FUS in an independent cohort of ET patients from Canada was evaluated.

Methods: The entire coding sequence of FUS in 217 patients diagnosed with ET was analyzed and two missense variants in 219 healthy controls were genotyped by Sanger sequencing.

Results: Sequencing of FUS identified a previously reported non-pathogenic mutation p.G174_G175del in one ET patient and two healthy controls, and a novel p.R377W in one patient with family history of disease. This mutation is highly conserved and strongly predicted to be damaging by in silico analysis.

Conclusion: This study has identified a novel FUS p.R377W substitution in ET patients. Additional genotyping studies in a large number of ET patients and controls are necessary to conclusively define its pathogenicity.

Keywords: FUS; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; essential tremor; mutation.