Anophthalmia and microphthalmia (A/M) represent severe developmental ocular malformations, corresponding, respectively, to absent eyeball or reduced size of the eye. Both anophthalmia and microphthalmia may occur in isolation or as part of a syndrome. Genetic heterogeneity has been demonstrated, and many genes have been reported to be associated with A/M. The advances in high-throughput sequencing have proven highly effective in defining the molecular basis of A/M. Nevertheless, there are still many patients with unsolved genetic background of the disease, who pose a significant challenge in the molecular diagnostics of A/M. Here we describe a family, with three males affected with the non-syndromic A/M. Whole exome-sequencing performed in Patient 1, revealed the presence of a novel probably pathogenic variant c.734A>G, (p.[Tyr245Cys]) in the PORCN gene. Pedigree analysis and segregation of the identified variant in the family confirmed the X-linked recessive pattern of inheritance. This is the first report of X-linked recessive non-syndromic A/M. Until now, pathogenic variants in the PORCN gene have been identified in the patients with Goltz syndrome, but they were inherited in X-linked dominant mode. The ocular phenotype is the only finding observed in the patients, which allows to exclude the diagnosis of Goltz syndrome.
Keywords: PORCN gene; X-linked recessive inheritance; anophthalmia/microphthalmia.
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