Human-lineage-specific genomic elements are associated with neurodegenerative disease and APOE transcript usage

Nat Commun. 2021 Apr 6;12(1):2076. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22262-5.

Abstract

Knowledge of genomic features specific to the human lineage may provide insights into brain-related diseases. We leverage high-depth whole genome sequencing data to generate a combined annotation identifying regions simultaneously depleted for genetic variation (constrained regions) and poorly conserved across primates. We propose that these constrained, non-conserved regions (CNCRs) have been subject to human-specific purifying selection and are enriched for brain-specific elements. We find that CNCRs are depleted from protein-coding genes but enriched within lncRNAs. We demonstrate that per-SNP heritability of a range of brain-relevant phenotypes are enriched within CNCRs. We find that genes implicated in neurological diseases have high CNCR density, including APOE, highlighting an unannotated intron-3 retention event. Using human brain RNA-sequencing data, we show the intron-3-retaining transcript to be more abundant in Alzheimer's disease with more severe tau and amyloid pathological burden. Thus, we demonstrate potential association of human-lineage-specific sequences in brain development and neurological disease.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / genetics
  • Alzheimer Disease / pathology
  • Apolipoproteins E / genetics*
  • Brain / pathology
  • Chromosomes, Human, Pair 19 / genetics
  • Conserved Sequence / genetics
  • DNA, Intergenic / genetics
  • Gene Ontology
  • Genome, Human*
  • Humans
  • Introns / genetics
  • Linkage Disequilibrium / genetics
  • Molecular Sequence Annotation
  • Neurodegenerative Diseases / genetics*
  • Phenotype
  • Phylogeny*
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / genetics
  • RNA, Long Noncoding / metabolism
  • RNA, Messenger / genetics
  • RNA, Messenger / metabolism
  • Regression Analysis

Substances

  • Apolipoproteins E
  • DNA, Intergenic
  • RNA, Long Noncoding
  • RNA, Messenger