Do paternal deletions involving the FOXF1 locus on chromosome 16q24.1 manifest with more severe non-lung anomalies?

Abstract

Alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins (ACDMPV) is a rare lethal lung developmental disorder in neonates due to heterozygous loss-of-function of the mesenchymal transcription factor gene, FOXF1. Interestingly, unlike ACDMPV-causing point mutations in FOXF1 that can be inherited from the mother or father, causative copy-number variant (CNV) deletions arise de novo and almost exclusively on chromosome 16 inherited from the mother (n = 50 vs. n = 3). Here, we describe a fourth case of a de novo paternal CNV deletion encompassing FOXF1, its neighboring long non-coding RNA gene FENDRR, and their distant lung-specific enhancer, identified in a 21-week-old fetus with tetralogy of Fallot, gastrointestinal and genitourinary abnormalities, a single umbilical artery, and patchy histopathological findings of ACDMPV in autopsy lung. We also review the ACDMPV-causative CNV deletions detected prenatally and propose that the majority of paternal deletions manifest with more severe additional non-lung abnormalities.

Keywords: Allelic imbalance; Gene regulation; Lethal lung developmental disorders; Parental origin.