MECOM-related disorder: Radioulnar synostosis without hematological aberration due to unique variants

Abstract

PurposeThe etiology for a considerable proportion of patients with congenital radioulnar synostosis (RUS) remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the genetic cause of RUS without a known cause. MethodsPatients with RUS were investigated. Exome sequencing and/or Sanger sequencing was performed. Bioinformatics analysis was also performed. Pathogenicity was evaluated for variants of interest. ResultsWe identified unique missense variants in MECOM (encodes EVI1) associated with RUS in 8 families. Of them, 6 families had variants in residue R781, including 3 families with R781C (c.2341C>T), 2 families with R781H (c.2342G>A), and 1 family with R781L (c.2342G>T). Another 2 variants included I783T (c.2348T>C) in 1 family and Q777E (c.2329C>G) in 1 family. All these variants were clustered within the ninth zinc finger motif of EVI1. Phenotype evaluation identified that most of these patients with RUS harboring mutant MECOM had finger malformations, but none of them had identifiable hematological abnormalities. Functional experiments showed that MECOM R781C led to alterations in TGF-β–mediated transcriptional responses. ConclusionThis study examined MECOM variants by focusing on RUS instead of hematological abnormalities. The R781 residue in EVI1 is a hotspot for human RUS variants. Mutant MECOM is the second most common cause for familial RUS.