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Original article
Early postzygotic mutations contribute to de novo variation in a healthy monozygotic twin pair
  1. Gülşah M Dal1,
  2. Bekir Ergüner2,
  3. Mahmut S Sağıroğlu2,
  4. Bayram Yüksel3,
  5. Onur Emre Onat1,
  6. Can Alkan4,
  7. Tayfun Özçelik1,5
  1. 1Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
  2. 2TÜBİTAK-BİLGEM-UEKAE, Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey
  3. 3TÜBİTAK-MAM-GEBI, Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey
  4. 4Faculty of Engineering, Department of Computer Engineering, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
  5. 5Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology (UNAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
  1. Correspondence to Dr Tayfun Özçelik, Faculty of Science, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey; tozcelik{at}bilkent.edu.tr

Abstract

Background Human de novo single-nucleotide variation (SNV) rate is estimated to range between 0.82–1.70×10−8 mutations per base per generation. However, contribution of early postzygotic mutations to the overall human de novo SNV rate is unknown.

Methods We performed deep whole-genome sequencing (more than 30-fold coverage per individual) of the whole-blood-derived DNA samples of a healthy monozygotic twin pair and their parents. We examined the genotypes of each individual simultaneously for each of the SNVs and discovered de novo SNVs regarding the timing of mutagenesis. Putative de novo SNVs were validated using Sanger-based capillary sequencing.

Results We conservatively characterised 23 de novo SNVs shared by the twin pair, 8 de novo SNVs specific to twin I and 1 de novo SNV specific to twin II. Based on the number of de novo SNVs validated by Sanger sequencing and the number of callable bases of each twin, we calculated the overall de novo SNV rate of 1.31×10−8 and 1.01×10−8 for twin I and twin II, respectively. Of these, rates of the early postzygotic de novo SNVs were estimated to be 0.34×10−8 for twin I and 0.04×10−8 for twin II.

Conclusions Early postzygotic mutations constitute a substantial proportion of de novo mutations in humans. Therefore, genome mosaicism resulting from early mitotic events during embryogenesis is common and could substantially contribute to the development of diseases.

  • Developmental
  • Genetics
  • Mutation rate
  • Early post-zygotic
  • Mosaicism

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