Landscape of multi-nucleotide variants in 125,748 human exomes and 15,708 genomes

  • Genome Aggregation Database Production Team
  • , Genome Aggregation Database Consortium
  • , Qingbo Wang
  • , Emma Pierce-Hoffman
  • , Beryl B. Cummings
  • , Jessica Alföldi
  • , Laurent C. Francioli
  • , Laura D. Gauthier
  • , Andrew J. Hill
  • , Anne H. O’Donnell-Luria
  • , Konrad J. Karczewski
  • , Daniel G. MacArthur*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

111 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Multi-nucleotide variants (MNVs), defined as two or more nearby variants existing on the same haplotype in an individual, are a clinically and biologically important class of genetic variation. However, existing tools typically do not accurately classify MNVs, and understanding of their mutational origins remains limited. Here, we systematically survey MNVs in 125,748 whole exomes and 15,708 whole genomes from the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD). We identify 1,792,248 MNVs across the genome with constituent variants falling within 2 bp distance of one another, including 18,756 variants with a novel combined effect on protein sequence. Finally, we estimate the relative impact of known mutational mechanisms - CpG deamination, replication error by polymerase zeta, and polymerase slippage at repeat junctions - on the generation of MNVs. Our results demonstrate the value of haplotype-aware variant annotation, and refine our understanding of genome-wide mutational mechanisms of MNVs.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2539
Number of pages13
JournalNature Communications
Volume11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1-Dec-2020

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