Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P06889 (Mol)
 630,302 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness in virtually every country. Development of an accurate diagnostic test for presymptomatic detection of individuals at risk is an urgent requisition for this condition. Herein, we report mapping of a new adult-onset primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) locus on 5q22.1 (GLC1G) and identification of its defective gene. Mutation screening of seven candidate genes from the GLC1G critical region (approximately 2 Mb between D5S1466 and D5S2051) identified only one significant alteration in the WDR36 (WD40-repeat 36) gene. This mutation (i.e. D658G) was segregated in all affected members of our first GLC1G-linked family but it was absent in 476 normal control chromosomes. Further screening of WDR36 in a total of 130 POAG families revealed 24 DNA variations. Overall, four mutations (N355S, A449T, R529Q and D658G) were identified in 17 (5.02-6.92%) unrelated POAG subjects, 11 with high-pressure and six with low-pressure glaucoma. These mutations were absent in a minimum of 200 normal control chromosomes and, further they were conserved between WDR36 orthologues in mouse, rat, dog, chimp and human. WDR36 is a novel gene with 23 exons, which encodes for 951 amino acids and a protein with multiple G-beta WD40 repeats. By northern blotting, two distinct mRNA transcripts of 5.9 and 2.5 kb were observed in human heart, placenta, liver, skeletal muscle, kidney and pancreas. WDR36 gene expression in lens, iris, sclera, ciliary muscles, ciliary body, trabecular meshwork, retina and optic nerve were established by RT-PCR. In mouse, two transcripts of 3.5 and 2.9 kb showed analogous expression patterns to human. mRNA expressions were detected in 7-, 11-, 15- and 17-day-old developing mouse embryos. In summary, WDR36 is a novel causative gene for adult-onset POAG at the GLC1G locus. Specific ocular expressions and observed mutations are consistent with WDR36 role in etiology of both high- and low-pressure glaucoma.
Hum Mol Genet 2005 Mar 15
PMID:Identification of a novel adult-onset primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) gene on 5q22.1. 1567 85

Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is a genetically complex neuropathy that affects retinal ganglion cells and is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. WDR36, a gene of unknown function, was recently identified as causative for POAG at locus GLC1G. Subsequent studies found disease-associated variants in control populations, leaving the role of WDR36 in this disease unclear. To address this issue, we determined the function of WDR36. We studied Wdr36 in zebrafish and found it is the functional homolog of yeast Utp21. Utp21 is cell essential and functions in the nucleolar processing of 18S rRNA, which is required for ribosome biogenesis. Evidence for functional homology comes from sequence alignment, ubiquitous expression, sub-cellular localization to the nucleolus and loss-of-function phenotypes that include defects in 18S rRNA processing and abnormal nucleolar morphology. Additionally, we show that loss of Wdr36 function leads to an activation of the p53 stress-response pathway, suggesting that co-inheritance of defects in p53 pathway genes may influence the impact of WDR36 variants on POAG. Although these results overall do not provide evidence for or against a role of WDR36 in POAG, they do provide important baseline information for future studies.
Hum Mol Genet 2008 Aug 15
PMID:The primary open-angle glaucoma gene WDR36 functions in ribosomal RNA processing and interacts with the p53 stress-response pathway. 1846 40

Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. POAG is associated with a characteristic progression of changes to ocular morphology and degeneration at the optic nerve head with the loss of visual fields. Physical mapping efforts identified genomic loci in which to search for causative POAG gene mutations. WDR36, at locus GLC1G, was initially identified as a gene with a low frequency of non-synonymous sequence variations that were exclusive to adult-onset POAG patients. It has since been shown that rare WDR36 sequence variants are also present in the normal population at similarly low frequencies. The lack of a consistent genotype:phenotype correlation prompted us to investigate the functional consequences of WDR36 sequence variations. WDR36 is involved in rRNA processing, a critical step in ribosome biogenesis, and is very similar to yeast Utp21p which is a member of the small subunit (SSU) processome complex responsible for maturation of 18S rRNA. We, therefore, developed a yeast model system to test the functional and phenotypic consequences of POAG-associated sequence variants introduced into UTP21. Alone, the POAG variants did not produce any significant defects in cell viability or rRNA processing. However, when combined with disruption of STI1 (which synthetically interacts with UTP21), 5 of the 11 tested variants had increased or decreased cell viability which corresponded to reduced or elevated levels of pre-rRNA, respectively. These results demonstrate that, in the correct genetic background, WDR36 sequence variants can lead to an altered cellular phenotype, supporting the theory that WDR36 participates in polygenic forms of glaucoma.
Hum Mol Genet 2009 Apr 01
PMID:Glaucoma-associated WDR36 variants encode functional defects in a yeast model system. 1915 Sep 91