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Inherited GINS1 deficiency underlies growth retardation along with neutropenia and NK cell deficiency
Julien Cottineau, … , Agata Smogorzewska, Emmanuelle Jouanguy
Julien Cottineau, … , Agata Smogorzewska, Emmanuelle Jouanguy
Published April 17, 2017
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2017;127(5):1991-2006. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI90727.
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Research Article Immunology Article has an altmetric score of 15

Inherited GINS1 deficiency underlies growth retardation along with neutropenia and NK cell deficiency

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Abstract

Inborn errors of DNA repair or replication underlie a variety of clinical phenotypes. We studied 5 patients from 4 kindreds, all of whom displayed intrauterine growth retardation, chronic neutropenia, and NK cell deficiency. Four of the 5 patients also had postnatal growth retardation. The association of neutropenia and NK cell deficiency, which is unusual among primary immunodeficiencies and bone marrow failures, was due to a blockade in the bone marrow and was mildly symptomatic. We discovered compound heterozygous rare mutations in Go-Ichi-Ni-San (GINS) complex subunit 1 (GINS1, also known as PSF1) in the 5 patients. The GINS complex is essential for eukaryotic DNA replication, and homozygous null mutations of GINS component–encoding genes are embryonic lethal in mice. The patients’ fibroblasts displayed impaired GINS complex assembly, basal replication stress, impaired checkpoint signaling, defective cell cycle control, and genomic instability, which was rescued by WT GINS1. The residual levels of GINS1 activity reached 3% to 16% in patients’ cells, depending on their GINS1 genotype, and correlated with the severity of growth retardation and the in vitro cellular phenotype. The levels of GINS1 activity did not influence the immunological phenotype, which was uniform. Autosomal recessive, partial GINS1 deficiency impairs DNA replication and underlies intra-uterine (and postnatal) growth retardation, chronic neutropenia, and NK cell deficiency.

Authors

Julien Cottineau, Molly C. Kottemann, Francis P. Lach, Young-Hoon Kang, Frédéric Vély, Elissa K. Deenick, Tomi Lazarov, Laure Gineau, Yi Wang, Andrea Farina, Marie Chansel, Lazaro Lorenzo, Christelle Piperoglou, Cindy S. Ma, Patrick Nitschke, Aziz Belkadi, Yuval Itan, Bertrand Boisson, Fabienne Jabot-Hanin, Capucine Picard, Jacinta Bustamante, Céline Eidenschenk, Soraya Boucherit, Nathalie Aladjidi, Didier Lacombe, Pascal Barat, Waseem Qasim, Jane A. Hurst, Andrew J. Pollard, Holm H. Uhlig, Claire Fieschi, Jean Michon, Vladimir P. Bermudez, Laurent Abel, Jean-Pierre de Villartay, Frédéric Geissmann, Stuart G. Tangye, Jerard Hurwitz, Eric Vivier, Jean-Laurent Casanova, Agata Smogorzewska, Emmanuelle Jouanguy

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Figure 3

The GINS1 mutants are associated with CMG complex loss of function or instability.

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The GINS1 mutants are associated with CMG complex loss of function or in...
(A) Western blot analysis of total protein extracts from HEK293T cells expressing GINS1 cDNAs. Cells were not transfected (NT), mock transfected (MO), or transfected with pCMV6 empty (EV), pCMV6 GINS1 WT-Flag (WT), pCMV6 GINS1 R83C-Flag (R83C), pCMV6 GINS1 delEx1-Flag (ΔE1), or pCMV6 GINS1 C152Y-Flag (C152Y), with antibodies against Flag-tag and GINS1. An antibody against α-tubulin was used as a loading control. (B) Western blot analysis of total protein extracts from HEK293T cells not transfected, mock transfected, or transfected with pCMV6 empty vector (EV), pCMV6 GINS1 WT- or ΔE1-Flag (WT, ΔE1), pCMV6 GINS1 WT- or ΔE1-ATG1-Flag (WT- or ΔE1-ATG1), pCMV6 GINS1 WT or ΔE1-ATG2-Flag (WT- or ΔE1-ATG2), pCMV6 GINS1 WT or ΔE1-ATG3-Flag (WT- or ΔE1-ATG3), pCMV6 GINS1 WT or ΔE1-ATG1+2+3-Flag (WT- or ΔE1-ATG1,2,3) vectors. An antibody against α-tubulin was used as a loading control. (C) Western blot analysis of GINS1 expression on total protein extracts from patient and control E6/E7-fibroblasts. An antibody against GAPDH was used as a loading control. (D) Western blot analysis of GINS2, GINS3, GINS4, and MCM4 in total protein extracts from patient and control E6/E7-fibroblasts. An antibody against GAPDH was used as a loading control. (E) Western blot analysis of GINS1 and GINS3 expression in total protein extracts from control and P2 E6/E7-fibroblasts lentiviral transduced by empty vector (EV), GINS1-WT (WT), GINS1-R83C (R83C), or GINS1-ΔE1 (ΔE1) or not transduced (NT). An antibody against GAPDH was used as a loading control. Results in A–E are representative of 3 independent experiments. (F) Total protein extracts from HeLa cells transfected with pIRESpuroHF-GINS1 WT or mutant constructs (R83C, ΔE1, C152Y) encoding N-terminally His6Flag2-tagged proteins were subjected to immunoprecipitation with an antibody against the Flag tag, in the presence (+Flag) or absence of the 3XFlag peptide. Western blotting was performed with antibodies against the Flag tag, GINS3, and GINS4. Results are representative of 4 independent experiments. (G) Left: Purification of the CMG complex from Sf9 insect cells co-infected with viruses expressing the 11 CMG subunits, including GINS1 WT or C152Y, as described in Methods. Gradient fractions were subjected to SDS-PAGE separation followed by silver staining: 5 μl for GINS1 WT and 15 μl for GINS1 C152Y. Right: The peak fractions of both CMG (WT or C152Y) purification (5 μl fraction 7) were subjected to SDS-PAGE separation. Results are representative of 2 independent experiments.

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