Haplotype-Aware Detection of SERPINA1 Variants by Nanopore Sequencing

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α-1 Antitrypsin (AAT) is an acute-phase reactant with immunomodulatory properties that mainly inhibits neutrophil elastase. Low serum levels cause AAT deficiency (AATD), an underdiagnosed condition that predisposes to pulmonary and hepatic diseases. The SERPINA1 gene, which encodes AAT, contains >500 variants. PI∗Z and PI∗S alleles are the most diagnosed causes of AATD, but the role of the SERPINA1 haplotypes in AAT function remains unknown. SERPINA1 gene was PCR amplified from 94 patients with asthma, using primers with tails for indexing. Sequencing libraries were loaded into a MinION-Mk1C, and MinKNOW was used for basecalling and demultiplexing. Nanofilt and Minimap2 were used for filtering and mapping/alignment. Variant calling/phasing were performed with PEPPER-Margin-DeepVariant. SERPINA1 gene was 100% covered for all samples, with a minimum sequencing depth of 500×. A total of 75 single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and 4 insertions/deletions were detected, with 45 and 2 of them highly polymorphic (minor allele frequency >0.1), respectively. Nine of the SNVs showed differences in allele frequencies when compared with the overall Spanish population. More than 90% of heterozygous SNVs were phased, yielding 91 and 58 different haplotypes for each SERPINA1 amplified region. Haplotype-based linkage disequilibrium analysis suggests that a recombination hotspot could generate variation in the SERPINA1 gene. The proposed workflow enables haplotype-aware genotyping of the SERPINA1 gene by nanopore sequencing, which will allow the development of novel AATD diagnostic strategies.

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