Identification of the Causative Gene for Simmental Arachnomelia Syndrome Using a Network-Based Disease Gene Prioritization Approach

Arachnomelia syndrome (AS), mainly found in Brown Swiss and Simmental cattle, is a congenital lethal genetic malformation of the skeletal system. In this study, a network-based disease gene prioritization approach was implemented to rank genes in the previously reported ∼7 Mb region on chromosome 23 associated with AS in Simmental cattle. The top 6 ranked candidate genes were sequenced in four German Simmental bulls, one known AS-carrier ROMEL and a pooled sample of three known non-carriers (BOSSAG, RIFURT and HIRMER). Two suspicious mutations located in coding regions, a mis-sense mutation c.1303G>A in the bystin-like (BYSL) gene and a 2-bp deletion mutation c.1224_1225delCA in the molybdenum cofactor synthesis step 1 (MOCS1) gene were detected. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that the mutation in MOCS1 was more likely to be the causative mutation. Screening the c.1224_1225delCA site in 383 individuals from 12 cattle breeds/lines, we found that only the bull ROMEL and his 12 confirmed progeny carried the mutation. Thus, our results confirm the conclusion of Buitkamp et al. that the 2-bp deletion mutation c.1224_1225delCA in exon 11 of the MOCS1 gene is causative for AS in Simmental cattle. Furthermore, a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was developed to detect the causative mutation.