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Whole exome sequencing of familial MDS, Two patients

Although several causal genes of familial myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) have been identified, the genetic landscape and the molecular pathogenesis are not totally understood. To explore novel driver genes and their pathogenetic significance, we performed whole exome sequence analysis of two individuals from a familial MDS pedigree and several candidate single-nucleotide variants were identified. Knockdown screening revealed that downregulation of a candidate gene enhanced colony forming capacity of primary murine bone marrow (BM) stem/progenitor cells. Our results indicate that a familial MDS-associated germline mutation in the candidate gene induces accumulation of DNA double-strand breaks, possibly through impaired PCNA polyubiquitination.