Novel recessive myotilin mutation causes severe myofibrillar myopathy

We identified the first homozygous and hence recessive mutation in the myotilin gene (MYOT) in a family affected by a severe myofibrillar myopathy (MFM). MFM is a rare, progressive and devastating disease of human skeletal muscle with distinct histopathological pattern of protein aggregates and myofibrillar degeneration. So far, only heterozygous missense mutations in MYOT have been associated with autosomal dominant myofibrillar myopathy, limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 1A and distal myopathy. Myotilin itself is highly expressed in skeletal and cardiac muscle and is localized at the Z-disc and therefore interacts in sarcomere assembly. We performed whole-exome sequencing in a German family clinically diagnosed with MFM and identified a homozygous mutation in exon 2, c.16C > G (p.Arg6Gly). Using laser microdissection followed by quantitative mass spectrometry, we identified the myotilin protein as one component showing the highest increased abundance in the aggregates in the index patient. We suggest that the combined approach has a high potential as a new tool for the confirmation of unclassified variants which are found in whole-exome sequencing approaches.