A novel GATA3 frameshift mutation causes hypoparathyroidism, sensorineural deafness, and renal dysplasia syndrome

Hypoparathyroidism, sensorineural deafness, and renal dysplasia (HDR) syndrome (Barakat syndrome) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder caused by mutations in the gene encoding GATA3 on chromosome 10p14.

Informed consent was obtained from a 38-year-old female patient. 5 mL of venous blood was collected and sent for whole-exome sequencing. GATA3 constructs of both wild-type and mutant were transfected into HEK-293 T cells. Three-dimensional modeling, luciferase-reporter gene test, western blotting and cellular immunofluorescence were used to evaluate the effect of the mutation.

A novel frameshift mutation c. 677dup(p.Pro227AlafsTer77), named P227Afs, was found in GATA3. Three-dimensional modeling revealed that the mutation caused the loss of the dual zinc finger structures 1 and 2 (ZNF1 and ZNF2) of the synthesized protein. Expression of wild-type GATA3 produced a six-fold increase in luciferase activity when compared with pcDNA3.1 vector only (P < 0.001), whereas the P227Afs mutant showed no increase. The mutation significantly reduced the transcriptional activity of GATA3. Immunofluorescence and western blotting analyses demonstrated that the mutation changed the nuclear location of GATA3 and caused difficulty in nuclearization.

A novel heterozygous frameshift mutation in GATA3 was identified and showed to result in difficult nuclearization, and a dominant-negative effect on the wild-type.