RNA Sequencing Resolves Cryptic Pathogenic Variants in Mitochondrial Disease

Mitochondrial diseases are the most common inherited metabolic disorders, characterized by pronounced clinical and genetic heterogeneity that complicates molecular diagnosis. Although DNA-based sequencing approaches have become standard in genetic testing, up to half of patients remain without a definitive diagnosis. We aimed to perform RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of patient-derived skin fibroblasts to enhance the molecular diagnostic efficacy of mitochondrial disease in undiagnosed cases in China.

We performed RNA-seq on skin fibroblasts from 140 pediatric patients with suspected mitochondrial disease who remained genetically undiagnosed after whole exome sequencing (WES). Aberrant RNA expression and splicing were identified using the detection of RNA outliers pipeline (DROP). Based on WES findings, patients were stratified into a candidate group (n = 28), in which RNA-seq evaluated the pathogenicity of WES-identified variants of uncertain significance and an unsolved group (n = 112), in which RNA-seq was used to pinpoint candidate genes. In six cases where RNA-seq identified the aberrant RNA event but WES did not detect the causative variants, whole genome sequencing (WGS) was performed.

Integrative RNA-seq, WES, and WGS analysis resulted in a genetic diagnosis in 25% of patients overall (20/28 [71%] in the candidate group; 15/112 [13%] in the unsolved group). Aberrant splicing explained most candidate-group diagnoses, including variants misclassified by in silico predictors such as SpliceAI. 14% of protein-truncating variants predicted to undergo nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) escaped degradation, highlighting the functional limits of current predictions. The variants identified in the unsolved cohort included synonymous, missense, deep intronic, near-splice-site variants, and large deletions. The most frequent among them was a recurrent synonymous East Asian founder mutation in ECHS1, accounting for seven cases. Interestingly, across 233 pathogenic variants associated with aberrant RNA phenotypes compiled from this study and prior reports, half were noncoding and half were coding variants.

RNA-seq substantially enhances molecular diagnosis in mitochondrial disease by exposing cryptic splicing, regulatory, and NMD-escape events invisible to DNA sequencing alone. These data advocate transcriptome analysis as an essential component of comprehensive genomic diagnostics in neurometabolic disease.