Complex structural variation, phylogeny, and disease associations of the mucin pangenome

Mucins are large glycoproteins that provide hydration and barrier function to epithelial tissues. Although genetically heterogeneous, all mucins harbor a large exon composed of variable number tandem repeats (VNTRs). Short-read sequencing has limited our understanding of mucin VNTR diversity and makes disease association studies challenging. We leverage 296 long-read phased genome assemblies to characterize 14 mucin family members, achieving ≥97% accuracy across 572 haplotypes. Phylogenetic haplogroup analysis reveals extraordinary structural heterozygosity, with MUC4 harboring the greatest allelic diversity (n=240 distinct lengths) and MUC12 the greatest size range (Δ = 55,233 bp; 23,080 amino acids). Ten mucins show significant population stratification (pFDR < 0.05). At the MUC4/MUC20 locus, we characterize higher-order structural variation, including a recurrent inversion, copy number variation, and interlocus gene conversion. Optimized genotyping achieves ≥95% haplogroup concordance across 10 loci. We apply this to 4,637 deeply phenotyped cystic fibrosis patients and identify a significant association between short MUC1 VNTRs and severe disease (p=0.0056), demonstrating the pangenome's utility for complex locus genotyping and disease discovery.