Rationale Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is an autosomal recessive, genetically heterogeneous disorder characterized by oto-sino-pulmonary disease and situs abnormalities (Kartagener syndrome) due to abnormal structure and/or function of cilia. Most patients currently recognized to have PCD have ultrastructural defects of cilia; however, some patients have clinical manifestations of PCD and low levels of nasal nitric oxide, but normal ultrastructure, including a few patients with biallelic mutations in DNAH11. Objectives In order to test further for mutant DNAH11 as a cause of PCD, we sequenced DNAH11 in patients with a PCD clinical phenotype, but no known genetic etiology. Methods We sequenced 82 exons and intron/exon junctions in DNAH11 in 163 unrelated patients with a clinical phenotype of PCD, including those with normal ciliary ultrastructure (n=58), defects in outer ± inner dynein arms (n=76), radial spoke/central pair defects (n=6), and 23 without definitive ultrastructural results, but who had situs inversus (n=17), or bronchiectasis and/or low nasal nitric oxide (n=6). Additionally, we sequenced DNAH11 in 13 patients with isolated situs abnormalities to see if mutant DNAH11 could cause situs defects without respiratory disease. Results Of the 58 unrelated PCD patients with normal ultrastructure, 13 (22%) had two (biallelic) mutations in DNAH11; plus, 2 PCD patients without ultrastructural analysis had biallelic mutations. All mutations were novel and private. None of the patients with dynein arm or radial spoke/central pair defects, or isolated situs abnormalities, had mutations in DNAH11. Of the 35 identified mutant alleles, 24 (69%) were nonsense, insertion/deletion or Ioss-of-function splice-site mutations. Conclusions Mutations in DNAH11 are a common cause of PCD in patients without ciliary ultrastructural defects; thus, genetic analysis can be used to ascertain the diagnosis of PCD in this challenging group of patients.

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare, autosomal recessive, genetically heterogeneous disorder characterized by ciliary dysfunction resulting in chronic oto-sino-pulmonary disease, respiratory distress in term neonates, laterality (situs) defects, and bronchiectasis. Diagnosis has traditionally relied on ciliary ultrastructural abnormalities seen by electron microscopy. Mutations in radial spoke head proteins occur in PCD patients with central apparatus defects. Advances in genetic testing have been crucial in addressing the diagnostic challenge. Here, we describe a novel splice-site mutation (c.921+3_6delAAGT) in RSPH4A, which leads to a premature translation termination signal in nine subjects with PCD (seven families). Loss-of-function was confirmed with quantitative ciliary ultrastructural analysis, measurement of ciliary beat frequency and waveform, and transcript analysis. All nine individuals carrying c.921+3_6delAAGT splice-site mutation in RSPH4A were Hispanic with ancestry tracing to Puerto Rico. This mutation is a founder mutation and a common cause of PCD without situs abnormalities in patients of Puerto Rican descent.

The objectives of this research were to calculate the on-site wastewater system (OWS) nitrogen loading to groundwater in the Newport River watershed, North Carolina and determine if these loads were large enough to be included in watershed nutrient management plans along with other nutrient sources such as row-crop agriculture. Nitrogen loadings were calculated using hydrological and groundwater quality data beneath 16 OWS installed in three different soil groups, and watershed demographic and soil data. Over 30,000 people use OWS in the watershed with 76% of the systems installed in group I soils (sands), 11% in group II soils (sandy loams), and 13% in group III soils (sandy clay loams). OWS in group III soils had lower total dissolved nitrogen loading rates (0.04 kg/person/yr) to groundwater than systems in group I (1.41 kg/person/yr) and II soils (0.33 kg/person/yr). The total dissolved nitrogen loading rates from OWS to groundwater, assuming 20 people/ha in group II and I soils (6.5 to 28.1 kg/ha/yr), were significant, but less than potential agricultural contributions to groundwater (37.5 kg/ha/yr) for the area. OWS are significant sources of shallow groundwater nitrogen loading in coastal watersheds with sandy soils, and these contributions should be considered in regulatory efforts to reduce nutrient pollution.

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The bifunctional protein kinase-endoribonuclease Ire1 initiates splicing of the mRNA for the transcription factor Hac1 when unfolded proteins accumulate in the endoplasmic reticulum. Activation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ire1 coincides with autophosphorylation of its activation loop at S840, S841, T844, and S850. Mass spectrometric analysis of Ire1 expressed in Escherichia coli identified S837 as another potential phosphorylation site in vivo. Mutation of all five potential phosphorylation sites in the activation loop decreased, but did not completely abolish, splicing of HAC1 mRNA, induction of KAR2 and PDI1 mRNAs, and expression of a β-galactosidase reporter activated by Hac1i. Phosphorylation site mutants survive low levels of endoplasmic reticulum stress better than IRE1 deletions strains. In vivo clustering and inactivation of Ire1 are not affected by phosphorylation site mutants. Mutation of D836 to alanine in the activation loop of phosphorylation site mutants nearly completely abolished HAC1 splicing, induction of KAR2, PDI1, and β-galactosidase reporters, and survival of ER stress, but it had no effect on clustering of Ire1. By itself, the D836A mutation does not confer a phenotype. These data argue that D836 can partially substitute for activation loop phosphorylation in activation of the endoribonuclease domain of Ire1.