Frequency spectrum of rare and clinically relevant markers in multi-ethnic Indian populations (ClinIndb): A resource for genomic medicine in India

Abstract

Purpose:There have been concerted efforts towards cataloging rare and deleterious variants in different world population using high throughput genotyping and sequencing based methods. The Indian populations are underrepresented or its information w.r.t. clinically relevant variants are sparse in public datasets. The aim of this study was to estimate the burden of monogenic disease causing variants in Indian populations. Towards this, we have assessed the frequency profile of monogenic phenotype associated ClinVar variants. Methods: The study utilized genotype dataset (global-screening-array, Illumina) from 2795 individuals (multiple in-house genomics cohorts) representing diverse ethnic and geographically distinct Indian populations. Results: Of the analyzed variants from GSA,˜12% were found to be informative and were either not known earlier or underrepresented in public databases in terms of their frequencies. These variants were linked to disorders, viz. Inborn-errors of Metabolism, Monogenic-diabetes, hereditary cancers and various other hereditary conditions. We have also shown that our study cohort is genetically better representatives of Indian populations than its representation in1000 genome project (South-Asians). Conclusion: We have created a database, ClinIndb [(http://clinindb.igib.res.in) and (https://databases.lovd.nl/shared/variants?searchowned by =%3D%22Mohamed%20Faruq%22)], to help clinicians and researchers in diagnosis, counseling and development of appropriate genetic screening tools relevant to the Indian populations and Indians living abroad.