Whole exome sequencing identified novel CRB1 mutations in Chinese and Indian populations with autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a leading cause of inherited blindness characterized by progressive degeneration of the retinal photoreceptor cells. This study aims to identify genetic mutations in a Chinese family RP-2236, an Indian family RP-IC-90 and 100 sporadic Indian individuals with autosomal recessive RP (arRP). Whole exome sequencing was performed on the index patients of RP-2236, RP-IC-90 and all of the 100 sporadic Indian patients. Direct Sanger sequencing was used to validate the mutations identified. Four novel mutations and one reported mutation in the crumbs homolog 1 (CRB1) gene, which has been known to cause severe retinal dystrophies, were identified. A novel homozygous splicing mutation c.2129-1G>C was found in the three patients In family RP-2236. A homozygous point mutation p.R664C was found in RP-IC-90. A novel homozygous mutation p.G1310C was identified in patient I-44, while novel compound heterozygous mutations p.N629D and p.A593T were found in patient I-7. All mutations described above were not present in the 1000 normal controls. In conclusion, we identified four novel mutations in CRB1 in a cohort of RP patients from the Chinese and Indian populations. Our data enlarges the CRB1 mutation spectrums and may provide new target loci for RP diagnose and treatment.