Next generation sequencing identified two novel mutations in NIPBL and a frame shift mutation in CREBBP in three Chinese children.

BACKGROUND: Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) and Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RSTS) are both rare congenital multiple malformation disorders caused by genes associated with transcription. They share a number of similar features clinically. In addition, it is difficult to make a molecular diagnosis rapidly and detect the mosaic mutation when only sanger sequencing is taken. This study aims to report three novel mutations in three Chinese children identified by next generation sequencing.

RESULTS: We describe patient 1 and patient 2 presenting with characteristics of CdLS with mutations in NIPBL and patient 3 with a frame shift mutation in CREBBP who can be diagnosed as RSTS clinically and also have similar symptoms with CdLS to some extent. The splicing site c.4321-1G > A transversion in NIPBL is a mosaic mutation and produces an abnormal transcript bearing the loss of exon 20. The nonsense mutation c.218C > A in NIPBL and the frame shift c.1715delC mutation in CREBBP generate stop codon and yield the premature termination of proteins.

CONCLUSIONS: In general, we detect three novel heterozygous mutations including a splicing mutation and a nonsense mutation in NIPBL and a frame shift in CREBBP. And several similar features observed in patients indicate the clinical complexity and clinically overlapping of CdLS and RSTS termed "transcriptomopathies", suggest the underlying molecular mechanism and emphasize the utilization of next generation sequencing technologies.