Purpose

To elucidate the variant spectrum of the EYS gene in a large cohort of Japanese patients with autosomal recessive and simplex retinitis pigmentosa (arRP and sRP).

Methods

We performed a direct sequencing analysis of 44 exons of the EYS gene in 469 patients with RP (including 144 arRP, 288 sRP, and 17 autosomal dominant RP (adRP) cases) in eastern and western regions of Japan and a multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) of patients who had a single heterozygous pathogenic variant.

Results

We identified six pathogenic and 16 likely pathogenic variants from a total of 186 nucleotide sequence variants, of which five variants, c. 2528G> A (p.(Gly843Glu)), c. 4957dupA (p.(Ser1653Lysfs* 2)), c. 6557G> A (p.(Gly2186Glu)), c. 6563T> C (p.(Ile2188Thr)), and c. 8868C> A (p.(Tyr2956*)), were prevalent in patients with arRP and sRP. The homozygous and heterozygous combinations of these five variants accounted for 32.4%(140/432) of Japanese patients with arRP and sRP. Five patients with adRP also had these variants. These five variants segregated with the phenotype in 15 families with RP. MLPA revealed seven copy number variations (CNVs) of the EYS exon (s).

Conclusions

This study showed that five major sequence variants and CNVs in the EYS gene account for one-third of Japanese patients with arRP and sRP, and these variants are also responsible for RP showing an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern. This is the first report showing the pathogenicity of three missense variants (p.(Gly843Glu), p.(Gly2186Glu), and p.(Ile2188Thr)) and the presence of CNVs in the EYS gene of Japanese patients with arRP and sRP.