ArticleAndrology2020
Variants in ALX4 and their association with genitourinary defects.
Article in Andrology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Androgen receptor ubiquitination links KCTD13 to genitourinary tract defects.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2025Article
- Ventral body wall closure: Mechanistic insights from mouse models and translation to human pathology.Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists · 2025Review
- Maternal periconceptional folic acid supplementation and risk for fetal congenital genitourinary system defects.Pediatric research · 2024Article
- Loss of WNT4 in the gubernaculum causes unilateral cryptorchidism and fertility defects.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundGenitourinary anomalies occur in approximately 1% of humans, but in most cases, the cause is unknown. Aristaless-like homeobox 4 (ALX4) is an important homeodomain transcription factor. ALX4 mutations in humans and mouse have been associated with craniofacial defects and genitourinary anomalies such as cryptorchidism and epispadias.
objectivesTo investigate the presence and the functional impact of ALX4 variants in patients with genitourinary defects. MATERIALS AND
methodsTwo separate patient cohorts were analyzed. One includes clinical exome-sequencing (ES) data from 7500 individuals. The other includes 52 ALX4 Sanger-sequenced individuals with bladder exstrophy-epispadias complex (BEEC). Dual luciferase assays were conducted to investigate the functional transcriptional impact of ALX4 variants in HeLa cells and HEK293 cells.
resultsA total of 41 distinct ALX4 heterozygous missense variants were identified in the ES cohort with 15 variants present as recurrent in multiple patients. p.G369E and p.L373F were the only two present in individuals with genitourinary defects. A p.L373F heterozygous variant was also identified in one of the 52 individuals in the BEEC cohort. p.L373F and p.G369E were tested in vitro as both are considered damaging by MutationTaster, although only p.G369E was considered damaging by PolyPhen-2. p.L373F did not alter transcriptional activity in HeLa and HEK293 cells. p.G369E caused a significant 3.4- and 1.8-fold decrease in transcriptional activities relative to wild-type ALX4 in HEK293 and HeLa cells, respectively. DISCUSSION AND
conclusionsOur study supports the idea that transcription factors like ALX4 could influence the normal development of the GU tract in humans as demonstrated in mouse models as ALX4 variant p.G369E (predicted pathogenic by multiple databases) affects ALX4 function in vitro. Variant p.L373F (predicted pathogenic by only MutationTaster) did not affect ALX4 function in vitro. Exon-sequence information and mouse genetics provide important insights into the complex mechanisms driving genitourinary defects allowing the association of transcriptional defects with congenital disorders.
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