Assessing the Pathogenicity, Penetrance, and Expressivity of Putative Disease-Causing Variants in a Population Setting

More than 100, 000 genetic variants are classified as disease causing in public databases. However, the true penetrance of many of these rare alleles is uncertain and might be over-estimated by clinical ascertainment. Here, we use data from 379, 768 UK Biobank (UKB) participants of European ancestry to assess the pathogenicity and penetrance of putatively clinically important rare variants. Although rare variants are harder to genotype accurately than common variants, we were able to classify as high quality 1, 244 of 4, 585 (27%) putatively clinically relevant rare (MAF T (p. Arg114Trp) (GenBank: NM₁75914. 4) variant associated with diabetes is T (p. Arg799Trp) variant that causes Xeroderma pigmentosum were more susceptible to sunburn. Finally, we refute the previous disease association of RNF135 in developmental disorders. In conclusion, this study shows that very large population-based studies will help refine our understanding of the pathogenicity of rare genetic variants.