• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.311-317
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• 2014

Distal myopathy with rimmed vacuoles (DMRV) or hereditary inclusion body myopathy 2 is an autosomal recessive muscular disorder characterized by early adult-onset weakness of distal muscles and rimmed vacuoles in muscle biopsy. Mutations in the UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 2-epimerase/N-ace-tylmannosamine kinase (GNE) gene are associated with the development of DMRV. In this study, whole exome sequencing (WES) revealed compound heterozygous GNE mutations of p.Asp176Val and p.Val572Leu in a patient with distal limb weakness. Three hundred healthy controls did not show these mutations. All other variants found in distal myopathy-relevant genes were polymorphic. These findings confirmed that the patient had DMRV. This work underscores the usefulness of WES in improving the molecular diagnosis of myopathy.