Genome sequencing identifies multiple deleterious variants in autism patients with more severe phenotypes.

TitleGenome sequencing identifies multiple deleterious variants in autism patients with more severe phenotypes.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2019
AuthorsGuo, H, Duyzend, MH, Coe, BP, Baker, C, Hoekzema, K, Gerdts, J, Turner, TN, Zody, MC, Beighley, JS, Murali, SC, Nelson, BJ, Bamshad, MJ, Nickerson, DA, Bernier, RA, Eichler, EE
Corporate AuthorsUniversity of Washington Center for Mendelian Genomics
JournalGenet Med
Volume21
Issue7
Pagination1611-1620
Date Published2019 Jul
ISSN1530-0366
Abstract

PURPOSE: To maximize the discovery of potentially pathogenic variants to better understand the diagnostic utility of genome sequencing (GS) and to assess how the presence of multiple risk events might affect the phenotypic severity in autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

METHODS: GS was applied to 180 simplex and multiplex ASD families (578 individuals, 213 patients) with exome sequencing and array comparative genomic hybridization further applied to a subset for validation and cross-platform comparisons.

RESULTS: We found that 40.8% of patients carried variants with evidence of disease risk, including a de novo frameshift variant in NR4A2 and two de novo missense variants in SYNCRIP, while 21.1% carried clinically relevant pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants. Patients with more than one risk variant (9.9%) were more severely affected with respect to cognitive ability compared with patients with a single or no-risk variant. We observed no instance among the 27 multiplex families where a pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant was transmitted to all affected members in the family.

CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates the diagnostic utility of GS, especially for multiple risk variants that contribute to the phenotypic severity, shows the genetic heterogeneity in multiplex families, and provides evidence for new genes for follow up.

DOI10.1038/s41436-018-0380-2
Alternate JournalGenet. Med.
PubMed ID30504930
PubMed Central IDPMC6546556
Grant ListR01 MH100047 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
UM1 HG008901 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
K99 MH117165 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
/ / Howard Hughes Medical Institute / United States
UM1 HG006493 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
U24 HG008956 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
R01 MH101221 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States