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Elucidation of the phenotypic spectrum and genetic landscape in primary and secondary microcephaly

Elucidation of the phenotypic spectrum and genetic landscape in primary and secondary microcephaly

Boonsawat, Paranchai, Joset, Pascal, Steindl, Katharina, Oneda, Beatrice, Gogoll, Laura, Azzarello-Burri, Silvia, Sheth, Frenny, Datar, Chaitanya, Verma, Ishwar C., Puri, Ratna Dua, Zollino, Marcella, Bachmann-Gagescu, Ruxandra, Niedrist, Dunja, Papik, Michael, Figueiro-Silva, Joana, Masood, Rahim, Zweier, Markus, Kraemer, Dennis, Lincoln, Sharyn, Rodan, Lance, Passemard, Sandrine, Drunat, Séverine, Verloes, Alain, Horn, Anselm H.C., Sticht, Heinrich, Steinfeld, Robert, Plecko, Barbara, Latal, Beatrice, Jenni, Oskar, Asadollahi, Reza ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1497-0564 and Rauch, Anita (2019) Elucidation of the phenotypic spectrum and genetic landscape in primary and secondary microcephaly. Genetics in Medicine, 21 (9). pp. 2043-2058. ISSN 1098-3600 (Print), 1530-0366 (Online) (doi:10.1038/s41436-019-0464-7)

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Abstract

Purpose
Microcephaly is a sign of many genetic conditions but has been rarely systematically evaluated. We therefore comprehensively studied the clinical and genetic landscape of an unselected cohort of patients with microcephaly.
Methods
We performed clinical assessment, high-resolution chromosomal microarray analysis, exome sequencing, and functional studies in 62 patients (58% with primary microcephaly [PM], 27% with secondary microcephaly [SM], and 15% of unknown onset).
Results
We found severity of developmental delay/intellectual disability correlating with severity of microcephaly in PM, but not SM. We detected causative variants in 48.4% of patients and found divergent inheritance and variant pattern for PM (mainly recessive and likely gene-disrupting [LGD]) versus SM (all dominant de novo and evenly LGD or missense). While centrosome-related pathways were solely identified in PM, transcriptional regulation was the most frequently affected pathway in both SM and PM. Unexpectedly, we found causative variants in different mitochondria-related genes accounting for ~5% of patients, which emphasizes their role even in syndromic PM. Additionally, we delineated novel candidate genes involved in centrosome-related pathway (SPAG5, TEDC1), Wnt signaling (VPS26A, ZNRF3), and RNA trafficking (DDX1).
Conclusion
Our findings enable improved evaluation and genetic counseling of PM and SM patients and further elucidate microcephaly pathways.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: primary microcephaly; secondary microcephaly; MCPH; genetic counseling; mitochondria
Subjects: Q Science > QH Natural history > QH426 Genetics
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: Faculty of Engineering & Science
Faculty of Engineering & Science > School of Science (SCI)
Last Modified: 27 Jun 2022 14:06
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/36705

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