title: Assessment of 2q23.1 microdeletion syndrome implicates MBD5 as a single causal locus of intellectual disability, epilepsy, and autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: Persons with neurodevelopmental disorders or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often harbor chromosomal microdeletions, yet the individual genetic contributors within these regions have not been systematically evaluated. We established a consortium of clinical diagnostic and research laboratories to accumulate a large cohort with genetic alterations of chromosomal region 2q23.1 and acquired 65 subjects with microdeletion or translocation. We sequenced translocation breakpoints; aligned microdeletions to determine the critical region; assessed effects on mRNA expression; and examined medical records, photos, and clinical evaluations. We identified a single gene, methyl-CpG-binding domain 5 (MBD5), as the only locus that defined the critical region. Partial or complete deletion of MBD5 was associated with haploinsufficiency of mRNA expression, intellectual disability, epilepsy, and autistic features. Fourteen alterations, including partial deletions of noncoding regions not typically captured or considered pathogenic by current diagnostic screening, disrupted MBD5 alone. Expression profiles and clinical characteristics were largely indistinguishable between MBD5-specific alteration and deletion of the entire 2q23.1 interval. No copy-number alterations of MBD5 were observed in 7878 controls, suggesting MBD5 alterations are highly penetrant. We surveyed MBD5 coding variations among 747 ASD subjects compared to 2043 non-ASD subjects analyzed by whole-exome sequencing and detected an association with a highly conserved methyl-CpG-binding domain missense variant, p.79Gly>Glu (c.236G>A) (p = 0.012). These results suggest that genetic alterations of MBD5 cause features of 2q23.1 microdeletion syndrome and that this epigenetic regulator significantly contributes to ASD risk, warranting further consideration in research and clinical diagnostic screening and highlighting the importance of chromatin remodeling in the etiology of these complex disorders.
authors: Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors: Michael E
authors: ME
authors: Talkowski
authors: Sureni V
authors: SV
authors: Mullegama
authors: Jill A
authors: JA
authors: Rosenfeld
authors: Bregje W M
authors: BW
authors: van Bon
authors: Yiping
authors: Y
authors: Shen
authors: Elena A
authors: EA
authors: Repnikova
authors: Julie
authors: J
authors: Gastier-Foster
authors: Devon Lamb
authors: DL
authors: Thrush
authors: Sekar
authors: S
authors: Kathiresan
authors: Douglas M
authors: DM
authors: Ruderfer
authors: Colby
authors: C
authors: Chiang
authors: Carrie
authors: C
authors: Hanscom
authors: Carl
authors: C
authors: Ernst
authors: Amelia M
authors: AM
authors: Lindgren
authors: Cynthia C
authors: CC
authors: Morton
authors: Yu
authors: Y
authors: An
authors: Caroline
authors: C
authors: Astbury
authors: Louise A
authors: LA
authors: Brueton
authors: Klaske D
authors: KD
authors: Lichtenbelt
authors: Lesley C
authors: LC
authors: Ades
authors: Marco
authors: M
authors: Fichera
authors: Corrado
authors: C
authors: Romano
authors: Jeffrey W
authors: JW
authors: Innis
authors: Charles A
authors: CA
authors: Williams
authors: Dennis
authors: D
authors: Bartholomew
authors: Margot I
authors: MI
authors: Van Allen
authors: Aditi
authors: A
authors: Parikh
authors: Lilei
authors: L
authors: Zhang
authors: Bai-Lin
authors: BL
authors: Wu
authors: Robert E
authors: RE
authors: Pyatt
authors: Stuart
authors: S
authors: Schwartz
authors: Lisa G
authors: LG
authors: Shaffer
authors: Bert B A
authors: BB
authors: de Vries
authors: James F
authors: JF
authors: Gusella
authors: Sarah H
authors: SH
authors: Elsea
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000235:genetics*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002889:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 2; D018899:CpG Islands; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D017353:Gene Deletion; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D013577:Syndrome
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C550332:MBD5 protein, human