Abstract
This study aimed to uncover novel genes associated with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) by leveraging recent large-scale de novo burden analysis studies to enhance a virtual gene panel used in a diagnostic setting. We re-analyzed historical trio-exome sequencing data from 745 individuals with NDD according to the most recent diagnostic standards, resulting in a cohort of 567 unsolved individuals. Next, we designed a virtual gene panel containing candidate genes from three large de novo burden analysis studies in NDD and prioritized candidate genes by stringent filtering for ultra-rare de novo variants with high pathogenicity scores. Our analysis revealed an increased burden of de novo variants in our selected candidate genes within the unsolved NDD cohort and identified qualifying de novo variants in seven candidate genes: RIF1, CAMK2D, RAB11FIP4, AGO3, PCBP2, LEO1, and VCP. Clinical data were collected from six new individuals with de novo or inherited LEO1 variants and three new individuals with de novo PCBP2 variants. Our findings add additional evidence for LEO1 as a risk gene for autism and intellectual disability. Furthermore, we prioritize PCBP2 as a candidate gene for NDD associated with motor and language delay. In summary, by leveraging de novo burden analysis studies, employing a stringent variant filtering pipeline, and engaging in targeted patient recruitment, our study contributes to the identification of novel genes implicated in NDDs.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41431-024-01661-4/MediaObjects/41431_2024_1661_Fig1_HTML.png)
![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41431-024-01661-4/MediaObjects/41431_2024_1661_Fig2_HTML.png)
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The authors declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its��Supplementary Information. Raw sequencing data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request if in line with the provided consent of the families.
References
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. 5th ed. Washington, D.C: American Psychiatric Association; 2013. p. 947.
Yang Y, Zhao S, Zhang M, Xiang M, Zhao J, Chen S, et al. Prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders among US children and adolescents in 2019 and 2020. Front Psychol. 2022;13:997648.
Blesson A, Cohen JS. Genetic counseling in neurodevelopmental disorders. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2020;10:a036533.
Seo GH, Lee H, Lee J, Han H, Cho YK, Kim M, et al. Diagnostic performance of automated, streamlined, daily updated exome analysis in patients with neurodevelopmental delay. Mol Med. 2022;28:38.
Bean L, Funke B, Carlston CM, Gannon JL, Kantarci S, Krock BL, et al. Diagnostic gene sequencing panels: from design to report—a technical standard of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG). Genet Med. 2020;22:453–61.
Strande NT, Riggs ER, Buchanan AH, Ceyhan-Birsoy O, DiStefano M, Dwight SS, et al. Evaluating the clinical validity of gene-disease associations: an evidence-based framework developed by the clinical genome resource. Am J Hum Genet. 2017;100:895–906.
Dai P, Honda A, Ewans L, McGaughran J, Burnett L, Law M, et al. Recommendations for next generation sequencing data reanalysis of unsolved cases with suspected Mendelian disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Genet Med Off J Am Coll Med Genet. 2022;24:1618–29.
Kaplanis J, Samocha KE, Wiel L, Zhang Z, Arvai KJ, Eberhardt RY, et al. Evidence for 28 genetic disorders discovered by combining healthcare and research data. Nature. 2020;586:757–62.
Wang T, Kim CN, Bakken TE, Gillentine MA, Henning B, Mao Y, et al. Integrated gene analyses of de novo variants from 46,612 trios with autism and developmental disorders. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2022;119:e2203491119.
Zhou X, Feliciano P, Shu C, Wang T, Astrovskaya I, Hall JB, et al. Integrating de novo and inherited variants in 42,607 autism cases identifies mutations in new moderate-risk genes. Nat Genet. 2022;54:1305–19.
Fu JM, Satterstrom FK, Peng M, Brand H, Collins RL, Dong S, et al. Rare coding variation provides insight into the genetic architecture and phenotypic context of autism. Nat Genet. 2022;54:1320–31.
Grozeva D, Carss K, Spasic-Boskovic O, Tejada M-I, Gecz J, Shaw M, et al. Targeted next-generation sequencing analysis of 1,000 individuals with intellectual disability. Hum Mutat. 2015;36:1197–204.
Vissers LELM, Gilissen C, Veltman JA. Genetic studies in intellectual disability and related disorders. Nat Rev Genet. 2016;17:9–18.
Vandeweyer G, Van Laer L, Loeys B, Van den Bulcke T, Kooy RF. VariantDB: a flexible annotation and filtering portal for next generation sequencing data. Genome Med. 2014;6:74.
Danis D, Jacobsen JOB, Carmody LC, Gargano MA, McMurry JA, Hegde A, et al. Interpretable prioritization of splice variants in diagnostic next-generation sequencing. Am J Hum Genet. 2021;108:1564–77.
Richards S, Aziz N, Bale S, Bick D, Das S, Gastier-Foster J, et al. Standards and guidelines for the interpretation of sequence variants: a joint consensus recommendation of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics and the Association for Molecular Pathology. Genet Med Off J Am Coll Med Genet. 2015;17:405–24.
Ware JS, Samocha KE, Homsy J, Daly MJ. Interpreting de novo variation in human disease using denovolyzeR. Curr Protoc Hum Genet. 2015;87:7.25.1–7.15.
Sobering AK, Bryant LM, Li D, McGaughran J, Maystadt I, Moortgat S, et al. Variants in PHF8 cause a spectrum of X-linked neurodevelopmental disorders and facial dysmorphology. Hum Genet Genom Adv. 2022;3:100102.
Kircher M, Witten DM, Jain P, O’Roak BJ, Cooper GM, Shendure J. A general framework for estimating the relative pathogenicity of human genetic variants. Nat Genet. 2014;46:310–5.
Samocha KE, Kosmicki JA, Karczewski KJ, O’Donnell-Luria AH, Pierce-Hoffman E, MacArthur DG, et al. Regional missense constraint improves variant deleteriousness prediction. bioRxiv: 148353 [Preprint]. 2017. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1101/148353
Jaganathan K, Kyriazopoulou Panagiotopoulou S, McRae JF, Darbandi SF, Knowles D, Li YI, et al. Predicting splicing from primary sequence with deep learning. Cell. 2019;176:535–48.e24.
Havrilla JM, Pedersen BS, Layer RM, Quinlan AR. A map of constrained coding regions in the human genome. Nat Genet. 2019;51:88–95.
Ferrini A, Steel D, Barwick K, Kurian MA. An update on the phenotype, genotype and neurobiology of ADCY5-related disease. Mov Disord. 2021;36:1104–14.
Kaur M, Blair J, Devkota B, Fortunato S, Clark D, Lawrence A, et al. Genomic analyses in Cornelia de Lange Syndrome and related diagnoses: novel candidate genes, genotype–phenotype correlations and common mechanisms. Am J Med Genet A. 2023;191:2113–31.
Jouret G, Heide S, Sorlin A, Faivre L, Chantot-Bastaraud S, Beneteau C, et al. Understanding the new BRD4-related syndrome: clinical and genomic delineation with an international cohort study. Clin Genet. 2022;102:117–22.
Sobreira N, Schiettecatte F, Valle D, Hamosh A. GeneMatcher: a matching tool for connecting investigators with an interest in the same gene. Hum Mutat. 2015;36:928–30.
Brandler WM, Antaki D, Gujral M, Kleiber ML, Whitney J, Maile MS, et al. Paternally inherited cis-regulatory structural variants are associated with autism. Science. 2018;360:327.
Wang T, Hoekzema K, Vecchio D, Wu H, Sulovari A, Coe BP, et al. Large-scale targeted sequencing identifies risk genes for neurodevelopmental disorders. Nat Commun. 2020;11:4932.
De Rubeis S, He X, Goldberg AP, Poultney CS, Samocha K, Cicek AE, et al. Synaptic, transcriptional, and chromatin genes disrupted in autism. Nature. 2014;515:209–15.
McRae JF, Clayton S, Fitzgerald TW, Kaplanis J, Prigmore E, Rajan D, et al. Prevalence and architecture of de novo mutations in developmental disorders. Nature. 2017;542:433–8.
Oliver KL, Scheffer IE, Bennett MF, Grinton BE, Bahlo M, Berkovic SF. Genes4Epilepsy: an epilepsy gene resource. Epilepsia. 2023;64:1368–75.
Francette AM, Tripplehorn SA, Arndt KM. The Paf1 complex: a keystone of nuclear regulation operating at the interface of transcription and chromatin. J Mol Biol. 2021;433:166979.
Nguyen CT, Langenbacher A, Hsieh M, Chen J-N. The PAF1 complex component Leo1 is essential for cardiac and neural crest development in zebrafish. Dev Biol. 2010;341:167–75.
Groza T, Gomez FL, Mashhadi HH, Muñoz-Fuentes V, Gunes O, Wilson R, et al. The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium: comprehensive knockout phenotyping underpinning the study of human disease. Nucleic Acids Res. 2023;51:D1038–D45.
Tiwari V, Kulikowicz T, Wilson DM, Bohr VA. LEO1 is a partner for Cockayne syndrome protein B (CSB) in response to transcription-blocking DNA damage. Nucleic Acids Res. 2021;49:6331–46.
Taha MS, Haghighi F, Stefanski A, Nakhaei-Rad S, Kazemein Jasemi NS, Al Kabbani MA, et al. Novel FMRP interaction networks linked to cellular stress. FEBS J. 2021;288:837–60.
Ji X, Jha A, Humenik J, Ghanem LR, Kromer A, Duncan-Lewis C, et al. RNA-binding proteins PCBP1 and PCBP2 are critical determinants of murine erythropoiesis. Mol Cell Biol. 2021;41:e0066820.
Mao X, Liu J, Chen C, Zhang W, Qian R, Chen X, et al. PCBP2 modulates neural apoptosis and astrocyte proliferation after spinal cord injury. Neurochem Res. 2016;41:2401–14.
Richards L, Das S, Nordman JT. Rif1-dependent control of replication timing. Genes. 2022;13:550.
Seaby EG, Smedley D, Taylor Tavares AL, Brittain H, van Jaarsveld RH, Baralle D, et al. A gene-to-patient approach uplifts novel disease gene discovery and identifies 18 putative novel disease genes. Genet Med. 2022;24:1697–707.
Küry S, van Woerden GM, Besnard T, Proietti Onori M, Latypova X, Towne MC, et al. De novo mutations in protein kinase genes CAMK2A and CAMK2B cause intellectual disability. Am J Hum Genet. 2017;101:768–88.
Liu X-B, Murray KD. Neuronal excitability and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase type II: location, location, location. Epilepsia. 2012;53:45–52.
Pantazopoulou VI, Georgiou S, Kakoulidis P, Giannakopoulou SN, Tseleni S, Stravopodis DJ, et al. From the Argonauts mythological sailors to the argonautes RNA-silencing navigators: their emerging roles in human-cell pathologies. Int J Mol Sci. 2020;21:4007.
Schalk A, Cousin MA, Dsouza NR, Challman TD, Wain KE, Powis Z, et al. De novo coding variants in the AGO1 gene cause a neurodevelopmental disorder with intellectual disability. J Med Genet. 2022;59:965–75.
Lessel D, Zeitler DM, Reijnders MRF, Kazantsev A, Hassani Nia F, Bartholomäus A, et al. Germline AGO2 mutations impair RNA interference and human neurological development. Nat Commun. 2020;11:5797.
Tokita MJ, Chow PM, Mirzaa G, Dikow N, Maas B, Isidor B, et al. Five children with deletions of 1p34.3 encompassing AGO1 and AGO3. Eur J Hum Genet. 2015;23:761–5.
Kehrer-Sawatzki H, Cooper DN. Classification of NF1 microdeletions and its importance for establishing genotype/phenotype correlations in patients with NF1 microdeletions. Hum Genet. 2021;140:1635–49.
Fielding AB, Schonteich E, Matheson J, Wilson G, Yu X, Hickson GRX, et al. Rab11-FIP3 and FIP4 interact with Arf6 and the exocyst to control membrane traffic in cytokinesis. EMBO J. 2005;24:3389–99.
Muto A, Arai K-I, Watanabe S. Rab11-FIP4 is predominantly expressed in neural tissues and involved in proliferation as well as in differentiation during zebrafish retinal development. Dev Biol. 2006;292:90–102.
Schiava M, Ikenaga C, Villar-Quiles RN, Caballero-Ávila M, Topf A, Nishino I, et al. Genotype–phenotype correlations in valosin-containing protein disease: a retrospective muticentre study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2022:jnnp-2022-328921 https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2022-328921.
Funding
NS received funding from UA-Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds (BOF)-DOCPRO4 (FFB180186). FM received funding from the H2020-Twinning SEED project. SW received funding from Fonds Wetenchappelijk Onderzoek (FWO: 1861419 N, 1861424 N, and G056122N). Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U01HG007709. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Consortia
Contributions
Conceptualization: NS, FM, RFK, SW; data curation: NS, FM, HN, JBH, LL, EE, SG, AS, LR, RF, CNM, AH, TS, RF, PS, KS, JAR, SRL, HS; formal analysis: NS, FM; supervision: RFK, SW; writing – original draft: NS, FM; writing – review & editing: NS, FM, KJ, ER, MECM, BC, HN, JBH, LL, EE, SG, AS, LR, RF, CNM, AH, TS, RF, PS, KS, YB, JAR, SRL, HS, RFK, SW.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
YB is an employee of GeneDx, LLC. The Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine receives revenue from clinical genetic testing completed at Baylor Genetics Laboratories. All other authors declare no conflict of interest.
Ethics approval and consent to participate
This study was conducted with approval from the Ethical Committee of the University of Antwerp. All institutions involved in human participant research received local IRB approval. All families or legal guardians of recruited participants provided informed consent for this study. Participant data were de-identified.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Smal, N., Majdoub, F., Janssens, K. et al. Burden re-analysis of neurodevelopmental disorder cohorts for prioritization of candidate genes. Eur J Hum Genet (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-024-01661-4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-024-01661-4