Pathogenic variants in <i>SMARCA5</i>, a chromatin remodeler, cause a range of syndromic neurodevelopmental features.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33980485.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.abf2066 and PMC identifier 8115915.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC.
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Abstract
Intellectual disability encompasses a wide spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders, with many linked genetic loci. However, the underlying molecular mechanism for more than 50% of the patients remains elusive. We describe pathogenic variants in <i>SMARCA5</i>, encoding the ATPase motor of the ISWI chromatin remodeler, as a cause of a previously unidentified neurodevelopmental disorder, identifying 12 individuals with de novo or dominantly segregating rare heterozygous variants. Accompanying phenotypes include mild developmental delay, frequent postnatal short stature and microcephaly, and recurrent dysmorphic features. Loss of function of the SMARCA5 <i>Drosophila</i> ortholog <i>Iswi</i> led to smaller body size, reduced sensory dendrite complexity, and tiling defects in larvae. In adult flies, Iswi neural knockdown caused decreased brain size, aberrant mushroom body morphology, and abnormal locomotor function. <i>Iswi</i> loss of function was rescued by wild-type but not mutant SMARCA5. Our results demonstrate that <i>SMARCA5</i> pathogenic variants cause a neurodevelopmental syndrome with mild facial dysmorphia.