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Insights on the functional impact of microRNAs present in autism-associated copy number variants.

ABSTRACT: Autism spectrum disorder is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that appears during the first three years of infancy and lasts throughout a person's life. Recently a large category of genomic structural variants, denoted as copy number variants (CNVs), were established to be a major contributor of the pathophysiology of autism. To date almost all studies have focussed only on the genes present in the CNV loci, but the impact of non-coding regulatory microRNAs (miRNAs) present in these regions remain largely unexplored. Hence we attempted to elucidate the biological and functional significance of miRNAs present in autism-associated CNV loci and their target genes by using a series of computational tools. We demonstrate that nearly 11% of the CNV loci harbor miRNAs and a few of these miRNAs were previously reported to be associated with autism. A systematic analysis of the CNV-miRNAs based on their interactions with the target genes enabled the identification of top 10 miRNAs namely hsa-miR-590-3p, hsa-miR-944, hsa-miR-570, hsa-miR-34a, hsa-miR-124, hsa-miR-548f, hsa-miR-429, hsa-miR-200b, hsa-miR-195 and hsa-miR-497 as hub molecules. Further, the CNV-miRNAs formed a regulatory loop with transcription factors and their downstream target genes, and annotation of these target genes indicated their functional involvement in neurodevelopment and synapse. Moreover, miRNAs present in deleted and duplicated CNV loci may explain the difference in dosage of the crucial genes controlled by them. These CNV-miRNAs can also impair the global processing and biogenesis of all miRNAs by targeting key molecules in the miRNA pathway. To our knowledge, this is the first report to highlight the significance of CNV-microRNAs and their target genes to contribute towards the genetic heterogeneity and phenotypic variability of autism.

SUBMITTER: Vaishnavi V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3581547 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Insights on the functional impact of microRNAs present in autism-associated copy number variants.

Vaishnavi Varadarajan V Manikandan Mayakannan M Tiwary Basant K BK Munirajan Arasambattu Kannan AK

PloS one 20130225 2

Autism spectrum disorder is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that appears during the first three years of infancy and lasts throughout a person's life. Recently a large category of genomic structural variants, denoted as copy number variants (CNVs), were established to be a major contributor of the pathophysiology of autism. To date almost all studies have focussed only on the genes present in the CNV loci, but the impact of non-coding regulatory microRNAs (miRNAs) present in these regions ...[more]

PMID: 23451085

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Project description:BackgroundAutism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia have been associated with an overlapping set of copy number variant loci, but the nature and degree of overlap in copy number variants (deletions compared to duplications) between these two disorders remains unclear.MethodsWe systematically evaluated three lines of evidence: (1) the statistical bases for associations of autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia with a set of the primary CNVs thus far investigated, from previous studies; (2) data from case series studies on the occurrence of these CNVs in autism spectrum disorders, especially among children, and (3) data on the extent to which the CNVs were associated with intellectual disability and developmental, speech, or language delays. We also conducted new analyses of existing data on these CNVs in autism by pooling data from seven case control studies.ResultsFour of the CNVs considered, dup 1q21.1, dup 15q11-q13, del 16p11.2, and dup 22q11.21, showed clear statistical evidence as autism risk factors, whereas eight CNVs, del 1q21.1, del 3q29, del 15q11.2, del 15q13.3, dup 16p11.2, dup 16p13.1, del 17p12, and del 22q11.21, were strongly statistically supported as risk factors for schizophrenia. Three of the CNVs, dup 1q21.1, dup 16p11.2, and dup 16p13.1, exhibited statistical support as risk factors for both autism and schizophrenia, although for each of these CNVs statistical significance was nominal for tests involving one of the two disorders. For the CNVs that were statistically associated with schizophrenia but were not statistically associated with autism, a notable number of children with the CNVs have been diagnosed with autism or ASD; children with these CNVs also demonstrate a high incidence of intellectual disability and developmental, speech, or language delays.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that although CNV loci notably overlap between autism and schizophrenia, the degree of strongly statistically supported overlap in specific CNVs at these loci remains limited. These analyses also suggest that relatively severe premorbidity to CNV-associated schizophrenia in children may sometimes be diagnosed as autism spectrum disorder.

Project description:Endometriosis is a complex gynecological condition that affects 6-10% of women in their reproductive years and is defined by the presence of endometrial glands and stroma outside the uterus. Twin, family, and genome-wide association (GWA) studies have confirmed a genetic role, yet only a small part of the genetic risk can be explained by SNP variation. Copy number variants (CNVs) account for a greater portion of human genetic variation than SNPs and include more recent mutations of large effect. CNVs, likely to be prominent in conditions with decreased reproductive fitness, have not previously been examined as a genetic contributor to endometriosis. Here we employ a high-density genotyping microarray in a genome-wide survey of CNVs in a case-control population that includes 2,126 surgically confirmed endometriosis cases and 17,974 population controls of European ancestry. We apply stringent quality filters to reduce the false positive rate common to many CNV-detection algorithms from 77.7% to 7.3% without noticeable reduction in the true positive rate. We detected no differences in the CNV landscape between cases and controls on the global level which showed an average of 1.92 CNVs per individual with an average size of 142.3 kb. On the local level we identify 22 CNV-regions at the nominal significance threshold (P<0.05), which is greater than the 8.15 CNV-regions expected based on permutation analysis (P<0.001). Three CNV's passed a genome-wide P-value threshold of 9.3 × 10(-4); a deletion at SGCZ on 8p22 (P = 7.3 × 10(-4), OR = 8.5, Cl = 2.3-31.7), a deletion in MALRD1 on 10p12.31 (P = 5.6 × 10(-4), OR = 14.1, Cl = 2.7-90.9), and a deletion at 11q14.1 (P = 5.7 × 10(-4), OR = 33.8, Cl = 3.3-1651). Two SNPs within the 22 CNVRs show significant genotypic association with endometriosis after adjusting for multiple testing; rs758316 in DPP6 on 7q36.2 (P = 0.0045) and rs4837864 in ASTN2 on 9q33.1 (P = 0.0002). Together, the CNV-loci are detected in 6.9% of affected women compared to 2.1% in the general population.

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Insights on the functional impact of microRNAs present in autism-associated copy number variants.

Publications

Insights on the functional impact of microRNAs present in autism-associated copy number variants.

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