Brain-expressed exons under purifying selection are enriched for de novo mutations in autism spectrum disorder

Mohammed Uddin, Kristiina Tammimies, Giovanna Pellecchia, Babak Alipanahi, Pingzhao Hu, Zhuozhi Wang, Dalila Pinto, Lynette Lau, Thomas Nalpathamkalam, Christian R. Marshall, Benjamin J. Blencowe, Brendan J. Frey, Daniele Merico, Ryan K.C. Yuen, Stephen W. Scherer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

131 Scopus citations

Abstract

A universal challenge in genetic studies of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is determining whether a given DNA sequence alteration will manifest as disease. Among different population controls, we observed, for specific exons, an inverse correlation between exon expression level in brain and burden of rare missense mutations. For genes that harbor de novo mutations predicted to be deleterious, we found that specific critical exons were significantly enriched in individuals with ASD relative to their siblings without ASD (P < 1.13 × 10-38; odds ratio (OR) = 2.40). Furthermore, our analysis of genes with high exonic expression in brain and low burden of rare mutations demonstrated enrichment for known ASD-associated genes (P < 3.40 × 10-11; OR = 6.08) and ASD-relevant fragile-X protein targets (P < 2.91 × 10-157; OR = 9.52). Our results suggest that brain-expressed exons under purifying selection should be prioritized in genotype-phenotype studies for ASD and related neurodevelopmental conditions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)742-747
Number of pages6
JournalNature Genetics
Volume46
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2014

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