| Literature DB >> 27351196 |
Young Jae Woo1, Tao Wang2, Tulio Guadalupe3, Rebecca A Nebel1, Arianna Vino3, Victor A Del Bene4,5,6, Sophie Molholm4,5,6, Lars A Ross4,5,6, Marcel P Zwiers3, Simon E Fisher3,7, John J Foxe4,5,8,6, Brett S Abrahams1,6.
Abstract
Copy number variants (CNVs) at the Breakpoint 1 to Breakpoint 2 region at 15q11.2 (BP1-2) are associated with language-related difficulties and increased risk for developmental disorders in which language is compromised. Towards underlying mechanisms, we investigated relationships between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the region and quantitative measures of human brain structure obtained by magnetic resonance imaging of healthy subjects. We report an association between rs4778298, a common variant at CYFIP1, and inter-individual variation in surface area across the left supramarginal gyrus (lh.SMG), a cortical structure implicated in speech and language in independent discovery (n = 100) and validation cohorts (n = 2621). In silico analyses determined that this same variant, and others nearby, is also associated with differences in levels of CYFIP1 mRNA in human brain. One of these nearby polymorphisms is predicted to disrupt a consensus binding site for FOXP2, a transcription factor implicated in speech and language. Consistent with a model where FOXP2 regulates CYFIP1 levels and in turn influences lh.SMG surface area, analysis of publically available expression data identified a relationship between expression of FOXP2 and CYFIP1 mRNA in human brain. We propose that altered CYFIP1 dosage, through aberrant patterning of the lh.SMG, may contribute to language-related difficulties associated with BP1-2 CNVs. More generally, this approach may be useful in clarifying the contribution of individual genes at CNV risk loci.Entities:
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Year: 2016 PMID: 27351196 PMCID: PMC4924813 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158036
Source DB: PubMed Journal: PLoS One ISSN: 1932-6203 Impact factor: 3.240
Fig 1Common variant genotypes at 15q11.2 arssociated with differences in regional cortical volume, thickness, and surface area in a discovery cohort.
(A) Aggregate -log p-values for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are plotted against genomic position. P-values reflect the relationships between genotype in the discovery cohort and volume (left), surface area (middle), or thickness (right) across all regions of interest (ROIs). Significant associations (ppermutation corrected<0.05) appear above the horizontal red line. Linkage disequilibrium of top hits (diamonds) to typed variants is specified, and estimated recombination rates plotted (blue lines). r2 in the legend indicates the correlation between genotype at each tag-SNP (circles) and genotype at the top hit (diamond). (B) Top aggregate p-values and their SNP descriptions for each trait examined in the full cohort and the Caucasian subset are summarized.
Fig 2Individual regions of interest (ROIs) drive associations observed in the discovery cohort.
(A) Pairwise analyses of the top signal for each of volume, surface area, and thickness from the discovery cohort determined that aggregate effects were attributable to individual ROIs (and see S5 Table). Post-hoc permutation testing, accounting for all 52 tag-SNPs and ROIs examined, found a significant association between rs4778298 genotype and the surface area of the left supramarginal gyrus (lh.SMG) in Caucasian subjects (ppermutation corrected = 7.5x10-3). (B) Linear effects at the CC and lh.SMG were observed for rs12102024 and rs4778298, respectively, consistent with an effect of allele dosage. rh.ACC and CC correspond to right anterior cingulate cortex and corpus callosum, respectively.
Fig 3Linear association between common variant genotype at CYFIP1 and surface area across the left supramarginal gyrus (lh.SMG) in an independent cohort.
(A) An association between rs4778298 genotype and lh.SMG surface area was observed (pnominal = 3.2x10-2) in a large independent population (n = 1276 for rs12102024 and rs1051288; n = 2621 for rs4778298). Similar to what we observed in our discovery cohort, this effect became stronger on analysis of Caucasian subjects alone and survived correction for multiple comparisons (pnominal = 1.3x10-2; pbonferroni corrected = 4.9x10-2). (B) As in the discovery cohort, a linear relationship between genotype and lh.SMG surface area was observed. Notably, however, directionality was the reverse of what was seen previously. rh.ACC and CC correspond to right anterior cingulate cortex and corpus callosum, respectively.
Fig 4Evidence for genotype-dependent activation of CYFIP1 by FOXP2.
(A) rs4778298 (orange) associated with variation across the surface area of the left supramarginal gyrus is 2.2 kb upstream of CYFIP1. Seven linked variants (r2>0.9), and an expression probe specific for CYFIP1 (Affymetrix 3583676), are shown. (B) A significant positive association between levels of FOXP2 and CYFIP1 is seen in human brain (r2 = 0.36; p = 2.5x10-5). (C) rs66903469-T is predicted to bind FOXP2 with 11.8-fold greater affinity than the alternate C allele. MA0593.1 corresponds to the position weight matrix for FOXP2 defined in JASPAR. (D) rs66903469-T (r2 with rs4778298-C of 0.93), is strongly associated with increased levels of CYFIP1 (p = 2.9x10-5).