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ABSTRACT: Background
Genetic studies of schizophrenia have implicated numerous risk loci including several copy number variants (CNVs) of large effect and hundreds of loci of small effect. In only a few cases has a specific gene been clearly identified. Rare CNVs affecting a single gene offer a potential avenue to discovering schizophrenia risk genes.Methods
CNVs were generated from exome sequencing of 4913 schizophrenia cases and 6188 control subjects from Sweden. We integrated two CNV calling methods (XHMM and ExomeDepth) to expand our set of single-gene CNVs and leveraged two different approaches for validating these variants (quantitative polymerase chain reaction and NanoString).Results
We found a significant excess of all rare CNVs (deletions: p = .0004, duplications: p = .0006) and single-gene CNVs (deletions: p = .04, duplications: p = .03) in schizophrenia cases compared with control subjects. An expanded set of CNVs generated from integrating multiple approaches showed a significant burden of deletions in 11 of 21 gene sets previously implicated in schizophrenia and across all genes in those sets (p = .008), although no tests survived correction. We performed an extensive validation of all deletions in the significant set of voltage-gated calcium channels among CNVs called from both exome sequencing and genotyping arrays. In total, 4 exonic, single-gene deletions were validated in schizophrenia cases and none in control subjects (p = .039), of which all were identified by exome sequencing.Conclusions
These results point to the potential contribution of single-gene CNVs to schizophrenia, indicate that the utility of exome sequencing for CNV calling has yet to be maximized, and note that single-gene CNVs should be included in gene-focused studies using other classes of variation.
SUBMITTER: Szatkiewicz JP
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7103483 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Szatkiewicz Jin P JP Fromer Menachem M Nonneman Randal J RJ Ancalade NaEshia N Johnson Jessica S JS Stahl Eli A EA Rees Elliott E Bergen Sarah E SE Hultman Christina M CM Kirov George G O'Donovan Michael M Owen Michael M Holmans Peter P Sklar Pamela P Sullivan Patrick F PF Purcell Shaun M SM Crowley James J JJ Ruderfer Douglas M DM
Biological psychiatry 20191004 8
<h4>Background</h4>Genetic studies of schizophrenia have implicated numerous risk loci including several copy number variants (CNVs) of large effect and hundreds of loci of small effect. In only a few cases has a specific gene been clearly identified. Rare CNVs affecting a single gene offer a potential avenue to discovering schizophrenia risk genes.<h4>Methods</h4>CNVs were generated from exome sequencing of 4913 schizophrenia cases and 6188 control subjects from Sweden. We integrated two CNV ca ...[more]