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Identification of de novo Mutations in the Chinese Autism Spectrum Disorder Cohort via Whole-Exome Sequencing Unveils Brain Regions Implicated in Autism

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Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly heritable neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social interactions and repetitive behaviors. Although hundreds of ASD risk genes, implicated in synaptic formation and transcriptional regulation, have been identified through human genetic studies, the East Asian ASD cohorts are still under-represented in genome-wide genetic studies. Here, we applied whole-exome sequencing to 369 ASD trios including probands and unaffected parents of Chinese origin. Using a joint-calling analytical pipeline based on GATK toolkits, we identified numerous de novo mutations including 55 high-impact variants and 165 moderate-impact variants, as well as de novo copy number variations containing known ASD-related genes. Importantly, combined with single-cell sequencing data from the developing human brain, we found that the expression of genes with de novo mutations was specifically enriched in the pre-, post-central gyrus (PRC, PC) and banks of the superior temporal (BST) regions in the human brain. By further analyzing the brain imaging data with ASD and healthy controls, we found that the gray volume of the right BST in ASD patients was significantly decreased compared to healthy controls, suggesting the potential structural deficits associated with ASD. Finally, we found a decrease in the seed-based functional connectivity between BST/PC/PRC and sensory areas, the insula, as well as the frontal lobes in ASD patients. This work indicated that combinatorial analysis with genome-wide screening, single-cell sequencing, and brain imaging data reveal the brain regions contributing to the etiology of ASD.

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Data and Materials Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the lead contact on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the families for their participation in this study. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31625013, 81941015, 32000726, and 61973086), the Shanghai Brain-Intelligence Project from STCSM (16JC1420501), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDBS01060200), the Program of Shanghai Academic Research Leader, The Open Large Infrastructure Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project (2018SHZDZX01).

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  1. Bo Yuan, Mengdi Wang and Xinran Wu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Songjiang Research Institute, Songjiang Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 201600, China

    Zilong Qiu

  2. Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Peipei Cheng, Ran Zhang, Shunying Yu & Yasong Du

  3. Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Bo Yuan, Ran Zhang & Zilong Qiu

  4. Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Xiaoqun Wang

  5. Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Mengdi Wang

  6. Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Xinran Wu & Jie Zhang

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  1. Bo Yuan
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  2. Mengdi Wang
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Correspondence to Jie Zhang, Yasong Du, Xiaoqun Wang or Zilong Qiu.

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Yuan, B., Wang, M., Wu, X. et al. Identification of de novo Mutations in the Chinese Autism Spectrum Disorder Cohort via Whole-Exome Sequencing Unveils Brain Regions Implicated in Autism. Neurosci. Bull. 39, 1469–1480 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-023-01037-6

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