Intellectual disability - microarray and sequencing
Gene: DDX6 Green List (high evidence)Green List (high evidence)
DDX6 identified by Konstantinos Varvagiannis who reviewed PMID: 31422817. 5 unrelated individuals identified all with variants in DDX6, 4/5 has undergone trio WES and were identified using GeneMatcher. All variants identified in the same exon. Another helicase family member, DDX59, identified as involvement in ID, which is rated Green on this panel.
DDX6 is associated with ID and DD phenotype in Gene2Phenotype.
As sufficient unrelated cases with consistent phenotype of DD and ID classifying DDX6 as Green.Created: 3 Oct 2019, 1:31 p.m. | Last Modified: 3 Oct 2019, 1:31 p.m.
Panel Version: 2.1054
Mode of inheritance
MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, imprinted status unknown
Publications
Green List (high evidence)
Balak et al. (2019 - PMID: 31422817) report on 5 individuals with de novo likely pathogenic DDX6 variants.
Clinical details are provided for 4. Frequent features included hypotonia, DD, ID (4/4), gait instability, cardiac, genitourinary as well anomalies of the extremities.
DDX6 belongs to the DEAD box family of RNA helicases. This helicase is an essential component of processing bodies (P-bodies / PBs), which are mebrane-less organelles involved in storage of mRNAs and proteins related to mRNA decay thus playing an important role in translational repression/post-transcriptional regulation (PMID: 29381060).
All 5 variants had occurred as de novo events, clustered in exon 11 (NM_004397.5) and affected residues 372-373 of the QxxR motif (c.1115A>G or p.His372Arg / c.1118G>A or p.Arg373Gln) or 390-391 of the V motif (c.1168T>C or p.Cys390Arg / c.1171A>C or p.Thr391Pro / c.1172C>T or p.Thr391Ile). The specific motifs (and RecA-2 domain) are involved in RNA binding, helicase activity and protein-partner binding.
Fibroblasts from 2 individuals were studied. Patient cells contained fewer PBs compared to cells from relatives/control-subjects, despite similar amounts of DDX6 protein upon immunobloting. Additional studies suggested that DDX6 variants caused impaired binding of other DDX6 protein partners involved in PB formation / translation repression (eg. LSM14A, 4E-T, etc) thus resulting in defective PB assembly.
Transcriptome analysis in fibroblasts from one affected individual revealed (significant) differential expression of >1000 genes, enriched for genes related to protein translation, ribosome and RNA processing.
As the authors discuss, given the residual PB assembly, haploinsufficiency is favored over a dominant-negative effect which would result in complete suppression of PBs (as sugested by a previous study of a dominant-negative DDX6 variant - PMID cited: 19297524). [In gnomAD, DDX6 has a Z-score for missense variants of 3.78 and a pLI of 1].
DDX6 is not associated with any phenotype in OMIM.
In G2P it is associated with ID (disease confidence : probable / mutations : all missense/in frame).
As a result, this gene can be considered for inclusion in the ID panel as green (sufficient cases, relevant phenotype, functional studies) or amber.
Sources: LiteratureCreated: 25 Aug 2019, 7:45 p.m.
Mode of inheritance
MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, imprinted status unknown
Phenotypes
Generalized hypotonia; Global developmental delay; Intellectual disability; Unsteady gait; Abnormality of the cardiovascular system; Abnormality of the genitourinary system; Abnormality of limbs
Publications
Gene: ddx6 has been classified as Green List (High Evidence).
gene: DDX6 was added gene: DDX6 was added to Intellectual disability. Sources: Literature Mode of inheritance for gene: DDX6 was set to MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, imprinted status unknown Publications for gene: DDX6 were set to 31422817 Phenotypes for gene: DDX6 were set to Generalized hypotonia; Global developmental delay; Intellectual disability; Unsteady gait; Abnormality of the cardiovascular system; Abnormality of the genitourinary system; Abnormality of limbs Penetrance for gene: DDX6 were set to unknown Review for gene: DDX6 was set to GREEN
If promoting or demoting a gene, please provide comments to justify a decision to move it.
Genes included in a Genomics England gene panel for a rare disease category (green list) should fit the criteria A-E outlined below.
These guidelines were developed as a combination of the ClinGen DEFINITIVE evidence for a causal role of the gene in the disease(a), and the Developmental Disorder Genotype-Phenotype (DDG2P) CONFIRMED DD Gene evidence level(b) (please see the original references provided below for full details). These help provide a guideline for expert reviewers when assessing whether a gene should be on the green or the red list of a panel.
A. There are plausible disease-causing mutations(i) within, affecting or encompassing an interpretable functional region(ii) of this gene identified in multiple (>3) unrelated cases/families with the phenotype(iii).
OR
B. There are plausible disease-causing mutations(i) within, affecting or encompassing cis-regulatory elements convincingly affecting the expression of a single gene identified in multiple (>3) unrelated cases/families with the phenotype(iii).
OR
C. As definitions A or B but in 2 or 3 unrelated cases/families with the phenotype, with the addition of convincing bioinformatic or functional evidence of causation e.g. known inborn error of metabolism with mutation in orthologous gene which is known to have the relevant deficient enzymatic activity in other species; existence of an animal model which recapitulates the human phenotype.
AND
D. Evidence indicates that disease-causing mutations follow a Mendelian pattern of causation appropriate for reporting in a diagnostic setting(iv).
AND
E. No convincing evidence exists or has emerged that contradicts the role of the gene in the specified phenotype.
(i)Plausible disease-causing mutations: Recurrent de novo mutations convincingly affecting gene function. Rare, fully-penetrant mutations - relevant genotype never, or very rarely, seen in controls. (ii) Interpretable functional region: ORF in protein coding genes miRNA stem or loop. (iii) Phenotype: the rare disease category, as described in the eligibility statement. (iv) Intermediate penetrance genes should not be included.
It’s assumed that loss-of-function variants in this gene can cause the disease/phenotype unless an exception to this rule is known. We would like to collect information regarding exceptions. An example exception is the PCSK9 gene, where loss-of-function variants are not relevant for a hypercholesterolemia phenotype as they are associated with increased LDL-cholesterol uptake via LDLR (PMID: 25911073).
If a curated set of known-pathogenic variants is available for this gene-phenotype, please contact us at [email protected]
We classify loss-of-function variants as those with the following Sequence Ontology (SO) terms:
Term descriptions can be found on the PanelApp homepage and Ensembl.
If you are submitting this evaluation on behalf of a clinical laboratory please indicate whether you report variants in this gene as part of your current diagnostic practice by checking the box
Standardised terms were used to represent the gene-disease mode of inheritance, and were mapped to commonly used terms from the different sources. Below each of the terms is described, along with the equivalent commonly-used terms.
A variant on one allele of this gene can cause the disease, and imprinting has not been implicated.
A variant on the paternally-inherited allele of this gene can cause the disease, if the alternate allele is imprinted (function muted).
A variant on the maternally-inherited allele of this gene can cause the disease, if the alternate allele is imprinted (function muted).
A variant on one allele of this gene can cause the disease. This is the default used for autosomal dominant mode of inheritance where no knowledge of the imprinting status of the gene required to cause the disease is known. Mapped to the following commonly used terms from different sources: autosomal dominant, dominant, AD, DOMINANT.
A variant on both alleles of this gene is required to cause the disease. Mapped to the following commonly used terms from different sources: autosomal recessive, recessive, AR, RECESSIVE.
The disease can be caused by a variant on one or both alleles of this gene. Mapped to the following commonly used terms from different sources: autosomal recessive or autosomal dominant, recessive or dominant, AR/AD, AD/AR, DOMINANT/RECESSIVE, RECESSIVE/DOMINANT.
A variant on one allele of this gene can cause the disease, however a variant on both alleles of this gene can result in a more severe form of the disease/phenotype.
A variant in this gene can cause the disease in males as they have one X-chromosome allele, whereas a variant on both X-chromosome alleles is required to cause the disease in females. Mapped to the following commonly used term from different sources: X-linked recessive.
A variant in this gene can cause the disease in males as they have one X-chromosome allele. A variant on one allele of this gene may also cause the disease in females, though the disease/phenotype may be less severe and may have a later-onset than is seen in males. X-linked inactivation and mosaicism in different tissues complicate whether a female presents with the disease, and can change over their lifetime. This term is the default setting used for X-linked genes, where it is not known definitately whether females require a variant on each allele of this gene in order to be affected. Mapped to the following commonly used terms from different sources: X-linked dominant, x-linked, X-LINKED, X-linked.
The gene is in the mitochondrial genome and variants within this can cause this disease, maternally inherited. Mapped to the following commonly used term from different sources: Mitochondrial.
Mapped to the following commonly used terms from different sources: Unknown, NA, information not provided.
For example, if the mode of inheritance is digenic, please indicate this in the comments and which other gene is involved.