Intellectual disability
Gene: RARS No listGreen List (high evidence)
Biallelic pathogenic RARS1 variants cause Leukodystrophy, hypomyelinating, 9 (# 616140).
The current review was based primarily on PMID: 31814314 (Mendes et al, 2019) providing details on 20 affected individuals from 15 families. 5 of these patients were included in a previous publication (Wolf et al, 2014 - PMID: 24777941) sharing authors with this study.
Clinical presentation and severity can be highly variable. However, among the 15 patients of relevant age (5/20 deceased at an early age), ID was observed in 13 (in 6/13 mild-moderate, in 7/13 severe/profound). Epilepsy was reported in half (10/20) with seizures being refractory to treatment in most and the phenotype corresponding to an infantile epileptic encephalopathy. DD and seizures were the presenting feature in 7 and 5 patients respectively, while in other cases presenting features were less specific (eg. failure to thrive in 1/20, irritabilty in 2/20). As a result the gene appears to be relevant to both DD/ID and epilepsy panels.
RARS1 encodes the cytoplasmic arginyl-tRNA synthetase 1, which is a component of the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase complex (OMIM and Wolf et al, 2014 - PMID: 24777941). Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases catalyze the aminoacylation ('charging') of tRNA by (with) their cognate amino acid.
Utilisation of alternative initiation codons, from a single mRNA transcript, results in translation of a long and a short protein isoform (Zheng et al 2006 - PMID: 16430231). The long isoform is needed for the formation of the multi-synthetase complex (MSC), while the short is free in the cytoplasm and does not have any interaction with the MSC. The long isoform appears to be essential for protein synthesis (discussed with several refs provided in PMID: 28905880 - Nafisinia et al, 2017).
The role of variants has been supported in several patients by additional studies - among others :
[PMID 31814314] Impaired Arginyl-tRNA synthetase activity was demonstrated in fibroblasts from 3 patients. Activity was normal in one additional individual compound heterozygous for a variant affecting initiation codon and a missense one. Western blot however demonstrated presence mainly of the short protein isoform. The authors suggest that this isoform possibly contributed to enzymatic activity. The long isoform which is needed for the MSC complex was only represented by a faint band in the Western Blot of the same individual.
[PMID: 28905880] Using fibroblasts from an affected subject homozygous for a missense variant (NM_002887.3:c.5A>G / p.Asp2Gly) and controls, a 75% reduction of the long isoform was shown upon WB. The short isoform was present at similar levels. As the N-terminus (of the long isoform) mediates interaction with the MSC (and AIMP1), assembly of the latter was 99% reduced in patient fibroblasts. Proliferation of patient fibroblasts was significantly reduced when cultured in a medium with limited arginine, a finding which was thought to reflect inefficient protein synthesis.
Mutations in other genes encoding for aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (eg. AARS1, VARS1) or scaffolding proteins of the multisynthetase complex (eg. AIMP1 and AIMP2) lead to neurodevelopmental disorders with overlapping phenotype [most genes rated green in both the ID and epilepsy panel].
Sources: LiteratureCreated: 15 Dec 2019, 9:15 p.m.
Mode of inheritance
BIALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal
Phenotypes
Cerebral hypomyelination; Global developmental delay; Intellectual disability; Seizures; Cerebral atrophy; Nystagmus; Ataxia; Feeding difficulties
Publications
gene: RARS was added gene: RARS was added to Intellectual disability. Sources: Literature Mode of inheritance for gene: RARS was set to BIALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal Publications for gene: RARS were set to 31814314; 28905880; 24777941 Phenotypes for gene: RARS were set to Cerebral hypomyelination; Global developmental delay; Intellectual disability; Seizures; Cerebral atrophy; Nystagmus; Ataxia; Feeding difficulties Penetrance for gene: RARS were set to Complete Review for gene: RARS 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.