Early onset or syndromic epilepsy

Gene: FAM50A

Comment on list classification: New gene added by Konstantinos Varvagiannis. Rating Amber based on the evidence provided in one publication (PMID:32703943) reporting seizures in 3/6 individuals from 2 families with variants in this gene.

Created: 19 Nov 2020, 2:35 p.m. | Last Modified: 19 Nov 2020, 2:35 p.m.

Panel Version: 2.219

I don't know

Lee et al (2020 - PMID: 32703943) provide evidence that Armfield X-Linked intellectual disability syndrome is caused by monoallelic FAM50A pathogenic variants. The current review is based only on this reference.

The authors provide clinical details on 6 affected individuals from 5 families.

Features included postnatal growth delay, DD and ID (6/6 - also evident for those without formal IQ assesment), seizures (3/6 from 2 families), prominent forehead with presence of other facial features and variable head circumference (5th to >97th %le), ocular anomalies (5/6 - strabismus/nystagmus/Axenfeld-Rieger), cardiac (3/6 - ASD/Fallot) and genitourinary anomalies (3/6).

In the first of these families (Armfield et al 1999 - PMID: 10398235), linkage analysis followed by additional studies (Sanger, NGS of 718 genes on chrX, X-exome NGS - several refs provided) allowed the identification of a FAM50A variant. Variants in other families were identified by singleton (1 fam) or trio-ES (3 fam).

In affected individuals from 3 families, the variant had occurred de novo. Carrier females in the other families were unaffected (based on pedigrees and/or the original publication). XCI was rather biased in most obligate carrier females from the 1st family (although this ranged from 95:5 to 60:40).

Missense variants were reported in all affected subjects incl. Trp206Gly, Asp255Gly, Asp255Asn (dn), Glu254Gly (dn), Arg273Trp (dn) (NM_004699.3).

Previous studies have demonstrated that FAM50A has ubiquitous expression in human fetal and adult tissues (incl. brain in fetal ones).

Immunostaining suggests a nuclear localization for the protein (NIH/3T3 cells). Comparison of protein levels in LCLs from affected males and controls did not demonstrate significant differences. Protein localization for 3 variants (transfection of COS-7 cells) was shown to be similar to wt.

Complementation studies in zebrafish provided evidence that the identified variants confer partial loss of function (rescue of the morpholino phenotype with co-injection of wt but not mt mRNA). The zebrafish ko model seemed to recapitulate the abnormal development of cephalic structures and was indicative of diminished/defective neurogenesis. Transcriptional dysregulation was demonstrated in zebrafish (altered levels and mis-splicing). Upregulation of spliceosome effectors was demonstrated in ko zebrafish.

Similarly, mRNA expression and splicing defects were demonstrated in LCLs from affected individuals. FAM50A pulldown followed by mass spectrometry in transfected HEK293T cells demonstrated enrichment of binding proteins involved in RNA processing and co-immunoprecipitation assays (transfected U-87 cells) suggested that FAM50A interacts with spliceosome U5 and C-complex proteins.

Overall aberrant spliceosome C-complex function is suggested as the underlying pathogenetic mechanism.

Several other neurodevelopmental syndromes are caused by variants in genes encoding C-complex affiliated proteins (incl. EFTUD2, EIF4A3, THOC2, etc.).

Please consider inclusion in the ID panel with green rating and epilepsy panel with amber (seizures in individuals from 2 families).
Sources: Literature

Created: 8 Aug 2020, 11:27 a.m.

Mode of inheritance
X-LINKED: hemizygous mutation in males, monoallelic mutations in females may cause disease (may be less severe, later onset than males)

Phenotypes
Mental retardation syndrome, X-linked, Armfield type (MIM #300261)

Publications

• 32703943