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Cis-effects on gene expression in the human prenatal brain associated with genetic risk for neuropsychiatric disorders

Molecular Psychiatry volume 26, pages 2082–2088 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

The majority of common risk alleles identified for neuropsychiatric disorders reside in noncoding regions of the genome and are therefore likely to impact gene regulation. However, the genes that are primarily affected and the nature and developmental timing of these effects remain unclear. Given the hypothesized role for early neurodevelopmental processes in these conditions, we here define genetic predictors of gene expression in the human fetal brain with which we perform transcriptome-wide association studies (TWASs) of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia. We identify prenatal cis-regulatory effects on 63 genes and 166 individual transcripts associated with genetic risk for these conditions. We observe pleiotropic effects of expression predictors for a number of genes and transcripts, including those of decreased DDHD2 expression in association with risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, increased expression of a ST3GAL3 transcript with risk for schizophrenia and ADHD, and increased expression of an XPNPEP3 transcript with risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. For the protocadherin alpha cluster genes PCDHA7 and PCDHA8, we find that predictors of low expression are associated with risk for major depressive disorder while those of higher expression are associated with risk for schizophrenia. Our findings support a role for altered gene regulation in the prenatal brain in susceptibility to various neuropsychiatric disorders and prioritize potential risk genes for further neurobiological investigation.

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Fig. 1: TWAS Z-scores across all five tested neuropsychiatric disorders for predictors of cis-heritable gene expression that are significantly associated with at least two conditions (gene-level analysis).
Fig. 2: TWAS Z-scores across all five tested neuropsychiatric disorders for predictors of cis-heritable gene expression that are significantly associated with at least two conditions (transcript-level analysis).

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Data availability

The SNP weights for predictors of fetal brain gene- and transcript-level expression that were generated and analyzed in the current study are available in a Figshare repository (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.11637036). Individual RNA-Seq FASTQ files are available through the European Genome-phenome Archive (https://ega-archive.org) under study accession EGAS00001003214.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Medical Research Council (MRC) (U.K.) project grants to NJB (MR/L010674/1, MR/L010674/2 and MR/T002379/1) and an MRC Centre grant to MJO (MR/L010305/1). The human fetal material was provided by the Joint MRC/Wellcome Trust (grant #099175/Z/12/Z) Human Developmental Biology Resource (www.hdbr.org). We thank the research participants and employees of 23andMe for their contribution to the major depressive disorder GWAS data used in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics & Genomics, Division of Psychological Medicine & Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Lynsey S. Hall, Oliver Pain, Heath E. O’Brien, Richard Anney, James T. R. Walters, Michael J. Owen, Michael C. O’Donovan & Nicholas J. Bray

  2. Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK

    Oliver Pain

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Correspondence to Nicholas J. Bray.

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Hall, L.S., Pain, O., O’Brien, H.E. et al. Cis-effects on gene expression in the human prenatal brain associated with genetic risk for neuropsychiatric disorders. Mol Psychiatry 26, 2082–2088 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-0743-3

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