Relevance to Autism

Recurrent mutations in the GRIN2B gene have been identified in multiple individuals with ASD as described below. Myers et al. (2011) found an excess of rare non-synonymous mutations in GRIN2B in both autism and schizophrenia cases (PMID 21383861). O'Roak et al., 2011 identified an ASD proband from a simplex family with a de novo splice-site variant in GRIN2B; three additional de novo loss-of-function variants in GRIN2B were identified in ASD probands from simplex families in two subsequent reports from O'Roak and colleagues in 2012 (PMIDs 22495309 and 23160955). Analysis of rare coding variation in 3,871 ASD cases and 9,937 ancestry-matched or paternal controls from the Autism Sequencing Consortium (ASC) in De Rubeis et al., 2014 identified GRIN2B as a gene meeting high statistical significance with a FDR 0.01, meaning that this gene had a 99% chance of being a true autism gene (PMID 25363760). This gene was identified in Iossifov et al. 2015 as a strong candidate to be an ASD risk gene based on a combination of de novo mutational evidence and the absence or very low frequency of mutations in controls (PMID 26401017). A two-stage analysis of rare de novo and inherited coding variants in 42,607 ASD cases, including 35,130 new cases from the SPARK cohort, in Zhou et al., 2022 identified GRIN2B as a gene reaching exome-wide significance (P < 2.5E-06). Platzer et al., 2017 evaluated 48 novel and 43 previously published individuals with de novo GRIN2B variants; 13 of the 48 novel individuals in this report were reported to have ASD as a phenotype (PMID 28377535). Yoo et al. (2012) showed association of GRIN2B markers in a Korean ASD cohort of 151 families (PMID 22326929); other studies have also found genetic association of the GRIN2B gene with schizophrenia (Ohtsuki et al., 2001) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (Arnold et al., 2004).

Molecular Function

NMDA receptor subtype of glutamate-gated ion channels with high calcium permeability and voltage-dependent sensitivity to magnesium.

External Links

References