Relevance to Autism

Four SNPs within PCDHA13 (rs1119032, rs17119271, rs155806, and rs17119346) showed significant association with autism in a family-based association study using 14 SNPs within the PCDHA gene cluster in 841 ASD families (574 of which were multiplex) obtained from the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE) (Anitha et al., 2012). Furthermore, a de novo deletion in the PCDHA gene cluster that was predicted to result in a frameshift was detected in a simplex ASD case (Iossifov et al., 2012), while a de novo missense variant that was predicted to be damaging was observed in an ASD proband from the Autism Sequencing Consortium (De Rubeis et al., 2014).

Molecular Function

This gene is a member of the protocadherin alpha gene cluster, one of three related gene clusters tandemly linked on chromosome five that demonstrate an unusual genomic organization similar to that of B-cell and T-cell receptor gene clusters. The alpha gene cluster is composed of 15 cadherin superfamily genes related to the mouse CNR genes and consists of 13 highly similar and 2 more distantly related coding sequences. The tandem array of 15 N-terminal exons, or variable exons, are followed by downstream C-terminal exons, or constant exons, which are shared by all genes in the cluster. The large, uninterrupted N-terminal exons each encode six cadherin ectodomains while the C-terminal exons encode the cytoplasmic domain. These neural cadherin-like cell adhesion proteins are integral plasma membrane proteins that most likely play a critical role in the establishment and function of specific cell-cell connections in the brain.

External Links

References