Relevance to Autism

Several studies have found rare variants in the SYNGAP1 gene to be associated with autism as well as intellectual disability and epilepsy (PMIDs 19196676, 20531469, 21237447, 23020937). Multiple LoF variants (either predicted in silico or demonstrated experimentally) in SYNGAP1 have been identified in patients with ASD and intellectual disability with or without epilepsy (PMIDs 23020937, 23161826, 23708187, 26989088, 27525107, 28554332, 28708303). De novo LoF variants in SYNGAP1 has also been identified in a simplex ASD case from the Simons Simplex Collection (PMID 24267886) and in ASD probands from the Autism Sequencing Consortium (PMID 25363760). 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 SYNGAP1 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). Additional de novo LoF variants in SYNGAP1 were identified in an ASD proband from a cohort of 200 Canadian ASD trio families in PMID 27525107 and in an ASD proband from the Autism Clinical and Genetic Resources in China (ACGC) cohort in PMID 27824329. 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 SYNGAP1 as a gene reaching exome-wide significance (P < 2.5E-06).

Molecular Function

A major component of the postsynaptic density (PSD)associated with NMDA receptors

External Links

References

Model Summary

Knockdown of syngap1b causes delayed mid- and hindbrain development, disruptions in motor behaviors that manifest as unproductive swim attempts, and spontaneous, seizure-like behaviors indicating syngap1b plays novel roles in morphogenesis resulting in common brain and behavioral phenotypes.

References