ABSTRACT
Williams-Beuren syndrome is a rare multisystem neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a 1.55-1.84-Mb hemizygous deletion on chromosome 7q11.23. The classical phenotype consists of characteristic facial features, supravalvular aortic stenosis, intellectual disability, overfriendliness, and visuospatial impairment. So far, 26-28 genes have been shown to contribute to the multisystem phenotype associated with Williams-Beuren syndrome. Among them, haploinsufficiency of the ELN gene has been shown to cause the cardiovascular anomalies. Identification of patients with atypical deletions has provided valuable information for genotype-phenotype correlation, in which other genes such as LIMK1,CLIP2, GTF2IRD1, or GTF2I have been correlated with specific cognitive profiles or craniofacial features. Here, we report the clinical and molecular characteristics of a patient with an atypical deletion that does not include the GTF2I gene and only partially includes the GTF2IRD1 gene.
ABSTRACT
Kabuki syndrome (also known as Niikawa-Kuroki syndrome) is a rare autosomal disorder, characterized by an unusual face, short stature, skeletal, visceral and dermatoglyphic abnormalities, cardiac anomalies, mental retardation, and immunological defects. Point mutations and large intragenic deletions and duplications of the mixed lineage leukemia 2 (MLL2) and exons deletions of lysine demethylase 6A (-KDM6A) genes have been identified as its underlying causes. We report on the first description of a Moroccan Kabuki syndrome patient with typical facial features, developmental delay, finger pads, and other anomalies carrying a novel splice site mutation in the MLL2 gene that produces a truncated and likely pathogenetic form of MLL2 protein.
ABSTRACT
Recently, pathogenic variants in the MLL2 gene were identified as the most common cause of Kabuki (Niikawa-Kuroki) syndrome (MIM#147920). To further elucidate the genotype-phenotype correlation, we studied a large cohort of 86 clinically defined patients with Kabuki syndrome (KS) for mutations in MLL2. All patients were assessed using a standardized phenotype list and all were scored using a newly developed clinical score list for KS (MLL2-Kabuki score 0-10). Sequencing of the full coding region and intron-exon boundaries of MLL2 identified a total of 45 likely pathogenic mutations (52%): 31 nonsense, 10 missense and four splice-site mutations, 34 of which were novel. In five additional patients, novel, i.e. non-dbSNP132 variants of clinically unknown relevance, were identified. Patients with likely pathogenic nonsense or missense MLL2 mutations were usually more severely affected (median 'MLL2-Kabuki score' of 6) as compared to the patients without MLL2 mutations (median 'MLL2-Kabuki score' of 5), a significant difference (p < 0.0014). Several typical facial features such as large dysplastic ears, arched eyebrows with sparse lateral third, blue sclerae, a flat nasal tip with a broad nasal root, and a thin upper and a full lower lip were observed more often in mutation positive patients.
