Publication Date
1-3-2024
Journal
Protein Cell
DOI
10.1093/procel/pwad034
PMID
37294900
PMCID
PMC10762670
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
6-9-2023
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Abstract
Here, we report a previously unrecognized syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder associated with biallelic loss-of-function variants in the RBM42 gene. The patient is a 2-year-old female with severe central nervous system (CNS) abnormalities, hypotonia, hearing loss, congenital heart defects, and dysmorphic facial features. Familial whole-exome sequencing (WES) reveals that the patient has two compound heterozygous variants, c.304C>T (p.R102*) and c.1312G>A (p.A438T), in the RBM42 gene which encodes an integral component of splicing complex in the RNA-binding motif protein family. The p.A438T variant is in the RRM domain which impairs RBM42 protein stability in vivo. Additionally, p.A438T disrupts the interaction of RBM42 with hnRNP K, which is the causative gene for Au-Kline syndrome with overlapping disease characteristics seen in the index patient. The human R102* or A438T mutant protein failed to fully rescue the growth defects of RBM42 ortholog knockout ΔFgRbp1 in Fusarium while it was rescued by the wild-type (WT) human RBM42. A mouse model carrying Rbm42 compound heterozygous variants, c.280C>T (p.Q94*) and c.1306_1308delinsACA (p.A436T), demonstrated gross fetal developmental defects and most of the double mutant animals died by E13.5. RNA-seq data confirmed that Rbm42 was involved in neurological and myocardial functions with an essential role in alternative splicing (AS). Overall, we present clinical, genetic, and functional data to demonstrate that defects in RBM42 constitute the underlying etiology of a new neurodevelopmental disease which links the dysregulation of global AS to abnormal embryonic development.
Keywords
Female, Animals, Mice, Humans, Child, Preschool, Intellectual Disability, Heart Defects, Congenital, Facies, Cleft Palate, Muscle Hypotonia, RBM42 gene, RNA-binding protein, neurodevelopmental disorder, Au-Kline syndrome, alternative splicing
Published Open-Access
yes
Recommended Citation
Chen, Yiyao; Yang, Bingxin; Zhang, Xiaoyu Merlin; et al., "Biallelic Variants in RBM42 Cause a Multisystem Disorder With Neurological, Facial, Cardiac, and Musculoskeletal Involvement" (2024). Faculty and Staff Publications. 5493.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/baylor_docs/5493