Article
Systematic Phenomics Analysis Deconvolutes Genes Mutated in Intellectual Disability into Biologically Coherent Modules

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.11.024Get rights and content
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Intellectual disability (ID) disorders are genetically and phenotypically extremely heterogeneous. Can this complexity be depicted in a comprehensive way as a means of facilitating the understanding of ID disorders and their underlying biology? We provide a curated database of 746 currently known genes, mutations in which cause ID (ID-associated genes [ID-AGs]), classified according to ID manifestation and associated clinical features. Using this integrated resource, we show that ID-AGs are substantially enriched with co-expression, protein-protein interactions, and specific biological functions. Systematic identification of highly enriched functional themes and phenotypes revealed typical phenotype combinations characterizing process-defined groups of ID disorders, such as chromatin-related disorders and deficiencies in DNA repair. Strikingly, phenotype classification efficiently breaks down ID-AGs into subsets with significantly elevated biological coherence and predictive power. Custom-made functional Drosophila datasets revealed further characteristic phenotypes among ID-AGs and specific clinical classes. Our study and resource provide systematic insights into the molecular and clinical landscape of ID disorders, represent a significant step toward overcoming current limitations in ID research, and prove the utility of systematic human and cross-species phenomics analyses in highly heterogeneous genetic disorders.

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These authors contributed equally to this work

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Present address: Department of Biochemistry, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora VIC 3086, Australia

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Present address: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON N6G 2M1, Canada