Background Despite the substantial heritability of the psychoses and their genuine public health burden, the applicability of the genomic approach in psychiatry has been strongly questioned or prematurely dismissed. Method A selective review of the recent literature on molecular genetic and genomic approaches to the psychoses including the early output from genome-wide association studies and the genomic analysis of DNA structural variation. Results Susceptibility variants at strong candidate genes have been identified including neuregulin, dysbindin, DISC1 and neurexin 1. Rare but highly penetrant copy number variants and new mutations affecting genes involved in neurodevelopment, cell signalling and synaptic function have been described showing some overlapping genetic architecture with other developmental disorders including autism. The de-novo mutations described offer an explanation for the familial sporadic divide and the persistence of schizophrenia in the population. The functional effects of risk variants at the level of cognition and connectivity has been described and recently, ZNF804A has been identified, and the MHC re-identified as risk loci, and it has been shown that at least a third of the variation in liability is due to multiple common risk variants of small effect with a substantial shared genetic liability between schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder. Conclusions The genomics have done much for the psychoses to date and more is anticipated.
What have the genomics ever done for the psychoses?
Michael Gill,G. Donohoe,A. Corvin
Published 2009 in Psychological Medicine
ABSTRACT
PUBLICATION RECORD
- Publication year
2009
- Venue
Psychological Medicine
- Publication date
2009-10-12
- Fields of study
Biology, Medicine, Psychology
- Identifiers
- External record
- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
CITATION MAP
EXTRACTION MAP
CLAIMS
CONCEPTS
- autism
A neurodevelopmental disorder used here as an overlapping condition in genetic architecture.
Aliases: autism spectrum disorder, ASD
- bipolar affective disorder
A mood disorder compared with schizophrenia for shared genetic liability.
Aliases: bipolar disorder
- common risk variants
Frequent alleles with small individual effects that contribute to disease liability in aggregate.
- disc1
A gene involved in neurodevelopment and neuronal signaling that is considered in psychosis genetics.
Aliases: disrupted in schizophrenia 1
- dna structural variation
Genomic alterations in chromosome structure, including copy number changes and related mutation classes.
Aliases: structural variation, genomic structural variation
- dysbindin
A synaptic and intracellular trafficking gene examined as a psychosis candidate gene.
Aliases: DTNBP1
- genome-wide association studies
Genome-scale association analyses that test common variants across the genome.
Aliases: GWAS
- major histocompatibility complex
An immune-related genomic region on chromosome 6 that contains many immune genes.
Aliases: MHC
- neuregulin
A neurodevelopmental signaling gene discussed as a candidate psychosis susceptibility locus.
Aliases: NRG1
- schizophrenia
A psychotic disorder discussed as a major target phenotype.
- znf804a
A zinc-finger protein gene implicated as a psychosis risk locus.
REFERENCES
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