A clinical and genotype-phenotype analysis of MACF1 variants.

Fiche publication

Date publication

septembre 2025

Journal

American journal of human genetics

Auteurs

Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Dr NAMBOT Sophie

Tous les auteurs :
Dekker J, Schot R, Aldinger KA, Everman DB, Washington C, Jones JR, Sullivan JA, Spillmann RC, Shashi V, Vitobello A, Denommé-Pichon AS, Mosca-Boidron AL, Perrin L, Auvin S, Zaki MS, Gleeson JG, Meave N, Wallace C, Nambot S, Delanne J, Ruggiero SM, Helbig I, Fitzgerald MP, Leventer RJ, Grange DK, Argilli E, Sherr EH, Prakash S, Neilson DE, Nicita F, Sferra A, Bertini ES, Aiello C, Brockmann K, Kuranov AB, Kaulfuss S, Basit S, Alluqmani M, Almatrafi A, Friedman JM, Guimond C, Mohammed F, Sharma P, Goel D, Wirth T, Anheim M, Bahena P, Koparir A, Kolokotronis K, Vona B, Haaf T, Kunstmann E, Maroofian R, Sczakiel HL, Boschann F, Misra-Isrie M, Louie RJ, Stolerman ES, Sanchez-Lara PA, Mergler S, Oegema R, Zarate YA, Kariminejad A, Tajsharghi H, Zeidler S, Kievit AJA, Bouman A, Cappuccio G, Brunetti-Pierri N, Stuurman KE, Swols DM, Tekin M, Upadia J, Martin DM, Craven D, Hiatt SM, van de Pol LA, D'Arco F, Margot H, Wilke M, Yousefi S, Barakat TS, van Veghel-Plandsoen MM, Aronica E, Anink J, Rogers SL, Slep KC, Doherty D, Dobyns WB, Mancini GMS

Lien Pubmed

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/40925378

Résumé

Microtubule-actin cross-linking factor 1 (MACF1) is a large protein of the spectraplakin family, which is essential for brain development. MACF1 interacts with microtubules through the growth arrest-specific 2 (Gas2)-related (GAR) domain. Heterozygous MACF1 missense variants affecting the zinc-binding residues in this domain result in a distinctive cortical and brain stem malformation. Evidence for other MACF1-associated disorders is still limited. Here, we present a cohort of 45 individuals with heterozygous or bi-allelic MACF1 variants to explore the phenotypic spectrum and assess possible pathogenic relevance. We observe that de novo heterozygous missense variants in the EF-hand domains also result in distinctive brain malformation and provide experimental evidence that variants in the EF-hand/GAR module increase microtubule binding, suggestive of a toxic gain of function. Notably, no phenotype-genotype correlation was possible for the remaining heterozygous variants in other domains. A clinical review of eight families with bi-allelic variants reveals a possible complex neurodevelopmental syndrome of the central and peripheral nervous systems. In these individuals, bi-allelic variants mostly affect the Plakin domain. Furthermore, RNA sequencing and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analyses of human fetal brain tissue reveal five MACF1 isoforms with region-specific expression, differing in their exon 1 transcription start sites but splicing to a common exon 2. This differential expression explains the frontal-predominant lissencephaly in an individual with a homozygous stop-gain in exon 1 (MACF1-204: c.70C>T [p.Arg24∗]), as this isoform is preferentially expressed in the frontal cortex. We conclude that MACF1-related disorders are strictly linked to domain function and the level of transcript expression, explaining the observed wide clinical heterogeneity.