SMAD6 variants in craniosynostosis: genotype and phenotype evaluation.
Calpena E., Cuellar A., Bala K., Swagemakers SMA., Koelling N., McGowan SJ., Phipps JM., Balasubramanian M., Cunningham ML., Douzgou S., Lattanzi W., Morton JEV., Shears D., Weber A., Wilson LC., Lord H., Lester T., Johnson D., Wall SA., Twigg SRF., Mathijssen IMJ., Boardman-Pretty F., Genomics England Research Consortium None., Boyadjiev SA., Wilkie AOM.
PURPOSE: Enrichment of heterozygous missense and truncating SMAD6 variants was previously reported in nonsyndromic sagittal and metopic synostosis, and interaction of SMAD6 variants with a common polymorphism nearBMP2 (rs1884302) was proposed to contribute to inconsistent penetrance. We determined the occurrence of SMAD6 variants in all types of craniosynostosis, evaluated the impact of different missense variants on SMAD6 function, and tested independently whether rs1884302 genotype significantly modifies the phenotype. METHODS: We performed resequencing of SMAD6 in 795 unsolved patients with any type of craniosynostosis and genotyped rs1884302 in SMAD6-positive individuals and relatives. We examined the inhibitory activity and stability of SMAD6 missense variants. RESULTS: We found 18 (2.3%) different rare damaging SMAD6 variants, with the highest prevalence in metopic synostosis (5.8%) and an 18.3-fold enrichment of loss-of-function variants comparedwith gnomAD data (P