Sites of active gene regulation in the prenatal frontal cortex and their role in neuropsychiatric disorders

Kouakou, Manuela, Cameron, Darren, Hannon, Eilis, Dempster, Emma L., Mill, Jonathan, Hill, Matthew J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6776-8709 and Bray, Nicholas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4357-574X 2021. Sites of active gene regulation in the prenatal frontal cortex and their role in neuropsychiatric disorders. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics 186 (6) , pp. 376-388. 10.1002/ajmg.b.32877

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Abstract

Common genetic variation appears to largely influence risk for neuropsychiatric disorders through effects on gene regulation. It is therefore possible to shed light on the biology of these conditions by testing for enrichment of associated genetic variation within regulatory genomic regions operating in specific tissues or cell types. Here, we have used the assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing (ATAC-Seq) to map open chromatin (an index of active regulatory genomic regions) in bulk tissue, NeuN+ and NeuN− nuclei from the prenatal human frontal cortex, and tested enrichment of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) heritability for five neuropsychiatric disorders (autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia) within these regions. We observed significant enrichment of SNP heritability for ADHD, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia within open chromatin regions (OCRs) mapped in bulk fetal frontal cortex, and for all five tested neuropsychiatric conditions when we restricted these sites to those overlapping histone modifications indicative of enhancers (H3K4me1) or promoters (H3K4me3) in fetal brain. SNP heritability for neuropsychiatric disorders was significantly enriched in OCRs identified in fetal frontal cortex NeuN− as well as NeuN+ nuclei overlapping fetal brain H3K4me1 or H3K4me3 sites. We additionally demonstrate the utility of our mapped OCRs for prioritizing potentially functional SNPs at genome-wide significant risk loci for neuropsychiatric disorders. Our data provide evidence for an early neurodevelopmental component to a range of neuropsychiatric conditions and highlight an important role for regulatory genomic regions active within both NeuN+ and NeuN− cells of the prenatal brain.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics (CNGG)
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	1552-4841
Funders:	MRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 September 2021
Date of Acceptance:	21 September 2021
Last Modified:	02 May 2023 11:41
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/144559

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