Investigation of single-nucleotide variants in MBD5 associated with autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia phenotypes.

(Methyl-CpG-binding domain 5) is a critical gene for normal development. While deletion or duplication of may contribute to a genetic predisposition to autism spectrum disorders (ASD), intellectual disability, or epilepsy, the impact of rare single nucleotide variants (SNVs) on neurodevelopmental features, particularly features with late onset, has not been fully explored. In this study, we conducted exon-targeted resequencing of with next-generation sequencing technology in 562 Japanese patients (192 with idiopathic ASD and 370 with schizophrenia (SCZ)) and detected 16 SNVs with allele frequencies of ≤1%. We then performed phenotype analyses with 12 novel variants of these 16 SNVs. SCZ patients with these variants exhibited mainly within normal development ranges until the first psychosis and ASD patients with SNVs did not precisely overlap with the core characteristics described in previous literature as being associated with SNVs. Our results suggested that variants might contribute to a broad spectrum of neurodevelopmental pathophysiology. Further research and assessment of clinical diagnostic screening are necessary for understanding the burden of rare SNVs for these neurodevelopmental disorders.