RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Oligogenic effects of 16p11.2 copy number variation on craniofacial development JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 540732 DO 10.1101/540732 A1 Yuqi Qiu A1 Thomas Arbogast A1 Sandra Martin Lorenzo A1 Honying Li A1 Shih C. Tang A1 Ellen Richardson A1 Oanh Hong A1 Shawn Cho A1 Omar Shanta A1 Timothy Pang A1 Christina Corsello A1 Curtis K. Deutsch A1 Claire Chevalier A1 Erica E. Davis A1 Lilia M. Iakoucheva A1 Yann Herault A1 Nicholas Katsanis A1 Karen Messer A1 Jonathan Sebat YR 2019 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/02/05/540732.abstract AB A copy number variant (CNV) of 16p11.2, which encompasses 30 genes, is associated with developmental and psychiatric disorders, head size and body mass. The genetic mechanisms that underlie these associations are not understood. To elucidate the effects of genes on development, we exploited the quantitative effects of CNV on craniofacial structure in humans and model organisms. We show that reciprocal deletion and duplication of 16p11.2 have characteristic “mirror” effects on craniofacial features that are conserved in human, rat and mouse. By testing gene dosage effects on the shape of the mandible in zebrafish, we show that the distribution of effects for all individual genes is consistent with that of the CNV, and some combinations have non-additive effects. Our results suggest that, at minimum, one third of genes within the 16p11.2 region influence craniofacial development, and the facial gestalt of each CNV represents a product of 30 dosage effects.HighlightsReciprocal CNVs of 16p11.2 have mirror effects on craniofacial structure. Copy number is associated with a positive effect on nasal and mandibular regions and a negative effect on frontal regions of the face.Effects of CNV on craniofacial development in human are well conserved in rat and mouse models of 16p11.2 deletion and duplication.7/30 genes each independently have significant effects on the shape of the mandible in zebrafish; these include SPN, C16orf54, SEZ6L2, ASPHD1, TAOK2, INO80E and FAM57B. Others (MAPK3, MVP, KCTD13) have detectable effects only in combination.Overexpression of 30 genes individually showed a distribution of effects that was skewed in the same direction as that of the full duplication, suggesting that specific facial features represent the net of all individual effects combined.