Genetic and functional studies of a missense variant in a glutamate transporter, SLC1A3, in Tourette syndrome

Document Type

Article

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Abnormalities in neurotransmission within the cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical circuitry are implicated in the pathogenesis of Tourette syndrome. Glutamate is a major excitatory neurotransmitter and an important member in the cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical circuitry. To explore the role of glutamatergic neurotransmission in genetic susceptibility of Tourette syndrome, we carried out the genetic and functional characterization of sequence variants in SLC1A3 gene, which encodes the main glutamate transporter in astrocytes in individuals with well-characterized Tourette syndrome (n=256) and normal controls (n=224). METHODS: Exon-containing regions of SLC1A3 gene were screened using capillary electrophoresis-single strand conformation polymorphism followed by direct sequencing. Sequence variants were genotyped by restriction enzyme digestion and studied using glutamate uptake assay and membrane protein pull-down for transporter function. RESULTS: A missense variant involving a highly conserved residue, E219D, was identified in 11 heterozygous individuals with Tourette syndrome and four in the controls. The allele frequency for E219D was 2.4 folds higher in the Tourette syndrome (0.022) compared with the control cohort (0.009) although the difference did not reach statistical significance in the current cohorts (P=0.09). A H-glutamate-uptake assay showed that E219D conveys a significant increase (1.66 fold) in the SLC1A3-mediated glutamate uptake in HEK293 cells. A biotin-mediated membrane pull-down analysis showed a similar increase (1.5 fold) of mutant SLC1A3 protein in the membrane fraction of transfected HEK293 cells compared with that in the wild type controls. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that E219D is a functional SLC1A3 variant that is presented in a small number of individuals with Tourette syndrome. Further studies on possible changes in glutamate transport in the pathogenesis of Tourette syndrome are warranted.

Medical Subject Headings

Alleles; Base Sequence; Behavior; Child; Child, Preschool; Conserved Sequence (genetics); DNA Mutational Analysis; Electrophoresis, Capillary; Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 1 (genetics); Gene Frequency (genetics); Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Glutamic Acid (metabolism); HEK293 Cells; Humans; Infant; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutation, Missense (genetics); Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; Subcellular Fractions (metabolism); Tourette Syndrome (genetics)

Publication Date

4-1-2011

Publication Title

Psychiatric genetics

E-ISSN

1473-5873

Volume

21

Issue

2

First Page

90

Last Page

7

PubMed ID

21233784

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1097/YPG.0b013e328341a307

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