Recent Advances in the Genetics of Schizophrenia

Abstract

The last decade brought tremendous progress in the field of schizophrenia genetics. As a result of extensive collaborations and multiple technological advances, we now recognize many types of genetic variants that increase the risk. These include large copy number variants, rare coding inherited and de novο variants, and over 100 loci harboring common risk variants. While the type and contribution to the risk vary among genetic variants, there is concordance in the functions of genes they implicate, such as those whose RNA binds the fragile X-related protein FMRP and members of the activity-regulated cytoskeletal complex involved in learning and memory. Gene expression studies add important information on the biology of the disease and recapitulate the same functional gene groups. Studies of alternative phenotypes help us widen our understanding of the genetic architecture of mental function and dysfunction, how diseases overlap not only with each other but also with non-disease phenotypes. The challenge is to apply this new knowledge to prevention and treatment and help patients. The data generated so far and emerging technologies, including new methods in cell engineering, offer significant promise that in the next decade we will unlock the translational potential of these significant discoveries.

Keywords: Copy number variation; Endophenotypes; Gene editing; Gene expression; Genetic variation; Genome-wide association studies; Psychosis; Transcriptome; de novo mutations.

Fig. 1.

Concordance rates for varying degrees of relatedness. MZ, monozygotic; DZ, dizygotic; SZ, schizophrenic; G-parent, grandparent.