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Williams-Beuren syndrome is a developmental multisystemic disorder caused by a recurrent 1.55-1.83 Mb heterozygous deletion on human chromosome band 7q11.23. Through chromosomal engineering with the cre-loxP system, we have generated mice with an almost complete deletion (CD) of the conserved syntenic region on chromosome 5G2. Heterozygous CD mice were viable, fertile and had a normal lifespan, while homozygotes were early embryonic lethal. Transcript levels of most deleted genes were reduced 50% in several tissues, consistent with gene dosage. Heterozygous mutant mice showed postnatal growth delay with reduced body weight and craniofacial abnormalities such as small mandible. The cardiovascular phenotype was only manifested with borderline hypertension, mildly increased arterial wall thickness and cardiac hypertrophy. The neurobehavioral phenotype revealed impairments in motor coordination, increased startle response to acoustic stimuli and hypersociability. Mutant mice showed a general reduction in brain weight. Cellular and histological abnormalities were present in the amygdala, cortex and hippocampus, including increased proportion of immature neurons. In summary, these mice recapitulate most crucial phenotypes of the human disorder, provide novel insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms of the disease such as the neural substrates of the behavioral manifestations, and will be valuable to evaluate novel therapeutic approaches., (© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) constitute a group of severe neurodevelopmental conditions with complex multifactorial etiology. In order to explore the hypothesis that submicroscopic genomic rearrangements underlie some ASD cases, we have analyzed 96 Spanish patients with idiopathic ASD after extensive clinical and laboratory screening, by array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) using a homemade bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) array. Only 13 of the 238 detected copy number alterations, ranging in size from 89 kb to 2.4 Mb, were present specifically in the autistic population (12 out of 96 individuals, 12.5%). Following validation by additional molecular techniques, we have characterized these novel candidate regions containing 24 different genes including alterations in two previously reported regions of chromosome 7 associated with the ASD phenotype. Some of the genes located in ASD-specific copy number variants act in common pathways, most notably the phosphatidylinositol signaling and the glutamatergic synapse, both known to be affected in several genetic syndromes related with autism and previously associated with ASD. Our work supports the idea that the functional alteration of genes in related neuronal networks is involved in the etiology of the ASD phenotype and confirms a significant diagnostic yield for aCGH, which should probably be included in the diagnostic workup of idiopathic ASD.

Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with multisystemic manifestations caused by heterozygosity for a partial deletion of chromosome band 7q11.23. The breakpoints cluster within regions located approximately 1 cM either side of the elastin (ELN) locus. We have characterized a duplicated region near the common deletion breakpoints, which includes a transcribed gene. The centromeric (C) and telomeric (T) copies are almost identical in the duplicated 3[prime] portions but diverge at their 5[prime]-ends. C-specific 4.3 kb mRNA and T-specific 5.4 kb mRNA are widely expressed in embryonic and adult tissues. The telomeric gene gives rise to several alternatively spliced forms and is deleted in all WBS individuals who have documented ELN deletions. Database searches revealed that this gene encodes BAP-135, a protein phosphorylated by Bruton's tyrosine kinase in B cells, as well as the multifunctional transcription factor TFII-I, hence the gene name GTF2I. The centromeric gene is not deleted in WBS and appears to be a partially truncated expressed pseudogene with no protein product (gene name GTF2IP1). Both loci map to different genomic clone contigs that also contain other deleted and non-deleted loci. A probe from the shared region recognizes a >3 Mb Not I junction fragment that is unique to individuals with the WBS deletion. Therefore, the duplicated region containing GTF2I and GTF2IP1 respectively is located close to the deletion breakpoints and may predispose to unequal meiotic recombination between chromosome 7 homologs and/or to intrachromosomal rearrangements. Hemizygosity for GTF2I may also contribute to the WBS phenotype.

Williams syndrome (WS) is a developmental disorder with a characteristic personality and cognitive profile that is associated, in most cases, with a 2 Mb deletion of part of chromosome band 7q11.23. By applying CpG island cloning methods to cosmids from the deletion region, we have identified a new gene, called FZD3. Dosage blotting of DNA from 11 WS probands confirmed that it is located within the commonly deleted region. Sequence comparisons revealed that FZD3, encoding a 591 amino acid protein, is a novel member of a seven transmembrane domain receptor family that are mammalian homologs of the Drosophila tissue polarity gene frizzled. FZD3 is expressed predominantly in brain, testis, eye, skeletal muscle and kidney. Recently, frizzled has been identified as the receptor for the wingless (wg) protein in Drosophila. We show that Drosophila as well as human cells, when transfected with FZD3 expression constructs, bind Wg protein. In mouse, the wg homologous Wnt1 gene is involved in early development of a large domain of the central nervous system encompassing much of the midbrain and rostral metencephalon. The potential function of FZD3 in transmitting a Wnt protein signal in the human brain and other tissues suggests that heterozygous deletion of the FZD3 gene could contribute to the WS phenotype.