Schizophrenia develops in one in every four individuals with a pathogenic 22q11.2 deletion, yet the genetic modifiers influencing the manifestation of schizophrenia in this high-risk group remain incompletely understood. Here, we identify rare tandem repeat expansions (TREs) as significant contributors to schizophrenia risk in this population. Genome sequencing of 438 unrelated individuals with 22q11.2 deletions revealed a marked enrichment of rare genic TREs among those with schizophrenia, with effect sizes comparable to common polygenic risk. These TREs are disproportionately located in intronic and splice-adjacent regions relative to other genomic regions, with evidence suggesting that they disrupt gene regulation through mechanisms including altered methylation and splicing. Cell-type-specific analyses indicate that TREs are primarily associated with differentially expressed genes in excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the prefrontal cortex. Affected genes, including DLGAP2 and DMPK, are involved in neurodevelopment and synaptic organization. These findings extend the role of TREs as genetic modifiers, providing new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying schizophrenia in this ultra-high-risk population and into the broader biology of idiopathic schizophrenia.
Cheng et al. (Wed,) studied this question.