PCM1 - Clinical Significance

Clinical Significance

Mutations in the PCM1 gene have been shown to cause genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia. If an isoleucine amino acid change in PCM1 is inherited the risk of developing schizophrenia was found to be 68% in two independent samples from south England and Scotland. This means that it may now be possible to offer very limited genetic counselling to a small proportion of people with schizophrenia who are also carriers of this mutation.

PCM1 forms a complex at the centrosome with disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) and Bardet-Biedl syndrome 4 protein (BBS4), which provides a link between aberrant PCM1 and the abnormal cortical development associated with the pathology of schizophrenia.