Nature Communications (Jan 2024)

Variants in the WDR44 WD40-repeat domain cause a spectrum of ciliopathy by impairing ciliogenesis initiation

  • Andrea Accogli,
  • Saurabh Shakya,
  • Taewoo Yang,
  • Christine Insinna,
  • Soo Yeon Kim,
  • David Bell,
  • Kirill R. Butov,
  • Mariasavina Severino,
  • Marcello Niceta,
  • Marcello Scala,
  • Hyun Sik Lee,
  • Taekyeong Yoo,
  • Jimmy Stauffer,
  • Huijie Zhao,
  • Chiara Fiorillo,
  • Marina Pedemonte,
  • Maria C. Diana,
  • Simona Baldassari,
  • Viktoria Zakharova,
  • Anna Shcherbina,
  • Yulia Rodina,
  • Christina Fagerberg,
  • Laura Sønderberg Roos,
  • Jolanta Wierzba,
  • Artur Dobosz,
  • Amanda Gerard,
  • Lorraine Potocki,
  • Jill A. Rosenfeld,
  • Seema R. Lalani,
  • Tiana M. Scott,
  • Daryl Scott,
  • Mahshid S. Azamian,
  • Raymond Louie,
  • Hannah W. Moore,
  • Neena L. Champaigne,
  • Grace Hollingsworth,
  • Annalaura Torella,
  • Vincenzo Nigro,
  • Rafal Ploski,
  • Vincenzo Salpietro,
  • Federico Zara,
  • Simone Pizzi,
  • Giovanni Chillemi,
  • Marzia Ognibene,
  • Erin Cooney,
  • Jenny Do,
  • Anders Linnemann,
  • Martin J. Larsen,
  • Suzanne Specht,
  • Kylie J. Walters,
  • Hee-Jung Choi,
  • Murim Choi,
  • Marco Tartaglia,
  • Phillippe Youkharibache,
  • Jong-Hee Chae,
  • Valeria Capra,
  • Sung-Gyoo Park,
  • Christopher J. Westlake

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44611-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 20

Abstract

Read online

Abstract WDR44 prevents ciliogenesis initiation by regulating RAB11-dependent vesicle trafficking. Here, we describe male patients with missense and nonsense variants within the WD40 repeats (WDR) of WDR44, an X-linked gene product, who display ciliopathy-related developmental phenotypes that we can model in zebrafish. The patient phenotypic spectrum includes developmental delay/intellectual disability, hypotonia, distinct craniofacial features and variable presence of brain, renal, cardiac and musculoskeletal abnormalities. We demonstrate that WDR44 variants associated with more severe disease impair ciliogenesis initiation and ciliary signaling. Because WDR44 negatively regulates ciliogenesis, it was surprising that pathogenic missense variants showed reduced abundance, which we link to misfolding of WDR autonomous repeats and degradation by the proteasome. We discover that disease severity correlates with increased RAB11 binding, which we propose drives ciliogenesis initiation dysregulation. Finally, we discover interdomain interactions between the WDR and NH2-terminal region that contains the RAB11 binding domain (RBD) and show patient variants disrupt this association. This study provides new insights into WDR44 WDR structure and characterizes a new syndrome that could result from impaired ciliogenesis.