Establishing intellectual disability as the key feature of patients with biallelic RNPC3 variants

Some mammalian genes contain both major and minor introns, the splicing of which require distinctive major and minor spliceosomes, respectively; these genes are referred to as minor intron containing-genes. RNPC3 (RNA-binding domain-containing protein 3) is one of the proteins that are unique to the minor spliceosome U11/U12 di-snRNP. Only two families with biallelic pathogenic variants in the RNPC3 gene encoding the protein have been reported so far, and the affected members in both families had proportional short stature. While the affected members of the originally identified family did not have intellectual disability, the patients from the other family exhibited intellectual disability. Here, we report on a patient with severe primordial microcephalic dwarfism and intellectual disability who carried compound heterozygous variants in RNPC3 (NM_017619.3): c.261dup, p.Leu88Thrfs*11 and c.1228T>G, p.Phe410Val. The single nucleotide substitution c.1228T>G had a very high predictive score for pathogenicity: the p.Phe410 residue is highly conserved down to fish. Based on ACMG (American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics) guideline, this non-synonymous variant was scored as likely pathogenic. This documentation of yet another patient with biallelic RNPC3 variants exhibiting intellectual disability lends further support to the notion that intellectual disability is a key feature of the spectrum of RNPC3-related disorders.