Androgens mediate sexual dimorphism in Pilarowski-Bjornsson Syndrome.

medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences
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Abstract

Sex-specific penetrance in autosomal dominant Mendelian conditions is largely understudied. The neurodevelopmental disorder Pilarowski-Bjornsson syndrome (PILBOS) was initially described in females. Here, we describe the clinical and genetic characteristics of the largest PILBOS cohort to date, showing that both sexes can exhibit PILBOS features, although males are overrepresented. A mouse model carrying a human-derived missense variant ( ) displays female-restricted phenotypes, including growth deficiency, anxiety and hypotonia. Orchiectomy unmasks a growth deficiency phenotype in male mice, while testosterone rescues the phenotype in females, implicating androgens in phenotype modulation. In the gnomAD and UK Biobank databases, rare missense variants in are overrepresented in males, supporting a male protective effect. We identify 33 additional highly constrained autosomal genes with missense variant overrepresentation in males. Our results support androgen-regulated sexual dimorphism in PILBOS and open novel avenues to understand the mechanistic basis of sexual dimorphism in other autosomal Mendelian disorders.

Year of Publication
2025
Journal
medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences
Date Published
05/2025
DOI
10.1101/2025.05.06.25326635
PubMed ID
40385454
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