ClinVar

Description

The p.Q517* variant (also known as c.1549C>T), located in coding exon 16 of the PNKP gene, results from a C to T substitution at nucleotide position 1549. This changes the amino acid from a glutamine to a stop codon within coding exon 16. In a large Costa Rican family, this variant was homozygous in individuals with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease with axonal neuropathy and autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance; all the affected individuals were also homozygous for the p.A335V MED25 variant (Leal A et al. Neurogenetics, 2018 12;19:215-225). In five other Costa Rican families with CMT, this variant was compound heterozygous with another PNKP nonsense variant in affected individuals; these individuals were also heterozygous for the p.A335V MED25 variant, suggesting a common ancestral haploytpe. Premature stop codons are typically deleterious in nature; however, this stop codon occurs at the 3' terminus of PNKP, is not expected to trigger nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, and impacts only the last 5 amino acids of the protein. The exact functional impact of these removed amino acids is unknown at this time. Based on available evidence to date, the clinical significance of this alteration remains unclear.