The main familial focal epilepsies of childhood are autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy, familial temporal lobe epilepsy and familial focal epilepsy with variable foci. A frameshift mutation in the DEPDC5 (DEP domain containing protein 5) gene was identified in a family with focal epilepsy with variable foci, by linkage analysis and exome sequencing. Subsequent pyrosequencing of DEPDC5 in a cohort of 15 additional families with focal epilepsies revealed four nonsense and one missense mutations. Our findings provided evidence for frequent (37%) loss-of-function mutations in DEPDC5 associated with a broad spectrum of focal epilepsies. The implication of a DEP domain (Dishevelled, Egl-10 and Pleckstrin domain)-containing protein that may be involved in membrane trafficking and/or G-protein signaling, opens new avenues for research.

We have identified a novel gene in a genome-wide, double-strand break DNA repair RNAi screen and show that is involved in the neurological disease hereditary spastic paraplegia.