Some pathogenic SETX variants are partially conserved during evolution

Variants in SETX have been implicated in recessively and dominantly inherited disorders, ataxia with oculomotor apraxia type 2 (AOA2 OMIM# 606002) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS4, OMIM# 602433) respectively, in humans. We report two novel bi-allelic pathogenic variants in SETX in patients suffering from ataxia with oculomotor apraxia type 2, extending the allelic spectrum of the gene variants. We also discuss the pathogenicity of SETX variants in relation to the evolutionary conservation status of the affected amino acids. Our analyses suggest that variants of some amino acids which are not fully conserved in evolution, may cause a disorder in humans, provided the particular pathogenic variant is absent in other orthologues.