Multiple genes in cis mediate the effects of a single chromatin accessibility variant on aberrant synaptic development and function in human neurons

Despite hundreds of risk loci from genome-wide association studies of neuropsychiatric disorders, causal variants/genes remain largely unknown. Here, in NEUROG2 -induced human neurons, we identified 31 risk SNPs in 26 schizophrenia (SZ) risk loci that displayed allele-specific open chromatin (ASoC) and were likely to be functional. Editing the strongest ASoC SNP rs2027349 near vacuolar protein sorting 45 homolog ( VPS45 ) altered the expression of VPS45 , lncRNA AC244033.2 , and a distal gene, C1orf54 , in human neurons. Notably, the global gene expression changes in neurons were enriched for SZ risk and correlated with post-mortem brain gene expression signatures of neuropsychiatric disorders. Neurons carrying the risk allele exhibited increased dendritic complexity, synaptic puncta density, and hyperactivity, which were reversed by knocking-down distinct cis -regulated genes ( VPS45 , AC244033.2 , or C1orf54 ), suggesting a phenotypic contribution from all three genes. Interestingly, transcriptomic analysis of knockdown cells suggested a non-additive effects of these genes. Our study reveals a compound effect of multiple genes at a single SZ locus on synaptic development and function, providing a mechanistic link between a non-coding SZ risk variant and disease-related cellular phenotypes.