ArticleNature genetics2026
Somatic mosaicism in ALS and FTD identifies focal mutations associated with widespread degeneration.
Article in Nature genetics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Somatic mosaicism in the brain: linking development, ageing and neurodegeneration.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2026Review
- The spectrum ofFrontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- The single cell origin of sporadic Alzheimer's disease: A developmental biallelic somatic mutation model.Journal of Alzheimer's disease reportsArticle
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Authors and funding
24 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Although mutations in many genes cause familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), most cases are sporadic (sALS and sFTD) with unclear etiology. Here we tested whether somatic mutations contribute to sALS and sFTD by deep targeted sequencing of 88 neurodegeneration-related genes in postmortem brain and spinal cord samples from 399 sporadic cases and 144 controls. Predicted deleterious somatic variants in ALS/FTD genes were observed in 2.1% of sporadic cases lacking deleterious germline variants. These variants occurred at very low allele fractions (typically <2%) and were often focal and enriched in disease-affected regions. Analysis of bulk RNA-sequencing data from an additional cohort identified deleterious somatic variants in DYNC1H1 and LMNA, genes associated with pediatric motor neuron degeneration. Targeted long-read sequencing further identified one sFTD case with de novo somatic C9orf72 repeat expansions. Together, these findings suggest that rare, focal somatic variants can contribute to sALS and sFTD and drive widespread neurodegeneration.
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