Integrated Genomics of Crohn's Disease Risk Variant Identifies a Role for CLEC12A in Antibacterial Autophagy

Abstract

The polymorphism ATG16L1 T300A, associated with increased risk of Crohn's disease, impairs pathogen defense mechanisms including selective autophagy, but specific pathway interactions altered by the risk allele remain unknown. Here, we use perturbational profiling of human peripheral blood cells to reveal that CLEC12A is regulated in an ATG16L1-T300A-dependent manner. Antibacterial autophagy is impaired in CLEC12A-deficient cells, and this effect is exacerbated in the presence of the ATG16L1*300A risk allele. Clec12a-/- mice are more susceptible to Salmonella infection, supporting a role for CLEC12A in antibacterial defense pathways in vivo. CLEC12A is recruited to sites of bacterial entry, bacteria-autophagosome complexes, and sites of sterile membrane damage. Integrated genomics identified a functional interaction between CLEC12A and an E3-ubiquitin ligase complex that functions in antibacterial autophagy. These data identify CLEC12A as early adaptor molecule for antibacterial autophagy and highlight perturbational profiling as a method to elucidate defense pathways in complex genetic disease. Although genome-wide association studies are valuable in identifying disease-associated loci, they produce only a partial view of pathogenesis. Using integrated, systems-level approaches to pinpoint genes that interact with the Crohn's-disease-associated variant ATG16L1 T300A, Begun et al. identify CLEC12A as an innate defense gene that functions in antibacterial autophagy.