Recessive genomic and phenotypic variation in consanguineous families with cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurodevelopmental disorder of motor function, with genetic etiologies, particularly de novo variants, identified in approximately one-third of cases. The contribution of consanguinity – long-recognized as a CP risk factor – has remained undefined. Here, we report findings from 188 primarily consanguineous Middle Eastern families with CP and identified putative causative genes in nearly three-quarters. The majority demonstrated recessive inheritance, although multi-level consanguinity and multilocus pathogenic variants complicated Mendelian assortment analyses. We identified 110 known CP-associated genes – five with phenotypic expansions and three others exhibiting new recessive inheritance patterns – and 24 novel candidates. We characterized ten candidates as high-confidence based on independent replication and protein modeling. We experimentally validated a role for SUCO variants in CP and newly identified a role for mid-gestational migrating excitatory neurons in the disorder. These findings highlight new genes, pathways, and phenotypes that reveal striking genomic diversity in CP.