Beyond Exome Sequencing: The Added Value of Genome Sequencing in Pediatric Intellectual Disability and Global Developmental Delay

AAP Poster (2026)

PMID

Publication AuthorsMorgan Driver, PhD, MS, CGC, Robert Rigobello, MS, CGC, Lisa Salz, MS, CGC, Nichole Owen, PhD, FACMG, Xiaonan Zhao, PhD, FACMG

Introduction

  • As of June 2025, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) now recommends genome sequencing (GS) or exome sequencing (ES) as a first-tier diagnostic test for global developmental delay (GDD) and intellectual disability (ID).
  • Compared to ES, GS captures a broader spectrum of variant types such as short tandem repeat (STR) expansions, mitochondrial genome variants, and noncoding variants.
  • However, the extent to which GS impacts the diagnostic yield in children with GDD/ID is incompletely characterized.
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