title: Rare structural variation of synapse and neurotransmission genes in autism.
abstract: Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) comprise a constellation of highly heritable neuropsychiatric disorders. Genome-wide studies of autistic individuals have implicated numerous minor risk alleles but few common variants, suggesting a complex genetic model with many contributing loci. To assess commonality of biological function among rare risk alleles, we compared functional knowledge of genes overlapping inherited structural variants in idiopathic ASD subjects relative to healthy controls. In this study we show that biological processes associated with synapse function and neurotransmission are significantly enriched, with replication, in ASD subjects versus controls. Analysis of phenotypes observed for mouse models of copy-variant genes established significant and replicated enrichment of observable phenotypes consistent with ASD behaviors. Most functional terms retained significance after excluding previously reported ASD loci. These results implicate several new variants that involve synaptic function and glutamatergic signaling processes as important contributors of ASD pathophysiology and suggest a sizable pool of additional potential ASD risk loci.
authors.affiliation: Center for Biomedical Informatics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4318, USA.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gai
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Perin
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Wenocur
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: D'arcy
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: O'Hara
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Goldmuntz
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Grice
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Shaikh
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hakonarson
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Buxbaum
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Elia
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000235:genetics*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D056915:DNA Copy Number Variations / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D060005:Genotyping Techniques / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D013569:Synapses / Q000235:genetics*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins