Cited by 2,746Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchGenetics and Neurodevelopmental DisordersGenomics and Rare Diseases

Synaptic, transcriptional and chromatin genes disrupted in autism

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The DDD Study, De Rubeis, Silvia, Homozygosity Mapping Collaborative for Autism, UK10K Consortium, The Autism Sequencing Consortium, He, Xin, Goldberg, Arthur P., Poultney, Christopher S. +87 more·2014·Nature

Abstract

The genetic architecture of autism spectrum disorder involves the interplay of common and rare variants and their impact on hundreds of genes. Using exome sequencing, here we show that analysis of rare coding variation in 3,871 autism cases and 9,937 ancestry-matched or parental controls implicates 22 autosomal genes at a false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05, plus a set of 107 autosomal genes strongly enriched for those likely to affect risk (FDR < 0.30). These 107 genes, which show unusual evolutionary constraint against mutations, incur de novo loss-of-function mutations in over 5% of autistic subjects. Many of the genes implicated encode proteins for synaptic formation, transcriptional regulation and chromatin-remodelling pathways. These include voltage-gated ion channels regulating the propagation of action potentials, pacemaking and excitability-transcription coupling, as well as histone-modifying enzymes and chromatin remodellers-most prominently those that mediate post-translational lysine methylation/demethylation modifications of histones.

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Crossref · 10.1038/nature13772

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  • Most proteins encoded by ASD risk genes are involved either in synaptic structure and function or chromatin modification and regulation of gene expression.

    “including that, prima facie , most proteins encoded by ASD risk genes are involved either in synaptic structure and function or chromatin modification and regulation of gene expression 38,46,47,58 (Fig. 3).”

    From Autism spectrum disorder (2020) · cites this paper as [47]

    The Abstract says many implicated genes encode proteins in synaptic, transcriptional and chromatin-remodeling pathways, and the Conclusions identify these as pathways affected by ASD risk variation. Neither passage establishes that most ASD risk-gene proteins fall into the categories claimed. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • In ASD, a single de novo germ-line heterozygous loss-of-function point mutation can convey more risk than the cumulative effect of the top decile of polygenic risk for schizophrenia.

    “In ASD, a single de novo more risk than the cumulative effect of the top decile of polygenic risk for schizophrenia 47,50”

    From Autism spectrum disorder (2020) · cites this paper as [47]

    The ‘Estimated odds ratios of top genes’ section (page not specified) reports that de novo loss-of-function variants in the strongest ASD-associated genes can have a large effect on risk (OR ≥ 20), while effects vary by gene. Our copy does not compare that risk with the top decile of polygenic risk for schizophrenia, so the claimed comparison is unsupported. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • In highly constrained genes, de novo PTVs show 2-fold enrichment in affected females (n = 1,097) versus affected males (n = 5,333) (p = 3 × 10^-6).

    “we observe a 2-fold enrichment of de novo PTVs in highly constrained genes in affected females (n = 1,097) versus affected males (n = 5,333) (p = 3 3 10 6”

    From Large-Scale Exome Sequencing Study Implicates Both Developmental and Functional Changes in the Neurobiology of Autism (2020) · cites this paper as De Rubeis et al., 2014

    The 'Estimated odds ratios of top genes' section (page unavailable) reports female enrichment for de novo loss-of-function events in genes with FDR < 0.1. It does not report a twofold enrichment in highly constrained genes, the stated female and male sample sizes, or p = 3 × 10^-6; it reports P = 0.005 for those loss-of-function events instead. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • ASD affects 1-1.5% of individuals and is highly heritable, with both common and rare variants contributing to its etiology.

    “ASD affects 1-1.5% of individuals and is highly heritable, with both common and rare variants contributing to its etiology 1-4 .”

    From Identification of common genetic risk variants for autism spectrum disorder (2019) · cites this paper as [1]

    The opening text under Abstract (page unavailable) says ASD risk involves both common and rare variation and that the bulk of risk arises from genetic variation, supporting the genetic portion of the claim. Our copy does not give the stated 1–1.5% prevalence or explicitly characterize ASD as highly heritable; searches for prevalence and heritability did not establish those parts. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • De novo mutations, mostly copy number variants and gene disrupting point mutations, have larger individual effects but collectively explain less than 5% of the overall liability and far less of the heritability.

    “By contrast, de novo mutations, mostly copy number variants (CNVs) and gene disrupting point mutations, have larger individual effects, but collectively explain &lt;5% of the overall liability 1-3 and far less of the heritability.”

    From Identification of common genetic risk variants for autism spectrum disorder (2019) · cites this paper as [1]

    The 'Estimated odds ratios of top genes' section reports that de novo events in its strongest ASD-associated genes can have large individual effects on liability (OR ≥ 20). The paper does not establish that de novo mutations are mostly CNVs and gene-disrupting point mutations, or that they collectively explain less than 5% of overall liability and far less of heritability. Its statement that over 5% of ASD subjects carry certain de novo loss-of-function mutations is a carrier frequency, not a liability estimate. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Authors
Study, T. D., De Rubeis, S., Autism, H. M. C. F., UK10K Consortium, The Autism Sequencing Consortium, He, X., Goldberg, A. P., Poultney, C. S., Samocha, K., Ercument Cicek, A., Kou, Y., Liu, L., Fromer, M., Walker, S., Singh, T., Klei, L., Kosmicki, J., Fu, S.-C., Aleksic, B., Biscaldi, M., Bolton, P. F., Brownfeld, J. M., Cai, J., Campbell, N. G., Carracedo, A., Chahrour, M. H., Chiocchetti, A. G., Coon, H., Crawford, E. L., Crooks, L., Curran, S. R., Dawson, G., Duketis, E., Fernandez, B. A., Gallagher, L., Geller, E., Guter, S. J., Sean Hill, R., Ionita-Laza, I., Jimenez Gonzalez, P., Kilpinen, H., Klauck, S. M., Kolevzon, A., Lee, I., Lei, J., Lehtimäki, T., Lin, C.-F., Ma’ayan, A., Marshall, C. R., McInnes, A. L., Neale, B., Owen, M. J., Ozaki, N., Parellada, M., Parr, J. R., Purcell, S., Puura, K., Rajagopalan, D., Rehnström, K., Reichenberg, A., Sabo, A., Sachse, M., Sanders, S. J., Schafer, C., Schulte-Rüther, M., Skuse, D., Stevens, C., Szatmari, P., Tammimies, K., Valladares, O., Voran, A., Wang, L.-S., Weiss, L. A., Jeremy Willsey, A., Yu, T. W., Yuen, R. K. C., Cook, E. H., Freitag, C. M., Gill, M., Hultman, C. M., Lehner, T., Palotie, A., Schellenberg, G. D., Sklar, P., State, M. W., Sutcliffe, J. S., Walsh, C. A., Scherer, S. W., Zwick, M. E., Barrett, J. C., Cutler, D. J., Roeder, K., Devlin, B., Daly, M. J., & Buxbaum, J. D.
Affiliations
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
  • Carnegie Mellon University (US)
  • Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
  • Hospital for Sick Children (CA)
  • Wellcome Sanger Institute (GB)
  • University of Pittsburgh (US)
  • University of Freiburg (DE)
  • King's College London (GB)
  • Vanderbilt University (US)
  • Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (ES)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Boston Children's Hospital (US)
  • Goethe University Frankfurt (DE)
  • University of Utah (US)
  • Duke University (US)
  • Memorial University of Newfoundland (CA)
  • Trinity College Dublin (IE)
  • University of Illinois Chicago (US)
  • European Bioinformatics Institute (GB)
  • German Cancer Research Center (DE)
  • Fimlab (Finland) (FI)
  • Kaiser Permanente (US)
  • Broad Institute (US)
  • Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES)
  • Nagoya University (JP)
  • Tampere University Hospital (FI)
  • Baylor College of Medicine (US)
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
  • University College London (GB)
  • National Health Service (GB)
  • University of Pennsylvania (US)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • University of Toronto (CA)
  • Emory University (US)
Corresponding author
  • Daly, Mark J.
  • Buxbaum, Joseph D.
Venue
Nature
Published
2014-10-29
Volume
515
Issue
7526
Pages
209-215
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2108994842
Cited by
2,746
References
47
Citations by year
2026: 151 · 2025: 198 · 2024: 224 · 2023: 215 · 2022: 234 · 2021: 273 · 2020: 290 · 2019: 258 · 2018: 213 · 2017: 264 · 2016: 229 · 2015: 183 · 2014: 10
FWCI
127.58
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • UNSWorks (UNSW Sydney) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
  • RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen) (submittedVersion)
  • RUNA. Repositorio Institucional del Sergas (Servicio Gallego de Salud (SERGAS)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity)
Funders
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • Autism Speaks
  • Wellcome Trust (091986, WT 098051, WT091310)
  • Health Research Board
  • Vanderbilt University Medical Center (UL1TR000445, HD15052)
  • Broad Institute
  • National Institute for Health and Care Research (NF-SI-0510-10268, HICF-1009-003, PI13/01136, WT098051)
  • Meath Foundation
  • National Institutes of Health (5rc2mh089952-02, PI13/01136, UL1TR000445, MH057881, HG003067, HD-15052, HD055751, RR024975)
  • Medical Research Council (MR/L010305/1)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (U01MH100209, R01MH061009, R01MH083565, R01MH077139, U01MH100229, R01MH097849, MH095034, RC2-MH089952, R01MH094400, R37MH057881, R01MH089208, U01MH100239, MH089482, MH057881, R01MH095034, R01MH089482, MH077139, MH061009, R01MH095797, U01MH100233)
  • National Human Genome Research Institute (U54HG003067, T32HG002295)
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS073601)
  • National Center for Research Resources (UL1RR024975)
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P30HD015052, P50HD055751, P30 HD-15052)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genomics and Rare Diseases
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, rare coding variants, synaptic genes, transcriptional regulation, chromatin remodeling, histone lysine methylation, voltage-gated ion channels, evolutionary constraints, autism risk genes, exome sequencing, missense mutations, copy number variation, histone-modifying enzymes
MeSH terms
Amino Acid Sequence, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Chromatin, Female, Humans, Male, Molecular Sequence Data, Mutation, Nerve Net, Synapses, Transcription, Genetic, Odds Ratio, Germ-Line Mutation, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Mutation, Missense, Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly, Exome

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