Autism Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Autism, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, causes, effects.

Disruption of neurexin 1 associated with autism spectrum disorder.

Kim HG, Kishikawa S, Higgins AW, Seong IS, Donovan DJ, Shen Y, Lally E, Weiss LA, Najm J, Kutsche K, Descartes M, Holt L, Braddock S, Troxell R, Kaplan L, Volkmar F, Klin A, Tsatsanis K, Harris DJ, Noens I, Pauls DL, Daly MJ, MacDonald ME, Morton CC, Quade BJ, Gusella JF

Molecular Neurogenetics Unit, Center for Human Genetic Research and Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder of complex etiology in which genetic factors play a major role. We have implicated the neurexin 1 (NRXN1) gene in two independent subjects who display an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in association with a balanced chromosomal abnormality involving 2p16.3. In the first, with karyotype 46,XX,ins(16;2)(q22.1;p16.1p16.3)pat, NRXN1 is directly disrupted within intron 5. Importantly, the father possesses the same chromosomal abnormality in the absence of ASD, indicating that the interruption of alpha-NRXN1 is not fully penetrant and must interact with other factors to produce ASD. The breakpoint in the second subject, with 46,XY,t(1;2)(q31.3;p16.3)dn, occurs approximately 750 kb 5' to NRXN1 within a 2.6 Mb genomic segment that harbors no currently annotated genes. A scan of the NRXN1 coding sequence in a cohort of ASD subjects, relative to non-ASD controls, revealed that amino acid alterations in neurexin 1 are not present at high frequency in ASD. However, a number of rare sequence variants in the coding region, including two missense changes in conserved residues of the alpha-neurexin 1 leader sequence and of an epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like domain, respectively, suggest that even subtle changes in NRXN1 might contribute to susceptibility to ASD.

Published 8 January 2008 in Am J Hum Genet, 82(1): 199-207.
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