Cell
Volume 180, Issue 3, 6 February 2020, Pages 568-584.e23
Journal home page for Cell

Article
Large-Scale Exome Sequencing Study Implicates Both Developmental and Functional Changes in the Neurobiology of Autism

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.12.036Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Highlights

  • 102 genes implicated in risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD genes, FDR ≤ 0.1)

  • Most are expressed and enriched early in excitatory and inhibitory neuronal lineages

  • Most affect synapses or regulate other genes; how these roles dovetail is unknown

  • Some ASD genes alter early development broadly, others appear more specific to ASD

Summary

We present the largest exome sequencing study of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to date (n = 35,584 total samples, 11,986 with ASD). Using an enhanced analytical framework to integrate de novo and case-control rare variation, we identify 102 risk genes at a false discovery rate of 0.1 or less. Of these genes, 49 show higher frequencies of disruptive de novo variants in individuals ascertained to have severe neurodevelopmental delay, whereas 53 show higher frequencies in individuals ascertained to have ASD; comparing ASD cases with mutations in these groups reveals phenotypic differences. Expressed early in brain development, most risk genes have roles in regulation of gene expression or neuronal communication (i.e., mutations effect neurodevelopmental and neurophysiological changes), and 13 fall within loci recurrently hit by copy number variants. In cells from the human cortex, expression of risk genes is enriched in excitatory and inhibitory neuronal lineages, consistent with multiple paths to an excitatory-inhibitory imbalance underlying ASD.

Keywords

autism spectrum disorder
exome sequencing
genetics
neurodevelopment
liability
cell type
cytoskeleton
excitatory neurons
inhibitory neurons
excitatory-inhibitory balance

Cited by (0)

37

These authors contributed equally

38

Senior author

39

Lead Contact