Folic acid supplements taken early in pregnancy reduce the risk of autism, according to a large Norwegian study published 13 February in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 

The National Children’s Study, a decade-old effort to track children’s health from birth to age 21, is undergoing radical restructuring to cut costs. The streamlined version of the project has left scientists and autism advocacy groups concerned that the study will not provide the answers they had hoped.

In families that have more than one child with autism, children who are born later have lower intelligence scores than their older siblings do, according to research published 11 November in PLoS ONE.

A significant proportion of mutations linked to autism alter proteins that regulate gene expression by modifying the structure of DNA, according to a study published 13 November in Molecular Psychiatry.

Researchers have identified several harmful autism-linked mutations in a family of proteins that regulate the expression of various genes, they reported 10 October in Autism Research.

A newly discovered DNA modification may play a role in development and regulate the expression of genes linked to fragile X syndrome and autism, according to a study published 5 October in Human Molecular Genetics.

Solving the riddle of autism genetics will require looking beyond the growing list of candidate genes to epigenetics and personalized medicine.

The brains of individuals with autism express low levels of genes involved in metabolism and protein assembly, according to a postmortem study published 12 September in PLoS One.

The sperm of old mice has an unusual epigenome, the profile of chemical modifications to the underlying DNA code, according to a poster presented Saturday at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans. The findings suggest an explanation for the so-called paternal age effect in autism.

RNA editing, which creates multiple forms of a protein, is common among proteins involved in neuronal signaling, and may be abnormal in people with autism, according to a study published 7 August in Molecular Psychiatry.