Small pieces of DNA within genes, dubbed ‘microexons,’ are abnormally regulated in people with autism, suggests a study of postmortem brains.

It’s no easy feat to whittle down the list of the most influential autism papers to a mere 10. So please consider this but a taste of the burgeoning field, presented in chronological order and based on suggestions from many researchers.

This year was full of big headlines in autism research. But the biggest stories aren’t necessarily the best — here are some gems you may have missed over the year.

An analysis of genes expressed in the postmortem brains of people with autism has identified three molecular pathways linked to the disorder. The findings, published 10 December in Nature Communications, add to mounting evidence that the myriad causes of autism converge on common biological processes.

A rare form of autism linked to a duplication of the 15q11-13 chromosomal region shares a molecular signature with more common forms of the disorder, suggests unpublished research presented yesterday at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Analyzing the sequences of more than 20,000 people, researchers have unearthed the largest and most robust list of autism genes so far, they reported today in Nature.

A new online database called Braineac details how variations in DNA sequence shape gene expression in the human brain.

A new online resource called MouseID Genes stores information about gene interactions in the developing mouse brain and spinal cord.

Children with autism have atypical patterns of epigenetic modifications — chemical tags on DNA that influence gene expression, suggests a study published 29 May in PLOS Genetics.

Researchers have mapped interactions between hundreds of variants of proteins made from known autism risk genes, they reported 11 April in Nature Communications. The highly connected network reveals that autism genes tend to interact with each other and with many more partners than suspected.