A long-awaited report, published today in Nature, confirms that with access to tens of thousands of genomes, researchers can identify common genetic risk factors for a complex neuropsychiatric disorder.

DNA extracted from saliva is just as useful for sequencing genes as is DNA from blood cells, according to a report published in April in BMC Genomics. The easy and inexpensive method would be a boon for studies that need to sequence large numbers of people.

A new analysis strikes down a widely reported study from last year, which claimed that a panel of 237 genetic markers predicts autism.

Two new studies have found more small deletions and duplications of DNA in individuals with autism than in unaffected controls. These variants may also affect the severity of the disorder.

More of the common variants implicated in schizophrenia are also linked to bipolar disorder than to autism, according to a study published 28 August in Nature Genetics.

A new method allows researchers to highlight mutations in individual cells without first isolating the cells from the surrounding tissue, according to a study in the August Nature Methods.

Spontaneous mutations are elevated in people with autism, but only in those who also have intellectual disability, according to unpublished data presented yesterday at a conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Oxytocin may well have established its reputation as the ‘social hormone’ in the popular imagination, but it has no effect on symptoms in children with autism, according to a study published 26 July in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Understanding the basis of sexual dimorphism in autism may not only inform our treatment of this condition, but may translate to therapies for many other mental illnesses, say Nirao Shah and Devanand Manoli.

Methylation — modifications to DNA that regulate gene expression — may explain why identical twins with the same Rett syndrome mutation have different symptoms, according to a study published 21 June in PLoS One.