SHANK3 and autism: Some autism candidate genes that have been identified so far, such as COMMD1, MTF1, MTs, ZnT5, ERK1, TrkB, Shank2, and Shank3 (Serajee et al., 2004; Huang et al., 2008; Grabrucker et al., 2011b; Levy et al., 2011; O’Roak et al., 2011; Nuttall and Oteiza, 2012; Sanders et al., 2012), are influenced by Zn2+ or themselves involved in Zn2+ signaling and metal ion homeostasis.