SHANK3 and autism: The genetic risk factors for autism range from rare point mutations in genes encoding numerous synaptic proteins (such as contactin-associated protein-like 2, CNTNAP2; SH3 and multiple ankyrin repeat domains 3, SHANK3; and neuroligin 3, NLGN3), to gains or losses of DNA segments, termed copy number variation (for example, 16p11.2 and 15q11-q13), and to gross chromosomal rearrangements that are estimated to occur in about 7% of autism cases [1, 34].