NCKAP5L and autism: How mutations in CEP169 contribute to ASD is currently not understood, but it might be related to its function in synaptic plasticity, as CEP169 was found to be upregulated in response to neuronal activity (Chahrour et al., 2012), similarly to other genes associated with autism (Walsh et al., 2008; Ramocki and Zoghbi, 2008).