NRXN1 and autism: Moreover, further analysis of the presynaptic membrane pathway in proteins with increased abundance in the brain revealed several genes linked to autism and other NDDs, including: Grin1, Nrxn1, Gria1-3, and Cacna1c. These genes have functional relevance to synaptogenesis, glutamate receptor activity, ion channel activity or receptor binding – processes often dysregulated in NDDs [90, 101, 106, 107].