Evidence for the etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has consistently pointed to a strong genetic component complicated by substantial locus heterogeneity1,2. We sequenced the exomes of 20 sporadic cases of ASD and their parents, reasoning that these families would be enriched for de novo mutations of major effect. We identified 21 de novo mutations, of which 11 were protein-altering. Protein-altering mutations were significantly enriched for changes at highly conserved residues. We identified potentially causative de novo events in 4/20 probands, particularly among more severely affected individuals, in FOXP1, GRIN2B, SCN1A, and LAMC3. In the FOXP1 mutation carrier, we also observed a rare inherited CNTNAP2 mutation and provide functional support for a multihit model for disease risk3. Our results demonstrate that trio-based exome sequencing is a powerful approach for identifying novel candidate genes for ASD and suggest that de novo mutations may contribute substantially to the genetic risk for ASD.

We characterize and extend a highly efficient method for constructing shotgun fragment libraries in which transposase catalyzes in vitro DNA fragmentation and adaptor incorporation simultaneously. We apply this method to sequencing a human genome and find that coverage biases are comparable to those of conventional protocols. We also extend its capabilities by developing protocols for sub-nanogram library construction, exome capture from 50 ng of input DNA, PCR-free and colony PCR library construction, and 96-plex sample indexing.

Haplotype information is essential to the complete description and interpretation of genomes 1 , genetic diversity 2 and genetic ancestry 3 . Although individual human genome sequencing is increasingly routine 4 , nearly all such genomes are unresolved with respect to haplotype. Here we combine the throughput of massively parallel sequencing 5 with the contiguity information provided by large-insert cloning 6 to experimentally determine the haplotype-resolved genome of a South Asian individual. A single fosmid library was split into a modest number of pools, each providing ~3% physical coverage of the diploid genome. Sequencing of each pool yielded reads overwhelmingly derived from only one homologous chromosome at any given location. These data were combined with whole-genome shotgun sequence to directly phase 94% of ascertained heterozygous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) into long haplotype blocks (N50 of 386 kilobases (kbp)). This method also facilitates the analysis of structural variation, for example, to anchor novel insertions 7,8 to specific locations and haplotypes.The high quality of the human reference genome derives from the hierarchical sequencing of large-insert clones, such that the assembly corresponding to each clone represents a single haplotype 9 . One of the first 'personal genomes' exploited clone-based mate pairing and long, accurate Sanger reads to resolve variants into haplotype blocks (N50 of 350 kbp; that is, 50% of resolved sequence is within blocks of at least 350 kbp) 1 . Although new technologies 5 have subsequently enabled >1,000-fold reduction in genome sequencing costs, the short read-lengths and paucity of contiguity information are such that it remains challenging to determine haplotypes at a genome-wide scale. Genomic phase, the assignment of alleles to homologous chromosomes, was determined for SNPs using mate-