Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are believed to have genetic and environmental origins, yet in only a modest fraction of individuals can specific causes be identified1,2. To identify further genetic risk factors, we assess the role of de novo mutations in ASD by sequencing the exomes of ASD cases and their parents (n= 175 trios). Fewer than half of the cases (46.3%) carry a missense or nonsense de novo variant and the overall rate of mutation is only modestly higher than the expected rate. In contrast, there is significantly enriched connectivity among the proteins encoded by genes harboring de novo missense or nonsense mutations, and excess connectivity to prior ASD genes of major effect, suggesting a subset of observed events are relevant to ASD risk. The small increase in rate of de novo events, when taken together with the connections among the proteins themselves and to ASD, are consistent with an important but limited role for de novo point mutations, similar to that documented for de novo copy number variants. Genetic models incorporating these data suggest that the majority of observed de novo events are unconnected to ASD, those that do confer risk are distributed across many genes and are incompletely penetrant (i.e., not necessarily causal). Our results support polygenic models in which spontaneous coding mutations in any of a large number of genes increases risk by 5 to 20-fold. Despite the challenge posed by such models, results from de novo events and a large parallel case-control study provide strong evidence in favor of CHD8 and KATNAL2 as genuine autism risk factors.

Gastrointestinal disturbances are commonly reported in children with autism, complicate clinical management, and may contribute to behavioral impairment. Reports of deficiencies in disaccharidase enzymatic activity and of beneficial responses to probiotic and dietary therapies led us to survey gene expression and the mucoepithelial microbiota in intestinal biopsies from children with autism and gastrointestinal disease and children with gastrointestinal disease alone. Ileal transcripts encoding disaccharidases and hexose transporters were deficient in children with autism, indicating impairment of the primary pathway for carbohydrate digestion and transport in enterocytes. Deficient expression of these enzymes and transporters was associated with expression of the intestinal transcription factor, CDX2. Metagenomic analysis of intestinal bacteria revealed compositional dysbiosis manifest as decreases in Bacteroidetes, increases in the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes, and increases in Betaproteobacteria. Expression levels of disaccharidases and transporters were associated with the abundance of affected bacterial phylotypes. These results indicate a relationship between human intestinal gene expression and bacterial community structure and may provide insights into the pathophysiology of gastrointestinal disturbances in children with autism.

SUMMARY Mitochondrial division is essential for mitosis and metazoan development, but a mechanistic role in cancer biology remains unknown. Here, we examine the direct effects of oncogenic RASG12V mediated cellular transformation on the mitochondrial dynamics machinery and observe a positive selection for dynamin related protein 1 (DRP1), a protein required for mitochondrial network division. Loss of DRP1 prevents RASG12V-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, and renders cells resistant to transformation. Conversely, in human tumor cell lines with activating MAPK mutations, inhibition of these signals leads to robust mitochondrial network reprogramming initiated by DRP1 loss resulting in mitochondrial hyper-fusion and increased mitochondrial metabolism. These phenotypes are mechanistically linked by ERK1/2 phosphorylation of DRP1 serine 616; DRP1S616 phosphorylation is sufficient to phenocopy transformation-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, and DRP1S616 phosphorylation status dichotomizes BRAFWt from BRAFV600E positive lesions. These findings implicate mitochondrial division and DRP1 as crucial regulators of transformation with unexpected leverage in chemotherapeutic success.

Single-molecule real-time (SMRT) DNA sequencing allows the systematic detection of chemical modifications such as methylation but has not previously been applied on a genome-wide scale. We used this approach to detect 49,311 putative 6-methyladenine (m6A) residues and 1,407 putative 5-methylcytosine (m5C) residues in the genome of a pathogenic Escherichia coli strain. We obtained strand-specific information for methylation sites and a quantitative assessment of the frequency of methylation at each modified position. We deduced the sequence motifs recognized by the methyltransferase enzymes present in this strain without prior knowledge of their specificity. Furthermore, we found that deletion of a phage-encoded methyltransferase-endonuclease (restriction-modification; RM) system induced global transcriptional changes and led to gene amplification, suggesting that the role of RM systems extends beyond protecting host genomes from foreign DNA.

Insensitivity and technical complexity have impeded the implementation of high-throughput nucleic acid sequencing in differential diagnosis of viral infections in clinical laboratories. Here, we describe the development of a virome capture sequencing platform for vertebrate viruses (VirCapSeq-VERT) that increases the sensitivity of sequence-based virus detection and characterization. The system uses ~2 million probes that cover the genomes of members of the 207 viral taxa known to infect vertebrates, including humans. A biotinylated oligonucleotide library was synthesized on the NimbleGen cleavable array platform and used for solution-based capture of viral nucleic acids present in complex samples containing variable proportions of viral and host nucleic acids. The use of VirCapSeq-VERT resulted in a 100- to 10,000-fold increase in viral reads from blood and tissue homogenates compared to conventional Illumina sequencing using established virus enrichment procedures, including filtration, nuclease treatments, and RiboZero rRNA subtraction. VirCapSeq-VERT had a limit of detection comparable to that of agent-specific real-time PCR in serum, blood, and tissue extracts. Furthermore, the method identified novel viruses whose genomes were approximately 40% different from the known virus genomes used for designing the probe library. The VirCapSeq-VERT platform is ideally suited for analyses of virome composition and dynamics.Importance  VirCapSeq-VERT enables detection of viral sequences in complex sample backgrounds, including those found in clinical specimens, such as serum, blood, and tissue. The highly multiplexed nature of the system allows both the simultaneous identification and the comprehensive genetic characterization of all known vertebrate viruses, their genetic variants, and novel viruses. The operational simplicity and efficiency of the VirCapSeq-VERT platform may facilitate transition of high-throughput sequencing to clinical diagnostic as well as research applications.