We developed an expanded and extensively interconnected network of high-confidence ASD candidate genes by integrating protein products from CNV and SNV genes and ASD-implicated genes. Overall, these results demonstrate that genes involved in ASD participate in a wide array of processes, from neuronal development and axon guidance to MAPK and other kinase signaling cascades (including the PI3K-Akt-mTOR and PI3K-RAS-MAPK pathways) to chromatin modification and transcription regulation. An increasing number of genes involved in chromatin structure and epigenetic regulation have been implicated in a variety of developmental disorders.61 Other chromatin regulator genes, such as MBD5 (MIM 611472) and KMT2D (MIM 602113), have been implicated in ID and ASD, highlighting the need to further study this category of genes as ASD risk factors.