To collect ASD candidate genes for the first release of AutDB, we performed a comprehensive search of all articles in the PubMed database maintained at NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed). The search terms included ‘gene’ AND (‘autism’ OR ‘autistic’) restricted to the titles and abstracts of the publications for retrieval. Furthermore, candidate genes listed in review articles on molecular genetics of ASD, along with cross-references therein, were mapped and added (if new) to our candidate gene list from PubMed searches to compile the most exhaustive gene set. After the first release, starting from June 2006, a daily semi automated search of the PubMed with the same keywords is implemented to maintain an up-to-date resource of all candidate genes linked to ASD. Additionally, relevant journal articles in the fields of genetics, neurobiology, and psychiatry are screened on a regular basis to enrich the resource.
To select the primary reference for a candidate gene, the first positive report linking the gene to (ASD) was searched in PubMed. However, to select the primary reference for a ‘Syndromic autism’ gene where a large number of reports are published connecting the syndrome to autism, we adopted the following steps: First, google scholar is used with the criteria [(autism OR autistic) AND ‘syndrome name’ AND ‘gene name’] to search for the most highly cited reports. Next, a primary reference is selected among these highly cited reports by reading the article (see Supplementary Table 1).