Figure 2. Schematic of the hypothetical connection between synaptic proteins and protein synthesis.

Intracellular signal transduction is initiated by the activation of neurotransmitter receptors that are organized with scaffolding proteins and adhesion molecules in the PSD. Receptor stimulation triggers the activation of intracellular signaling cascades including the mTORC1 and ERK pathways, which results in increased translation (see also Fig1). Given the importance of synaptic proteins in this type of signal transduction, mutations affecting genes encoding for these proteins could result in abnormal signaling that ultimately results in aberrant protein synthesis. The protein products of genes associated with ASD are circled in red.