Tourette syndrome (TS) is highly heritable, although identification of its underlying genetic cause(s) has remained elusive. We examined a European ancestry sample composed of 2,435 TS cases and 4,100 controls for copy-number variants (CNVs) using SNP microarrays and identified two genome-wide significant loci that confer a substantial increase in risk for TS (NRXN1, OR=20.3, 95%CI [2.6-156.2], p=6.0 × 10-6; CNTN6, OR=10.1, 95% CI [2.3-45.4], p=3.7 × 10-5). Approximately 1% of TS cases carried one of these CNVs, indicating that rare structural variation contributes significantly to the genetic architecture of TS.

Rare copy number variants in NRXN1 and CNTN6 increase risk for Tourette syndrome