In the pathway analysis, 43 SCZ-associated genes were included in the 14 most significant pathways. Many of these are related to neuronal function and the immune system, 2 functions of potential relevance for SCZ, which are discussed in this section. The most significant pathway finding, axon guidance, includes genes involved in the process by which neurons send out axons to reach the correct targets. Growing axons sense guidance cues in the environment and respond by undergoing cytoskeletal changes that determine the direction of axon growth. Several highly conserved families of axon guidance molecules and their receptors have been identified.35 Among the SCZ-associated genes in our study that are part of this pathway are ROBO2 (roundabout, axon guidance receptor, homologue 2), which is a receptor for the axon guidance molecule SLIT2. The related gene SLIT3 is also among our findings. As mentioned already, L1CAM interactions is a subpathway of “axon guidance” that was also significantly enriched for SCZ-associated genes. The L1CAM family includes 4 structurally related proteins36 of which neurofascin (NFASC) is among our SCZ-associated genes that overlap with the L1CAM
