Shank proteins make up a family of scaffold proteins identified through their interaction with a variety of membrane and cytoplasmic proteins (3). Shank proteins at postsynaptic sites of excitatory synapses play roles in signal transmission into the postsynaptic neuron. Shank proteins are also crucial in receptor tyrosine kinase signaling; specifically, Shank3 can mediate Erk-MAPK and P13K signaling which is crucial for tubule formation (4).
Shank3 is also one of the latest genes to be associated with autism. A mutation of a single copy of Shank3 on chromosome 22q13 can result in language and/or social communication disorders (5).