Researchers typically use only one ‘cohort,’ a group of about three dozen mice, for a given set of experiments. When others repeat the experiments with a different set of animals, sometimes the results hold up, and sometimes they don’t.
Children with autism carry twice as many new and damaging genetic mutations as typically developing children, according to a new study published in Neuron. The researchers also identified intriguing genetic links between autism and fragile X syndrome.
Researchers have mapped networks of genes expressed at the same time and place in the brain and shown that rare and common autism-linked mutations are likely to function in the same pathways. The results were published 8 March in PLoS Genetics.
Genes implicated in Tourette syndrome overlap with those involved in autism, according to an analysis of rare DNA duplications and deletions in people with the syndrome, published in the March issue of Biological Psychiatry.
By screening the genomes of hundreds of people with autism and analyzing the effects of newly identified mutations in cultured neurons, researchers have clarified the disorder’s link to the SHANK2 gene.
Duplication of a region on the X chromosome leads to a genetic disorder characterized by severe autism, according to a study published 25 November in Annals of Neurology.
The genome-wide association study has been the favorite whipping post among some geneticists, but three new reviews come to its defense.
A new online database provides searchable information for nearly 10,000 genes, variants and chromosomal regions linked to autism. Researchers describe the resource, dubbed AutismKB, in the January issue of Nucleic Acids Research.
TBL1X, a gene located on the X chromosome, is associated with autism in males but not in females, according to a study published 3 November in Molecular Autism.