Autism-related genes converge on microglia and dopamine in zebrafish
The findings add to the growing evidence that genes with disparate functions can play similar roles in brain development.
The findings add to the growing evidence that genes with disparate functions can play similar roles in brain development.
Exposing neurons to valproic acid, a well-known environmental risk factor for autism, disrupts their ability to generate different proteins from the same gene.
The findings put genetic background forward to help explain autism’s heterogeneity.
A new atlas reveals how the structural shake-ups within a cell’s genome differ by cell type and brain region over time.
This week, we’re bringing you some labors of love: a thread lamenting the autism field’s focus on gene lists, a study introducing genetic diversity in mouse models, and long-awaited results from a biomarker study.
What these genes do and how they affect autism depends on when in development they’re studied, despite what classic ‘gene ontology’ analyses say.
Of nine genetic models examined in a new study, all had some incidence of cardiac abnormalities. But the problems varied widely depending on the affected genes.
The loss of CHD8, a top autism gene, speeds up the production of certain neurons and leads to overgrowth in spheres of cultured brain cells.
Mutations in all three accelerate the maturation of inhibitory neurons, which could upset the brain’s balance of excitation and inhibition early in development.
Over the past century, scientists have used a variety of animal models to advance their understanding of the developing brain and autism.