Crab-eating macaque monkey (M. fascicularis)WIKIMEDIA, CHRIS HUH
The MECP2 gene, which codes for a protein involved in transcriptional regulation and microRNA processing, is frequently duplicated in the genomes of people showing symptoms of autism. Now, a team of researchers in China has reported that monkeys genetically engineered to contain multiple copies of MECP2 also show some autism-like behaviors, supporting claims that monkeys would be good models to study the condition. The team’s findings were published earlier this week (January 25) in Nature.
The monkeys display “very similar behaviors related to human autism patients, including repetitive behaviors, increased anxiety and, most importantly, defects in social interactions,” study coauthor Zilong Qiu of the Institute of Neuroscience at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai told The New York Times.
The researchers injected virus-transported human ...
