WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, GEORGE GASTIN
Autism is thought to arise due to complex interactions of various environmental and genetic elements, most of which have yet to be identified. Just today, three papers published in Nature found three new autism-linked genes, and flagged hundreds more as possibly being linked to the disease. And if that wasn’t complicated enough, another study, published today (April 4) in Science Translational Medicine, identified another autism-linked genetic element that doesn’t even code for a gene—a newly discovered non-coding RNA—which has a surprisingly complex gene regulatory function.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a blanket term covering an array of developmental behavioral disorders characterized by, among other things, social deficits, communication problems, and repetitive behaviors. Though the cause of ASD is poorly understood, over the years scientists have ...
