Eric M Morrow, Seung-Yun Yoo, Steven W Flavell, Tae-Kyung Kim, Yingxi Lin, Robert Sean Hill, Nahit M Mukaddes, Soher Balkhy, Generoso Gascon, Asif Hashmi, Samira Al-Saad, Janice Ware, Robert M Joseph, Rachel Greenblatt, Danielle Gleason, Julia A Ertelt, Kira A Apse, Adria Bodell, Jennifer N Partlow, Brenda Barry, Hui Yao, Kyriacos Markianos, Russell J Ferland, Michael E Greenberg, Christopher A Walsh
To find inherited causes of autism-spectrum disorders, we studied families in which parents share ancestors, enhancing the role of inherited factors. We mapped several loci, some containing large, inherited, homozygous deletions that are likely mutations. The largest deletions implicated genes, including PCDH10 (protocadherin 10) and DIA1 (deleted in autism1, or c3orf58), whose level of expression changes in response to neuronal activity, a marker of genes involved in synaptic changes that underlie learning...
July 11, 2008: Science