Description

This video discusses what is currently known about the role of genes verses the environment in causing autism. Through the use of twin studies, population studies and linkage disequilibrium (gene mapping) science has finally uncovered the underlying cause of autism, and has given us new insights into the underlying biology. A note on the citations: there are literally hundreds of studies looking at the genetics of autism. I could not possibly reference all of them here. I am including a few example studies for the major topics covered here; for more you can always search pubmed (www.pubmed.gov) and google scholar (scholar.google.com) for additional papers on this, and other biomedical topics. Twin Studies: Bailey A et al. Autism as a strongly genetic disorder: evidence from a British twin study. Psychol Med. 1995 Jan;25(1):63-77. Steffenburg S, et al. A twin study of autism in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1989 May;30(3):405-16. Ritvo ER, et al. Concordance for the syndrome of autism in 40 pairs of afflicted twins. Am J Psychiatry. 1985 Jan;142(1):74-7. Identification of autism genes: OMIM database: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim Ma D, et al. A genome-wide association study of autism reveals a common novel risk locus at 5p14.1. Ann Hum Genet. 2009 May;73(Pt 3):263-73. Crespi B et al. Comparative genomics of autism and schizophrenia. PNAS 2010 Jan 26;107 Suppl 1:1736-41. Effect of autism mutations: Bucan M et al. Genome-wide analyses of exonic copy number variants in a family-based study point to novel autism susceptibility genes. PLoS Genet. 2009 Jun;5(6):e1000536. Making an autistic mouse: Nakatani J. Abnormal Behavior in a Chromosome- Engineered Mouse Model for Human 15q11-13 Duplication Seen in Autism. Cell, Volume 137, Issue 7, 1235-1246, 26 June 2009. And youtube seems to have letterboxed my video for some reason. Sorry about that, but its too late now.

Video URL:
http://www.thedoctorsvideos.com/video/7691/The-Genetics-of-Autism


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