Autism and Genetics – Thursday 25th March 2021

Posted on by Fiona

Autism and Genetics – Thursday 25th March 2021

An article regarding Autism caught my eye as I was scrolling through earlier today and I read a portion of it and had to attend to something. I intended to read it through, but I couldn’t find it again, so I am also unable to note the author.
The part that I read was stating that geneticists hadn’t found a specific gene mutation for Autism as I recall.
Autism looks the way that it does because it has interfered with early development. If an adult person was, for example, to become affected by the same issue that causes autism in a youngster, it wouldn’t look anything like Autism.
When Autism is present with other disability issues there is more going on, and is possibly a component of a syndrome which often will turn up a known or new genetic mutation. But when it is strictly Autism alone, and I know in its severe form one would expect to find a significant genetic mutation to explain such terrible impact, but genetic problems need not necessarily be caused by a mutation.
The genetics of Autism are utilising a pathway and the genes being interacted with along this pathway are determining the severity, not by a genetic error unfortunately. Which is not to say that any of the interactive genes can’t have an error in them, but that would be a separate issue. The interactions result in the mild form, the severe form and all the presentations of Autism between those two extremes, yet it’s the same condition.
Those families with multiple children with Autism in them provide an opportunity to researchers. Those families where the children all share the same X chromosome of the same parent is a particular group that should shed some light.
Fiona MacLeod (C)