Evidence of a second-hit model supports genetic and environmental roles in autism

Published January 24, 2016

This week in Science Reports, an article showed that the risk of autism is further increased in individuals with a specific mutation on chromosome 22 when another mutation is present.  One of these mutations is in a gene that is known to be affected by different environmental factors.  Scientists are using this data to help understand the interaction between genetic and environmental influences, specifically, when environment is a “second hit” on an existing genetic background where risk of ASD is already increased.  The article is open access, click the link above to open it.

 

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