I went to a genetics of autism conference last week...

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I went to a genetics of autism conference last week at my university. The speakers talked about the efforts to find the genes that cause autism. DAN and Cure Autism Now sponsored much of their research. Dont worry, they didn’t find anything.

They did genetic analysis of 1750 families with more than one child with autism, the biggest study ever. With this new huge data set they expected to find genes for autism....but they found nothing! The speaker showed us a graph, it looked like a random squiggle. With more data, things got worse. They did not expect such a bad result.

The main speaker said that are 10 to 15 ways DNA could be damaged. Its not just single Mendelian genes. These errors include...Deletions, duplications, repeats, ring mutations, transcriptions, exons and introns, telomers, insertions, inversions, reversals, expression mutations, frame-shift mutations ... it goes on and on. So it’s really complex, it’s like looking for a needle in haystack the size of London but furthermore, London is made of soft squishy stuff that keeps changing shape.

To conclude...there will be no cure for autism ever.

In an ideal case, about 20 years from now, there maybe test for a few genes that, for example, increase the chance of an autistic person suffering from anxiety or depression. Following a gene test, drugs could be designed specifically for that person’s genetic makeup. Another more controversial example, would be to distinguish between severe autism and mild autism at very young age using a genetic test. Money will only be spent hiring an ABA teacher for the child who's genes indicate he has mild autism. The kid with severe autism gets nothing, his genes says ABA can’t help.

After the talks, there was an opportunity for questions. I noticed that they were always saying abnormality, error, mutation, disorder, illness etc. All very negative stuff! But I noticed that one of the candidate gene for autism is associated with Savant Ability (its on chromosome 15). I asked them if there was any advantage to having a few autism genes, such as the “Savant Gene”? And they going try to put the Savant gene in Brain Pills! I told them they should stop thinking abnormality and illness all the time.

Interesting. I read an article today on the start of this same study (the 1750 families is the number I remembered). Too bad the study ended this way. I thought a genetic basis for autism would be interesting in that those who make that zany argument that autistics are diverging into their own species could have a meager round of ammunition.) It's good that aggravating things like depression are having their genetic basis identified, at least.

hi!

these very results kind of support a propose mechanism for autism that read about recently

the thing is, the biological realtion of autism to our genes may occur at the epicgenetic level...

this means that you can't really search for it via the usual hallmarks of mendialan genetics..

because it's not that we have bad/dfective genes.. but we have issues with gene regulation (silencing) ect... thus the new and rising epigenetic field for treatments of a variety of genetic condictions

basically... one epigenetic mechanism proposed to cause autism i read about has to do with malfunctions in genetic imprinting...

I've also read about a mixed epigenetic theory. We're a hetrogenous group.

Of course, autism is genetic, there is just no clear mechanism for everyone.

Reports from the US indicate over 100 genes involved and in different ways for different people. There is no way to cure autism and perhaps no way to even test for it.

Oh, didn't you know? If you don't respond to your name by age one, there's a 75% chance you have it. LOL How do they figure that out? Once you get thrown into their interventions they coudln't tell the difference between and Autie and an NT. Answers to name by age 1. Wow. Now there's real science. These people amuse me. Let's look at outward symptoms and say they all mean the same things in different people. I think a witch doctor would be just as accurate and their interventions would probably work just as well.

Another epigenetic cause seems to be too much Vitamin C. They told me after the talks that they told their female friends not to eat bread in the USA when pregnant, because the extra Vitamin C that is put in bread in the USA...could cause autism. I later figured out why...

From an epigenetic point of view, too much Vitamin C in pre-industrial/stone age times = too much fruit gathering/eating and too little hunting = too many women too few men.

Considering that men do the hunting and women do the fruit gathering. Epigenetics predicts that too much Vitamin C provokes a response to make more hunters. A side affect is more autism too.

Remember, autism is said to be an extreme male personality, attuned for hunting, tool making (technology) and the single-minded pursuit of prey (these days particularly rare models of busses, trains or old records). More hunters less fruit (Vitamin C).

It’s homeostasis, a nice balance between fruit and meat.

Also, I recently read that women who eat lots of beef during pregnancy give birth to boys who, as men, have poor sperm quality. I wonder if these men are more likely to father (fruit gathering) girls then boys?

It’s all fitting together!

Good Grief, every pregnant woman gets prenatal vitamins with vitamin C.

I have AS. I have 2 children out of 2 on the spectrum.

I am not addicted to Wonder Bread.

It is genetic!

Those bigots ARE PHAIL!! !! !

7 to 10% of men versus 0.4% of women are colour blind, people with the most common form of colour blindness, Deuteranomaly (5%), see through camouflage better then "normal" sighted people i.e. they are more likely to see camouflaged prey.

Colour Blindness and camouflage

This supports the widely held hypothesis that the division of labour between women and men (gathering versus hunting) in pre-industrial communities effected physical characteristics of human. That men are, on average, better at hunting then women. Furthermore...

It is not an unreasonable hypothesis to suggest that there is also a related psychological variation between males and females too?

That autistic people maybe the equivalent of colour-blindness, that the psychological character traits seen in mild autism and eccentric "normality", is a person who is attuned for a hunting lifestyle (look up Simon Baron-Cohen for further discussion).

And if so, and this connects with my earlier hypothesis, there should be a homeostasis, an optimal level between hunting and gathering, if there is disequilibrium - people could starve. If there is too much gathering, too much fruit (vitamin C) then epigenetics will respond by creating more hunters, via, either more boys born or the boys born have character traits that increase their interest in hunting and dis-inclination to gathering.

I can support this odd, and I admit unlikely hypothesis, with one established and confirmed fact. After the Second World War, more males were born. Many men lost their lives in WWII, and there were fewer men around during the war. Epigenetics created more males in the following generation; the equilibrium was restored.

To test my hypothesis, I suggest finding out if autism is more common in countries where more males are born (not counting countries that discriminate against girls, which artificially alter the demography). And finding out if extra vitamins C increases a woman’s chance of conceiving a boy.

Remember this hypothesis is just a crazy idea until it is shown to be right. Maybe other chemicals are involved e.g. estrogenic toxins...

Sex Ratio and Chemical pollution

I can think of one reson that I maybe wrong already.