Fishing for answers to autism puzzle
Fish cannot display symptoms of autism, schizophrenia or other human brain disorders. However, a team of MIT biologists has shown that zebrafish can be a useful tool for studying the genes that contribute to such disorders.Led by developmental biologist Hazel Sive, the researchers set out to explore a group of about two dozen genes known to be either missing or duplicated in about 1 percent of autistic patients. Most of the genes’ functions were unknown, but the MIT study revealed that nearly all of them produced brain abnormalities when deleted in zebrafish embryos.The findings should help researchers pinpoint genes for further study in mammals, says Sive, a professor of biology and associate dean of MIT’s School of Science. Autism is thought to arise from a variety of genetic defects; this research is part of a broad effort to...