A new study reveals an important connection between dozens of genes that may contribute to autism, a major step toward understanding how brain development goes awry in some individuals with the disorder. The research shows that CHD8, a gene that is strongly linked to autism, acts as a master regulator in the developing human brain and controls the expression of many other genes. Many of the genes it targets have also been implicated in the disorder, the researchers found.
The study, led by James P. Noonan, associate professor of genetics and of ecology and evolutionary biology, is published March 10 in the journal Nature Communications.
“Strong genetic evidence has identified a set of regulatory genes as being important for autism risk. But it has been difficult to gain insight into the biological mechanisms that might be perturbed because we couldn’t functionally connect these genes with each other. Now, we can,” said Noonan, a member of the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, and senior author of the study.