According to Bloomberg's report, a common variant of a gene called CACNAIG my be responsible for four times higher frequency of autism among boys than girls. Stanley Nelson, a professor at UCLA, mentioned that the gene is not likely a risk factor for autism.
However, the finding could help scientists understand how change in the gene structure may work in tandem with other risk factors and to lead to the pervasive developmental disorders and particularly autism. Researches analyzed the DNA of 1,046 members of families with at least two sons diagnosed with autism. Inside chromosome 17, a hot spot of previous autism studies, these families harbored a variant of CACNAIG gene.
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