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This Week's Autism Research Fish Story: Zebrafish Genes

Submitted by Landon Bryce on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 14:49
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A couple of weeks ago, prozac in water was giving fish autism.  This week, researchers are "silencing" genes in zebrafish that they think might cause autism and seeing which ones do weird things to their fishy brains:

The researchers studied one gene at a time, silencing each with short strands of nucleic acids that target a particular gene and prevent its protein from being produced.

For 21 of the genes, silencing led to abnormal development. Most produced brain deficits, including improper development of the brain or eyes, thinning of the brain, or inflation of the brain ventricles, cavities that contain cerebrospinal fluid.

The researchers also found abnormalities in the wiring of axons, the long neural projections that carry messages to other neurons, and in simple behaviors of the fish. The results show that the 16p11.2 genes are very important during brain development, helping to explain the connection between this region and brain disorders.

Furthermore, the researchers were able to restore normal development by treating the fish with the human equivalents of the genes that had been repressed.

“That allows you to deduce that what you’re learning in fish corresponds to what that gene is doing in humans. The human gene and the fish gene are very similar,” Sive said.

Yes, of course.

It makes much more sense to research autism by turning on and off fish gene expression than it would to actually talk to autistic people.

Oh-- go fish.

They examined one gene at a time, using short strands of nucleic acids to silence genes that focused on a particular gene and prevented its protein from being created. As such, silencing caused abnormal development for 21 of the genes. Many created brain deficits, such as improved development of the brain or eyes, thinning of the brain, or inflation of the brain ventricles. Abnormalities in the wiring of axons, which carried messages to other neurons, were also discovered. The researchers concluded that the 16p11.2 genes were crucial to brain development and gained a better understanding of the association between the region and brain disorders. The team was able to restore normal development for the fish with treatments of human equivalents of the genes that had been silenced.

“That allows you to deduce that what you’re learning in fish corresponds to what that gene is doing in humans. The human gene and the fish gene are very similar,” commented Sive in the statement.

Through the research results, the group determined two genes that had a strong effect in autism and other brain disorders.

Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/1fcdd)

They examined one gene at a time, using short strands of nucleic acids to silence genes that focused on a particular gene and prevented its protein from being created. As such, silencing caused abnormal development for 21 of the genes. Many created brain deficits, such as improved development of the brain or eyes, thinning of the brain, or inflation of the brain ventricles. Abnormalities in the wiring of axons, which carried messages to other neurons, were also discovered. The researchers concluded that the 16p11.2 genes were crucial to brain development and gained a better understanding of the association between the region and brain disorders. The team was able to restore normal development for the fish with treatments of human equivalents of the genes that had been silenced.

“That allows you to deduce that what you’re learning in fish corresponds to what that gene is doing in humans. The human gene and the fish gene are very similar,” commented Sive in the statement.

Through the research results, the group determined two genes that had a strong effect in autism and other brain disorders.

Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/1fcdd)

They examined one gene at a time, using short strands of nucleic acids to silence genes that focused on a particular gene and prevented its protein from being created. As such, silencing caused abnormal development for 21 of the genes. Many created brain deficits, such as improved development of the brain or eyes, thinning of the brain, or inflation of the brain ventricles. Abnormalities in the wiring of axons, which carried messages to other neurons, were also discovered. The researchers concluded that the 16p11.2 genes were crucial to brain development and gained a better understanding of the association between the region and brain disorders. The team was able to restore normal development for the fish with treatments of human equivalents of the genes that had been silenced.

“That allows you to deduce that what you’re learning in fish corresponds to what that gene is doing in humans. The human gene and the fish gene are very similar,” commented Sive in the statement.

Through the research results, the group determined two genes that had a strong effect in autism and other brain disorders.

Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/1fcdd)