Results+(autism)

Research shows that some diagnosed cases of Autism Spectrum Disorder do seem to share correlations to certain variants, however this is only a small percentage of cases. A majority of these cases do not share the same variant, making it difficult to find similarities between different cases. Due to the high number of males diagnosed with autism compared to females, researchers are continuing to look into the role of X-linked genes and specific variants associated with them (Schaefer, 2016). Research has determined that the brain has high levels of gene expression and that the expression patterns change over development. Sixty percent of gene expression changes occur around birth. As an individual moves from infancy to adolescence there is a 9% expression change. The percentage continues to decrease to 4% between adolescence and adulthood. When it comes to neurodevelopmental disorders that are commonly diagnosed during childhood, temporal gene expression patterns are looked at first (Ziats, 2015). It was found that MEF2A is an activity dependent gene used in regulating other genes that have been linked to an autism diagnosis (Lanz, 2015). One study looked into the potential role that HAR variants could play in the development of autism. Twenty-eight of thirty-two HAR target genes overlap with autism. No HAR mutations have been linked to a neurological disease at this point, but the possibility is not being ruled out due to the overlapping of the target genes (Doan, 2016).

Abstract and Introduction Materials and Methods Broader Impacts Discussion Works Cited

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