How can fruit flies help us to understand autism better? - via healthing_ca healthing health
Using fruit flies, the team selected 79 variants of ASD in 74 genes identified within the SSC, and studied the effect of each gene variant compared to a commonly found gene sequence as a control reference. They usedOne way was to monitor for repetitive behaviour in the flies, since ASD patients can show patterns of repetitive behaviour, as well as changes to their actions during social interaction.
Another way they tested was by examining the flies’ biological functions, specifically in the nervous system. By replacing the standard fly gene with the variant human gene, researchers could observe how the bugs’ bodies were impacted. The researchers also tested over-expressing the genes of interest in different types of tissue. Some genetic variants lead to conditions because they’re producing defective proteins, and others can lead to disease because of too much of another protein, co-authors Samantha Deal and Michael Harnish said.
More than 300 types of flies were used for the study. The researchers were able to identify 30 ASD linked gene variants with functional differences, about 40 per cent of the total, when comparing against the control gene.
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