Transposable elements occur more frequently in autism-risk genes: Implications for the role of genomic instability in autism

Abstract

An extremely large number of genes have been associated with autism. The functions of these genes span numerous domains and prove challenging in the search for commonalities underlying the conditions. In this study, we instead looked at characteristics of the genes themselves, specifically in the nature of their transposable element content. Utilizing available sequence databases, we compared occurrence of transposons in autismrisk genes to randomized controls and found that transposable content was significantly greater in our autism group. These results suggest a relationship between transposable element content and autism-risk genes and have implications for the stability of those genomic regions. © 2013 Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag Wien.