tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33856575.post115746287755424544..comments2023-05-03T08:22:15.316-04:00Comments on News on Genetics: Paternal Age and Autism RiskStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15264977010144529019noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33856575.post-20801857752969171952006-11-25T14:15:00.000-05:002006-11-25T14:15:00.000-05:00I never meant to dispute the idea that mutations a...I never meant to dispute the idea that mutations accumulate with paternal age. However, the cases that Crow points to in the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/94/16/8380">1997 PNAS article</a> appear to involve a few genes that are somehow quite special. In a <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/301/5633/606">2003 comment in Science</a>, Crow describes them as "hot-spots occurring almost exclusively in males and rising steeply with age. Three genes--fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3, mutated in achondroplasia), FGFR2 (mutated in Apert's syndrome), and RET (mutated in multiple endocrine neoplasia)--are examples of the hot-spot class. In this class, genes carry mutations that are clustered at just one or two nucleotide sites." He then discusses at length the hypothesis that these specific mutations are selected in the male germ line, a hypothesis that <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/301/5633/643">Goriely et al.</a> put right in the title of their article: "Evidence for Selective Advantage of Pathogenic FGFR2 Mutations in the Male Germ Line." The title of Crow's commentary was "There's Something Curious About Paternal-Age Effects."<br /><br />So, I'll concede the point that another such hotspot might be operating in autism, but whatever is going on with these hotspots is curious indeed, and I was looking for more ordinary explanations.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15264977010144529019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33856575.post-1163200278231859672006-11-10T18:11:00.000-05:002006-11-10T18:11:00.000-05:00The snideness of the remarks of "s.h." is quite un...The snideness of the remarks of "s.h." is quite uncalled for, but Crow's 1997 PNAS article points out several genetic diseases with risks that increase with paternal age; so this observation is (admittedly indirect) evidence for a genetic basis for autism... wouldn't an epigenetic basis be more suggested by a correlation with maternal age after correcting for paternal age?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33856575.post-1160523826909010492006-10-10T19:43:00.000-04:002006-10-10T19:43:00.000-04:00I'm certainly familiar with both spontaneous mutat...I'm certainly familiar with both spontaneous mutations and James F. Crow. It seems unlikely that random genetic mutations would specifically cause autism, although I suppose that is possible.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15264977010144529019noreply@blogger.com