Kissing cousins helping to solve autism puzzle
Scientist # 1: We need to study large families with many, many children.
Scientist # 2: How about the Catholics?
Scientist # 1: The parents also have to be related.
Scientist # 2: Oh. Okay then.
Research on large Middle Eastern families has helped scientists pinpoint six new genes implicated in autism, a new study published Thursday said.
[...]
In traditional Arab societies, cousins commonly wed, making it more likely that rare mutations will be expressed, the team said in study published in Science.
And Middle Eastern families typically have significantly more children than those in the west, which makes them relatively more useful in genetic studies. [...]
Slightly more than six percent of the 88 families had rare inherited deletions in DNA regions linked to autism, the research found.
The 88 families were from eight countries: Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Mullah Krekar must be SO proud.
Scientist #2 is brilliant!