Genes, ozone, and autism
"Autism, like most human diseases, is complex," said Scott B . Selleck, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State and one of the leaders of the research team. "There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of genes involved and up until now -- with very few exceptions -- these have been studied independently of the environmental contributors to autism, which are real. Our team of researchers represents a merger of people with genetic expertise and environmental epidemiologists, allowing us for the first time to answer questions about how genetic and environmental risk factors for autism interact." The team looked at copy-number variation -- deletions and duplications of repeated elements in the genome that lead to variation among individuals in the number of repeated elements -- as a general measure of genetic variation and five types of air pollution -- traffic-related air pollution, nitrogen oxides, two sizes of particulate matter, and ozo...