Genetic Advances in Autism
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Updated: Dec 8, 2025

Author Spotlight: Exploring Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptoms in Fruit Flies — Genetic Models and Behavioral Tests
Published on: September 6, 2024
Anita Thapar1, Michael Rutter2
1Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences and MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Cardiff University, Hadyn Ellis Building, Cardiff, Maindy Road, Wales, CF24 4HQ, UK. Thapar@cardiff.ac.uk.
Abstract:
In the last 40 years, there has been a huge increase in autism genetics research and a rapidly growing number of discoveries. We now know autism is one of the most highly heritable disorders with negligible shared environmental contributions. Recent discoveries also show that rare variants of large effect size as well as small effect common gene variants all contribute to autism risk. These discoveries challenge traditional diagnostic boundaries and highlight huge heterogeneity in autism. In this review, we consider some of the key findings that are shaping current understanding of autism and what these discoveries mean for clinicians.
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