WHAT IS A GENE?
Genes are very small structures inside almost every cell of
the body. They are the instructions, or blueprints, that tell
our body how to grow and develop, build necessary proteins,
and thus determine an individual's characteristics, such as
eye color and blood type. More ...
HOW GENES ARE NAMED
You may wonder how genes are named. As you may have guessed,
some names are abbreviations for the full gene names. Other
genes are named after similar genes in other organisms. More ...
WHAT IS A CHROMOSOME?
Chromosomes are structures that contain genes. Chromosomes are
visible with a microscope and are located in the nucleus of a
cell. Almost every human chromosome contains thousands of individuals
genes. More ...
HOW CHROMOSOME ABNORMALITIES HELP US FIND GENES
Genetic researchers use many different tools and strategies to
look at the genetic material (DNA) inside our cells to find the
exact gene(s) that cause a genetic disorder such as autism. More ...
HOW GENOME SCREENS HELP US FIND GENES
In order to determine the genes that may be involved, scientists
also perform what are referred to as "genome screens." To do this
they use maps of the chromosomes in order to look for genes. More ...
Linkage between a region of chromosome 2 and autism has been reported by
at least 3 different autism research teams. There are a number of genes associated with gastrointestinal
function on chromosome 2 and several of those may be investigated as possible candidate genes for autism
in the future.