HOX genes were first recognized through mutations in fruit flies. Mo Costandi comments in her article The Role …show more content…
The author of an article on Autism Speaks summarizes a research project conducted by Dr. Patricia Rodier and her colleagues Dr. Christopher Stodgell and Roland D. Ciaranello on the study of autistic children. They specifically studied the HOXA1 gene. This gene is present in early brain development. The researches found that there was a variant in the HOXA1 gene and that this was the first variant in any mammalian species. To test whether or not the HOXA1 gene directly correlated with autism the researchers ran a study. They studied the transmission rates of the gene in affected and unaffected children with autism and compared them with the genes of their parents. The results concluded that a high increase in the transmission of the gene to affected offspring proved that HOXA1 does play a role in autism or is at least an autism susceptible