July 12, 2017

New research has uncovered compelling evidence that genetics plays a major role in how children look at the world and whether they have a preference for gazing at people's eyes and faces or at objects.

The discovery by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta adds new detail to understanding the causes of autism spectrum disorder. The results show that the moment-to-moment movements of children's eyes as they seek visual information about their environment are abnormal in autism and under stringent genetic control in all children.

The study is published online July 12 in the journal Nature.

"Now that we know that social visual orientation is heavily influenced by genetic factors, we have a new way to trace the direct effects of genetic factors on early social development, and to design interventions to ensure that children at risk for autism acquire the social environmental inputs they need to grow and develop normally," said lead author John N. Constantino, MD, the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Washington University. "These new findings demonstrate a specific mechanism by which genes can modify a child's life experience. Two children in the same room, for example, can have completely different social experiences if one carries an inherited tendency to focus on objects while the other looks at faces, and these differences can play out repeatedly as the brain develops early in childhood."

The researchers studied 338 toddlers ages 18 to 24 months using eye-tracking technology, developed at Emory, allowing them to trace young children's visual orientation to faces, eyes or objects as the children watched videos featuring people talking and interacting.

The children, who were part of the Missouri Family Registry, a database of twins that is maintained at Washington University School of Medicine, included 41 pairs of identical twins -; such twins share 100 percent of their DNA -; and 42 sets of fraternal twins -; who share only about 50 percent of their DNA. In addition, the researchers studied 84 unrelated children and 88 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

Constantino, with fellow investigators Warren R. Jones, PhD, and Ami Klin, PhD, of Emory University School of Medicine, evaluated the eye-tracking data. Each twin was tested independently, at different times, without the other twin present.

How much one identical twin looked at another person's eyes or face was almost perfectly matched by his or her co-twin. But in fraternal twins, eye movements in one twin accounted for less than 10 percent of the variation in the eye movements of his or her co-twin. Identical twins also were more likely to move their eyes at the same moments in time, in the same directions, toward the same locations and the same content, mirroring one another's behavior to within as little as 17 milliseconds. Taken together, the data indicate a strong influence of genetics on visual behavior.

"The moment-to-moment match in the timing and direction of gaze shifts for identical twins was stunning and inferred a very precise level of genetic control," said Constantino, who directs the William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Washington University. "We have spent years studying the transmission of inherited susceptibility to autism in families, and it now appears that by tracking eye movements in infancy, we can identify a key factor linked to genetic risk for the disorder that is present long before we can make a clinical diagnosis of autism."

The effects persisted as the children grew. When the twins were tested again about a year later, the same effects were found: Identical twins remained almost perfectly matched in where they looked, but fraternal twins became even more different than they were when initially evaluated.

Autism spectrum disorder is a lifelong condition that affects about 1 in 68 children in the United States. It is known to be caused by genetic factors, and earlier work by the Emory University team had shown that babies who look progressively less at people's eyes, beginning as early as 2-6 months of age, have an elevated risk for autism. Meanwhile, Constantino and others in the group have studied how subtle behaviors and symptoms that characterize autism aggregate in the close relatives of individuals with autism, as a way to identity inherited susceptibilities that run in families and contribute to autism risk.

"Studies like this one break new ground in our understanding of autism spectrum disorder: Establishing a direct connection between the behavioral symptoms of autism and underlying genetic factors is a critical step on the path to new treatments," said Lisa Gilotty, PhD, chief of the Research Program on Autism Spectrum Disorders at the National Institute of Mental Health, which provided support for the study in tandem with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Those new treatments could include interventions that motivate very young children to focus their gazes more on faces and less on objects.

"Testing infants to see how they are allocating visual attention represents a new opportunity to evaluate the effects of early interventions to specifically target social disengagement, as a way to prevent the most challenging disabilities associated with autism," said senior author Warren R. Jones, PhD, director of autism research at the Marcus Autism Center at Emory. "Such interventions might be appropriate for infants showing early signs of risk or those who have been born into families in which autism has affected close relatives. In addition, learning why some infants who tend to not look at eyes and faces develop without social disability is another priority."

The small percentage of healthy children who tended to avoid looking at eyes and faces may provide researchers with insight on how to successfully compensate for those tendencies and therefore inform the development of higher-impact interventions that will produce the best possible outcomes for infants with inherited susceptibility to autism.

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Genetics plays major role in how infants visually explore social world, twin study reveals - News-Medical.net

Testing mares and stallions can help ensure foals are born free or at low risk of some genetic diseases.

Photo: iStock

Genetics refers to the study of genes and the way traits of conditions are passed down from one generation to another. Genomics, on the other hand, describes the study of all genes (the genome) including interactions of genes with each other and the environment. Although much of the genetic and genomic research done in Thoroughbreds is applied to racing performance, the full breadth of application of genetic and genomic research goes beyond that of faster horses.

Genetics and genomics allow for a more complete understanding of both simple and complex diseases. From a genetic perspective, simple is a term used to describe a disease that follows a single gene pattern of inheritance. These diseases are controlled by one gene, with other genes and outside factors having very little influence (i.e., the presence of the gene = disease). Diseases inherited this way are typically qualitative, where an animal either has the disease or it doesnt (i.e., lethal white foal syndrome).

Complex diseases, on the other hand, are usually controlled by not one, but many different genes and are often affected by environmental factors, such as nutrition and living conditions (e.g., cervical vertebral stenotic myelopathy, or wobbler syndrome). This combination of both genetic and environmental factors results in complex or multifactorial diseases. Basically, three different scenarios determine the manifestation of a complex disease:

As a result, complex genetic diseases can be extremely difficult to diagnose early and/or prevent using tradition methods such as pedigree analyses and veterinary evaluations. In some instances, a simple disease might even be classified as complex based on the inability of epidemiological studies and pedigree analyses to find common factors among cases.

Hydrocephalus, for example, is a developmental disorder that often results in stillbirth of foals and dystocia (difficult birth) in dams. Possible causes of the defect in horses could not be prove based on field data and pedigree analyses suggested the disorder to be complex. With this in mind, a genomic scan of 82 horses (13 cases and 69 controls) was performed and a small section of the genome was identified. Genomic sequencing was then performed on 10 horses (four cases and six controls) and the genetic cause of the disorder was pinpointed.

Figure 1

Two copies of a mutation that changes a "C" nucleotide to a "T" nucleotide results in hydrocephalus.

Photo: Equine Disease Quarterly

Ultimately, two copies of a mutation that changed a C nucleotide to a T nucleotide (Figure 1) resulted in the disorder. Although previously believed to be a complex disease, genetic and genomic methods were able to prove that the disorder was, in fact, simple, leading to the development of a genetic test that can help breeders avoid the disorder.

It is important to note the difference between a genetic test of a simple disease, such as hydrocephalus, and a genetic test for a complex disease (e.g., osteochondrosis). Genetic tests for simple diseases can confirm or rule out a genetic condition; however, genetic tests for complex diseases only help to determine an individuals chance of developing a genetic disorderan important distinction when genetic tests are used to help make breeding decisions. In either scenario, genetics and genomics in Thoroughbreds have far-reaching potential beyond that of breeding and selecting faster horses.

Understanding diseases caused by a single gene as well as complex diseases caused by multiple genes and the environment can lead to early diagnosis and targeted treatments. While the list of reasons a racehorse never reaches its potential might seem endless, genetics and genomics provide an opportunity to cross certain disorders off that list, thereby helping to eliminate or reduce the occurrence of those diseases.

CONTACTBrandon D. Velie, MS, PhDbrandon.velie@slu.seSwedish University of Agricultural Sciences Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Uppsala, Sweden

This is an excerpt from Equine Disease Quarterly, funded by underwriters at Lloyds, London.

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Genetics and Genomics in Racing: Speed Isn't Everything - TheHorse.com

Investment to the tune of US$25m has been announced by Hendrix Genetics in the form of a new commercial turkey hatchery in South Dakota, United States.

The hatchery will provide up to 30m day-old Hybrid poults and lead to the addition of 100 new temporary and permanent jobs at the site at Beresford.

The new hatchery will have the capacity for 35m hatching eggs and will be fitted with cutting edge equipment to ensure the highest biosecurity and poult quality.

Dave Libertini, Hendrix Genetics managing director, said: The new hatchery allows us to continue to deliver on our core focus of providing top quality genetics that match the needs of the market and our customers. Photo: ANP / Justin Sullivan

It is part of a substantial investment plan by Hendrix, which includes new hatcheries, egg production facilities and a modern transportation fleet and follows previous investments in grandparent facilities in Kansas and Nebraska.

Dave Libertini, Hendrix Genetics managing director, said: The new hatchery allows us to continue to deliver on our core focus of providing top quality genetics that match the needs of the market and our customers. This is a critical component of our plan to modernise the commercial turkey distribution infrastructure in the USA.

Matt McCready, Hendrix Genetics director of business development, added the hatchery would join the network of owned, aligned and contracted hatchery capacity set up to supply the strong demand for Hybrid genetics in the USA.

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Hendrix Genetics announce new US turkey hatchery investment - Poultry World (subscription)

ABS Global announced July 12 the launch of NuEra Genetics, a new brand that encompasses all proprietary ABS beef breeding programs, evaluations, and indexes in order to deliver differentiated and superior terminal genetics for beef supply chain profitability.

ABS said NuEra Genetics symbolizes the next chapter in the history of ABS beef genetics and a new era of ABS beef genetic improvement.

This new brand provides customers access to continuous genetic improvement and a wider array of tailored evaluations and indexes that deliver genetic progress and profit faster, ABS said.

How will customers benefit? According to ABS, the answer is found in the NuEra Genetics tagline: Efficiency. Profitability. Sustainability. With NuEra, the goal is to optimize the customers efficiency, leading to greater profitability, and ultimately allowing for a sustainable system.

The new brand will strive to:

Customers should look for new products to be released under the NuEra Genetics brand in the coming months. Such products include proprietary indexes tailored to specific customer needs, making it easier for customers to select the most efficient and profitable genetics. In the long-term, NuEra will consistently deliver robust genetic improvement, year-on-year, to our customers, raising the bar of what is possible for them to achieve.

As we see dairymen focus the adoption of sexed genetics on their high-ranking females, NuEra Genetics will provide these producers with elite beef genetics for those lower-ranking cows, adding a significant revenue stream to their businesses, said Nate Zwald, chief operating officer of ABS Globals dairy division.

Jerry Thompson, chief operating officer of ABS Globals beef division, said NuEra Genetics has the potential to add significant value to the beef industry globally. Weve only really just scratched the surface and creating our own genetics to drive customer profitability will help us tap into many areas of growth opportunity.

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ABS Global launches NuEra Genetics beef program - Feedstuffs

Afsaneh Khetrapal | July 12, 2017 | News Medical

The term tongue twisting comprises rolling, folding, rotating, adjusting, and turning of the tongueAll aspects of a person are in some way influenced by genetics. Likewise, the tongue structure or its movement is controlled by ones respective gene patternTongue twisting is not a genetic disease or disorder, but a unique activity by a person using his tongue.

The early history of tongue genetics stated that the ability of tongue twisting is due to the influence of traitsThe tongue rolling ability occurs due to the influence of a dominant allele of the gene. A person who has either one or two copies of the dominant allele will be able to twist their tongue. In the case that a person is born with two recessive alleles, they cannot twist their tongue. In most cases, parents with a twisting-tongue ability can give birth to non-tongue twisters, and vice versa.

After a long-drawn out struggle, geneticists and researchers have finally proved that tongue twisting does not occur by genetic transformation. Genetic inheritance has only a minimal role to play in tongue twisting skills.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:Genetics of Tongue Twisting

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Genetics of tongue twisting: Why some people do it while others can't - Genetic Literacy Project

Ah, summer vacation. The time of year when high school students laze on the beach, sleep in and stay up late binge watching their favorite TV shows.

But Greenwood native Emelee Guest is doing none of that. Her days have been occupied looking for mutations on Cullin-4B, a gene that has been linked to intellectual disabilities.

Ive been working with gene CUL4B and basically studying mutation E900X, which is basically a truncating mutation and Ive been studying the effects that a treatment called G-418 has on the mutation, is how the 17-year-old describes her work.

An incoming senior at the Governors School for Science and Mathematics in Hartsville, the 17-year-old is taking part in an intensive six-week research experience at the Greenwood Genetic Center under the guidance of Dr. Anand Srivastava, associate director for the facilitys Center for Molecular Studies.

Guest, who spent her freshman and sophomore years at Greenwood High School, said she was drawn to the field of genetics because she has relatives living with cystic fibrosis and epilepsy.

Part of my motivation is to help them. Ive watched them grow up with them, Guest said.

Guest is in elite company. Just one of 12 specialized, residential high schools in the country, the Governors School for Science and Mathematics which has an acceptance process offers more than 50 STEM classes with college and graduate-level opportunities and AP classes that enable students to earn multiple credits before starting their high education careers.

At my old school, we would sit there and learn, but there would be no application of it and there, we have labs once a week and they have more biology electives, Guest said. People say, get there, get anywhere, and its the hardest two years of your life.

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Srivastava, whos taken summer interns from the Governors School for more than 10 years, said the arrangement is mutually beneficial for research institutions like the Genetic Center, which gets access to the next generation of scientists while providing real-world experience for students.

They are very committed, they desire to learn because they have some goals, Srivastava said. We try to design a project that is part of some ongoing project and they get to work with somebody in my lab, which allows them to learn and become independent.

Guest, who is undecided between pursuing a career in genetics and ecology, said the practical skills of working at summer internship in a high pressure laboratory setting are impactful.

I dont think I could have guessed what it was going to be like, just because I havent a lot of experience just some little things in class and its nothing like the real thing, she said. Its a little stressful sometimes because its a lot of small things that have to correctly but once you get used to it, its really exciting.

Contact staff writer Adam Benson at 864-943-5650 or on Twitter @ABensonIJ.

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Greenwood native doing high-level genetics work in hometown - Index-Journal

Genetics may play a larger role how children see the world, and how that world is altered when a child has autism, a small observational study found.

Researchers writing in Nature examined 250 typically developing toddlers who watched videos of someone speaking or children playing where they could look at either the eyes, mouth, body or surrounding objects. Identical twins tended to look at the same thing, and looked at the subject's eyes and mouth at the same time compared to non-identical twins and non-sibling pairs. But when examining a group of children with autism, those children looked at the subject's eyes and mouth much less.

The authors said that their findings could lead to more findings about which genes are involved in social engagement and how autism may have the ability to interrupt these genetic pathways.

2017-07-12T15:19:16-0400

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Genetics May Dictate A Kid's View of the World (Nature - MedPage Today