A DNA analysis, conducted on 1 046 subjects having at least two boys diagnosed with autism in their family, allowed Dr. Stanley Nelson and his team at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine to discover a gene that could explain the strong prevalence of autism in boys.
According to researchers, this phenomenon could be attributed to the modification of the gene CACNA1G located on chromosome 17, where genetic markers play a role in moving calcium between cells.
"This is a strong finding. No one has scrutinized the role that CACNA1G plays in autism," stated Dr. Nelson, who explained that this genetic mutation is more common when there are two or more cases of sons affected with the disease in the family.