The study has also confirmed previous research suggesting that areas on chromosomes 7 and 16 are also significant.

Producing the study are researchers working in the International Molecular Genetic Study of Autism Consortium, an international research effort led by scientists at the Henry Wellcome Building of Genomic Medicine, Oxford University, and the Institute of Psychiatry in London.

The Autism Consortium is made up of clinicians and scientists from the UK, USA, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and Greece.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects at least 5 in 10,000 children within the first three years of life, causing impairments in communication and social interaction, as well as characteristic repetitive behavior and restricted activities and interests.

Twin and family studies have shown an increased incidence of autism and related disorders, such as Asperger's Syndrome, in families where one member is already affected, suggesting a strong genetic component to the disorder.

The Autism Consortium is seeking to identify these genes -- which are believed to be involved in brain signaling and development -- and use them as a basis for future treatment and research.

Professor Anthony Monaco, Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford, said, "Currently there is no consensus amongst researchers about what is actually going wrong in the brain when a child develops autism.

"The discovery of these regions on chromosomes 2, 7, 16 and 17 both confirms the genetic component of autism, and will enable us to narrow our search down to specific genes and the functions they control. This should cast light on what is going wrong, and hopefully give us clues on how autism could be treated."

This work has been funded by the U.K. Medical Research Council, The Wellcome Trust, BIOMED 2, EC Fifth Framework, Telethon-Italy, the Janus Korczak Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Fondation France Télécom, Conseil Régional Midi-Pyrénées, Danish Medical Research Council, Sofiefonden, the Beatrice Surovell Haskells Fund for Child Mental Health Research of Copenhagen, the Danish Natural Science Research Council, the National Institute of Child Health and Development in the U.S. and the National Institutes of Health, particularly the Collaborative Programs for Excellence in Autism Research.

07-Aug-2001