Autism and the Paternal Effect
Scientists at the Manovikas Biomedical Research and Diagnostic Centre in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) have found that a paternal gene—-a gene passed on by fathers—may offer a clue in figuring out the cause of autism; they do note that they have found this “‘possible paternal effect’” in only a small sample of children, as reported in the January 26th Science Daily.
Anecdotally, there are some autistic relatives in my son Charlie’s family tree—-among some of my relatives. I am curious to find out more about the “paternal effect”; might it not be a combined “paternal-maternal effect”?
3 opinions for Autism and the Paternal Effect
Julia
Jan 27, 2007 at 11:03 pm
There are autistic traits in both mine and my husband’s families. I can’t really pin down what each of my children might have gotten from each side, except my younger son (”most likely to be NT”) has speech issues close to what my (if she’s not NT, she’s the closest any of us are to it) sister had at that age, and it’s not really linked to autism — just the palate is shaped a little weirdly, and grows to something more normal by age 6, so that particuar speech problem is outgrown. (Although one of the defining features I could remember with my sister is reversed in my son - she’d say m but not n, he says n but not m. Most of the rest is about what I remember from my sister.)
Axinar
Jan 28, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Not only does there seem to be some connection to autistic / Asperger’s symptoms on my father’s side of the family, it seems to disproportionately affect the eldest male in each family.
Of coruse what’s even more curious is that women DO seem to be able to act as carriers.
The most strongly affected were my grandfather’s eldest brother, my grandfather’s niece’s oldest son, and my father, the oldest male in his immediate family.
My grandfather was largely unaffected as was his niece.
My great-grandfather was a middle child, and, by modern standards he might be considered to have a very mild case of Asperger’s (very narrow interests, early reading, etc.), he was very social, and, in fact, was at least once elected to political office.
Leslie Feldman
Feb 13, 2007 at 11:12 pm
I believe that familial autism/asperger’s and paternal Age autism are probably two very different types of autism.
In familial autism, it does seem the mother could be a carrier because the ratio of boys to girls seems to be between 6:1 and 3:1.
In paternal AGE autism the ratio was close to 1:1, in Reichenberg’s study, with no known family history. Some of the other conditions associated in research studies with advancing paternal Age are non-familial schizophrenia, up to 1/3 of all schizophrenia is linked to paternal Age, Alzheimer’s without a major gene, some epilepsy, diabetes1, prostate cancer, some very early childhood cancers, MS in one study, early pre-menopausal breast cancer, nervous system cancers lots of autosomal dominant conditions such as Marfans etc. Hemophilia, and Duchennes MD risk is raised, in non-familial cases, if the mothers father was older at her birth. It would be great if the Paternal AGE effect was more talked about and widely known because it involves the Male Biological Clock and DNA damage in sperm and maybe a decrease in the mechanism called apoptosis in which defective sperm are eliminated. These genetic problems are only in sperm and not in the other cells of the father. Certainly the public should know that the older age of the father is responsible for 1/4 to1/3 of all cases of schizophrenia.
With so many more men,(40% more)in 2002, fathering babies between 35-49 and up, since 1980, and 20% fewer men fathering babies under the age of 30, it would be expected that all these conditions and more that haven’t been studied would show a sharp increase by now.
I think the paternal effect discussed in India and paternal Age effect must be totally different.
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