Originally published October 24 2005
Toronto researchers identify gene associated with speech impairment
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A team of researchers from the University of Toronto, Capital Health's Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton and the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children have identified a gene that inhibits the development of certain language skills.
By using some of the latest genetic screening methods designed to look for differences in the amount of DNA in particular chromosomes, the researchers discovered that the boy carries additional copies (termed duplication) of around 27 genes on chromosome 7.
The boy can understand what is said to him at the level of a seven-year-old but his expressive language and speech are at the level of a two-and-a-half-year-old.
"Our results show that changes in the copy number of specific genes can dramatically influence human language abilities," says senior author Lucy Osborne, a U of T professor of medicine.
This mutation -- an addition of 1.5 million DNA base pairs -- was predicted several years ago to exist by Osborne and her collaborator Stephen Scherer of The Hospital for Sick Children and U of T. "While estimated to be present in more than a half million people worldwide, the duplication has evaded detection since the disease was unknown until now, but also because finding this type of mutation is technically challenging," explains Martin Somerville, director of the Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory at the Stollery Children's Hospital.
Other authors on the study are Edwin Young and Wayne Loo, Institute of Medical Science and Department of Molecular & Medical Genetics, University of Toronto; Stephen Bamforth and Margaret Lilley, Department of Medical Genetics, University of Alberta; Carolyn Mervis and Ella Peregrine, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville; Miguel del Campo and Luis P�rez-Jurado, Unitat de Gen�tica, Departament Ci�ncies Experimentals i de la Salut, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona; and Colleen Morris, Department of Pediatrics, University of Nevada School of Medicine; and Eul-Ju Seo and Stephen Scherer, Program in Genetics & Genomic Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto and U of T.
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