By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on June 20, 2012

It may seem a long way from zebrafish to humans, buta team of MIT biologists is investigating the genetic basis ofautism, schizophrenia and other human brain disorders by focusing on the freshwater minnow.

As it happens, the zebrafish has long been studied as a model for brain development from molecular, genetic and neuroscience perspectives. In a new study, the researchers set out to explore a group of about two dozen genes known to be either missing or duplicated in about 1 percent of autistic patients.

Although most of the genes functions were unknown, researchers discovered that nearly all of them produced brain abnormalities when deleted in zebrafish embryos.

The findings should help researchers pinpoint genes for further study in mammals, said Dr. Hazel Sive, a professor of biology and associate dean of MITs School of Science.

Autism is thought to arise from a variety of genetic defects; this research is part of a broad effort to identify culprit genes and develop treatments that target them.

Thats really the goal to go from an animal that shares molecular pathways, but doesnt get autistic behaviors, into humans who have the same pathways and do show these behaviors, said Sive.

Sive and her colleagues described their findings in a recent paper in the online edition of the journal Disease Models and Mechanisms.

Sive recalls that some of her colleagues chuckled when she first proposed studying human brain disorders in fish, but it is actually a logical starting point, she said.

Brain disorders are difficult to study because most of the symptoms are behavioral, and the biological mechanisms behind those behaviors are not well understood, she said.

More here: