"Jumping Genes" Linked To Schizophrenia

sciencehabit writes "Roaming bits of DNA that can relocate and proliferate throughout the genome, called 'jumping genes,' may contribute to schizophrenia, a new study suggests (abstract). These rogue genetic elements pepper the brain tissue of deceased people with the disorder and multiply in response to stressful events, such as infection during pregnancy, which increase the risk of the disease. The study could help explain how genes and environment work together to produce the complex disorder and may even point to ways of lowering the risk of the disease, researchers say."

Re:Retroposons

[Samantha Wright]

Actually, the L1 element (the specific genetic feature that TFA is about) is a retrotransposon [wikipedia.org], which is functionally different from a retroposon [wikipedia.org]. Transposons [wikipedia.org] are transposable elements ('jumping genes') that include the hardware necessary to move themselves; retroposons lack this ability. Retrotransposons share the "retro" in their name with retroposons because they are both converted into RNA and then back again during the copy process. It is considered incorrect to call a retrotransposon a retroposon, even though functionally they have all of the features of a retroposon (and more).

Re:Hilarious. 'Schizophrenia' is caused by CHILDHO

[Anonymous Coward]

There's little evidence that what happens to children causes these disorders in adults. Barring organic brain damage, it's the underlying thought processes that cause a lot of dysfunction later on, but it's not the events themselves. Which is why one child might be scarred for life by being molested and another emerges relatively unscathed to become an advocate for the abused. The difference is primarily in how the children thought about the events. This applies to most other things as well, the way that you view and cope with the event is far more important to ones future risks of mental illness than the event itself.

There's also typically a genetic component that makes it easier or harder to cope with such situations as well as a cultural aspect that may include more or less helpful responses to the event.

Schizophrenia isn't a collection of behaviors, the behaviors are what psychologists use to identify the disorder, but it's not what causes the disorder. Now, if we started to give everybody in the general populace a SPECT or fMRI to see if they needed treatment, we would likely find that the diagnostic criteria change, but as people don't come in for random screenings against every possible mental illness, the screenings tend to focus on the behaviors. I expect that this will change as the brain scanning techniques become more affordable. Even a relatively inexpensive SPECT scan runs several grand and is overkill in most cases.

What you're arguing is like there being no such thing as a table because it's just a label given to movable objects that have a flat surface on top to hold things on while you're working.