Definition
In recent years, large-scale human genetics studies have led to considerable advances in our understanding of the biology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In particular, these studies have resulted in the identification of a growing list of ASD risk genes that are beginning to converge on common biological mechanisms (De Rubeis et al. 2014; Iossifov et al. 2014; Sanders et al. 2015). At the same time, scientists now face the challenge of leveraging these genetic findings to elucidate the neural circuit mechanisms underlying ASD and to identify novel pharmacotherapies that selectively target these mechanisms. Here, scientists have utilized model systems to advance from risk gene discovery to the elucidation of basic neurobiological mechanisms. These systems include mouse “knockout” models, in which the function of a particular risk gene is disrupted, as well as human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are generated from the cells of an affected individual...
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Sakai, C., Hoffman, E.J. (2016). Zebrafish Models. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102152-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102152-1
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