Schizophrenia secrets in the folds of DNA

20 October 2016 - In 2014, a large-scale genome-wide association study of people with schizophrenia linked the disorder to small DNA changes in more than 100 locations in the genome.

Surprisingly, the majority of the altered portions were found to lay outside of the actual genes. This perplexed researchers; understanding what roles these snippets of code play in schizophrenia has been challenging.

Some of the non-gene locations identified in the studies were found to be in so-called regulatory regions. These sections of code repress or enhance the activity of certain genes that lie close to them within the genome.

Overall, the study, published this week in Nature, identified hundreds of genes that might be abnormally regulated in a schizophrenic brain.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/313573.php

what i understand of what theyre saying is genes are not the only perpetrator. its the spaces between called regulatory regions that also play a role