BostonFemales express 2 copies of ZFX, an autism-network gene.
Autism is diagnosed up to 4 times as often in males, though that figure is contested.
Rebecca Andersen’s team found silencing any of 20 autism-linked genes lowered most of the others, and ZFX was related to many.
“The paper doesn’t show that increasing ZFX expression rescues the consequences of the variants,” said Louise Gallagher, an outside researcher.
Gallagher says hormonal influences and other sex-linked mechanisms probably contribute too.
How each outlet framed it
- New Scientist
- centers ZFX's effect on a network of autism-linked genes as the mechanism for the female gap, quoting Rebecca Andersen
Sources: New Scientist