Gene ties trust hormone to Williams syndrome and autism

Gene ties trust hormone to Williams syndrome and autism « Virginia Hughes:

"Most people with Williams syndrome lack one copy each of 25 consecutive genes on chromosome 7. The girl in Korenberg’s study is only missing 24: she carries two functional copies of GTF2I.

Unlike most people with Williams syndrome, she also does not approach strangers and is not overly gregarious — suggesting that GTF2I is at least partly involved in social behavior.

“She’s the only one in the world who’s got that exact deletion, with all of numbers 1 to 24 missing, so she is the only one where we can look at all of the effects of that gene,” says Korenberg."