chromosome 16

The nature-nurture seesaw swung wildly again this week, with reports of research that seems to indicate a genetic origin for autism, plus word that vaccines aren't to blame. A person could get whiplash trying to follow this story. I'll just keep on keeping on, I guess. Here's a decent overview with links to the research reports.

Here's a chromosome 16 – the culprit of this latest act in the autism research spectacle – graphic with caption I grabbed from the Joint Genome Institute which compares human chromosome 16 to similar nonhuman chromosomes:

Segmental homology maps show continuous segments between human chromosome 16 and homologous portions of chimp, mouse, rat, dog, and chicken genomes.