one way was to monitor for repetitive behaviour in the flies, since asd patients can show patterns of repetitive behaviour, as well as changes to their actions during social interaction. by following the flies with the variant gene’s mannerisms during “social and non-social fly behaviours,” the team was able to identify which genes had an impact on the insects.
“it’s interesting to see that manipulation of many of these genes also can cause behavioural changes in the flies,” jonathan andrews, co-author of the study said. “we found a number of human genes with asd variants that altered behaviour when expressed in flies, providing functional evidence that these have functional consequences.”
another way they tested was by examining the flies’ biological functions, specifically in the nervous system. by replacing the standard fly gene with the variant human gene, researchers could observe how the bugs’ bodies were impacted.
researchers studied fruits flies’ nervous system to understand the genetics of people with asd. getty
the researchers also tested over-expressing the genes of interest in different types of tissue. some genetic variants lead to conditions because they’re producing defective proteins, and others can lead to disease because of too much of another protein, co-authors samantha deal and michael harnish said.