"Jumping Genes" Linked To Schizophrenia

sciencehabit writes "Roaming bits of DNA that can relocate and proliferate throughout the genome, called 'jumping genes,' may contribute to schizophrenia, a new study suggests (abstract). These rogue genetic elements pepper the brain tissue of deceased people with the disorder and multiply in response to stressful events, such as infection during pregnancy, which increase the risk of the disease. The study could help explain how genes and environment work together to produce the complex disorder and may even point to ways of lowering the risk of the disease, researchers say."

Comments

Huh?

[mythosaz]

These rogue genetic elements pepper the brain tissue of deceased people with the disorder and multiply in response to stressful events, such as infection during pregnancy, which increase the risk of the disease.

What sort of pregnancies and stressful events are deceased people having?

Re:Huh?

[mythosaz]

Then perhaps the writer of the article should have chosen a better voice to have written his article in.

As written, these rogue genetic elements multiply in the brain tissue of the deceased in response to stress.

Re:Huh?

[denmarkw00t]

UGH.

Sorry, but, please, can we stop this? Schizophrenia is not a "Hi I'm me. 'And I am me too!'" kind of deal. At all. Period. It's not Multiple Personality Disorder, in fact it usually doesn't involve anything like what any media portrayal has ever been. It's more of an intrusive pattern. You know who you are, but there are people whispering, singing, yelling, in your ears - outside your window - in the bathroom - anywhere around you. Telling you to do things? Maybe. Probably not. More like being annoying. But one turns into two turns into many turns into noise and chatter and intense periods of thoughts you can't escape, you can't focus on, and you can't stop. It's incredibly debilitating, but more often than not you have no problem understanding it's not "you" that's in those voices and thoughts - the real problem is understanding that those voices and thoughts are indeed coming FROM you.

The idea that schizophrenia is akin to what you see in Sybil or the media in general is usually wrong. I've yet to see any good reporting on the topic, but people throw it around plenty. "Oh, the market was up, the market was down: it's being schizophrenic." No, if the market was "schizophrenic" it would have trouble concentrating and possibly hallucinate while being extremely paranoid. At times. For the most part it would keep to itself and try to read or at least talk to someone else because it's going through something terribly difficult that no one takes the time to understand.

Re:Huh?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

What sort of pregnancies and stressful events are deceased people having?

I can only imagine how stressful it is when you're dead and suddenly find out that you're pregnant. In fact, forget the "dead" part.

Re:Huh?

[swillden]

The market hates being anthropomorphized. Please stop before you piss it off.

Retroposons

[HiChris!]

Jumping genes are better known as retroposons. Shame on Science for not explaining this.

Re:Retroposons

[Samantha Wright]

Actually, the L1 element (the specific genetic feature that TFA is about) is a retrotransposon, which is functionally different from a retroposon. Transposons are transposable elements ('jumping genes') that include the hardware necessary to move themselves; retroposons lack this ability. Retrotransposons share the "retro" in their name with retroposons because they are both converted into RNA and then back again during the copy process. It is considered incorrect to call a retrotransposon a retroposon, even though functionally they have all of the features of a retroposon (and more).

Re:Retroposons

[TheloniousToady]

If a person from south of the border has retroposons, do they have Mexican jumping genes?

Re:Hilarious. 'Schizophrenia' is caused by CHILDHO

[Anonymous Coward]

There's little evidence that what happens to children causes these disorders in adults. Barring organic brain damage, it's the underlying thought processes that cause a lot of dysfunction later on, but it's not the events themselves. Which is why one child might be scarred for life by being molested and another emerges relatively unscathed to become an advocate for the abused. The difference is primarily in how the children thought about the events. This applies to most other things as well, the way that you view and cope with the event is far more important to ones future risks of mental illness than the event itself.

There's also typically a genetic component that makes it easier or harder to cope with such situations as well as a cultural aspect that may include more or less helpful responses to the event.

Schizophrenia isn't a collection of behaviors, the behaviors are what psychologists use to identify the disorder, but it's not what causes the disorder. Now, if we started to give everybody in the general populace a SPECT or fMRI to see if they needed treatment, we would likely find that the diagnostic criteria change, but as people don't come in for random screenings against every possible mental illness, the screenings tend to focus on the behaviors. I expect that this will change as the brain scanning techniques become more affordable. Even a relatively inexpensive SPECT scan runs several grand and is overkill in most cases.

What you're arguing is like there being no such thing as a table because it's just a label given to movable objects that have a flat surface on top to hold things on while you're working.

Re:Editor's Bad News / Good News

[TheloniousToady]

Maybe so, but anyone who would sign a release to have their brain dissected ought to have his head examined.