Singh S M, Castellani C A, O'Reilly R L
University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
Mol Psychiatry. 2009 Apr;14(4):356-8. doi: 10.1038/mp.2008.149. Epub 2009 Jan 13.
Genetic discoveries on Schizophrenia remain challenging. Traditional approaches have provided clues, but no genes. Novel theories that must account for extensive heterogeneity, including high discordance of monozygotic (MZD) twins, are needed. To this end, the extensive repeats of the human genome may provide the predisposition for DNA replication errors operational at every cell cycle during meiosis and mitosis. These errors will shower the genome with replication errors including copy number variations. Depending on the timing and the genes involved, this will contribute to the mutational load and disease. The evidence for such a mechanism in schizophrenia is emerging.
