Mutant Fly Gene Linked to Mental Disability, Emory University Study

The same genetic mutation that makes it hard from fruit flies to climb and use their wings also appears to play a role in inherited intellectual disability in humans. The flies can’t hold their wings tightly against their bodies, and have trouble with flying and climbing behaviors, because they have mutations in a gene called dNab2. In humans, mutations in the same gene (with a clunkier name, ZC3H14) have been found to cause intellectual disability (ID) in studies of some Iranian families. ID describes the condition that was previously called mental retardation. The protein encoded by Nab2/ZC3H14 appears to be part of a group of proteins—including the one disrupted in fragile X syndrome—that regulate brain cell function by binding RNA.