N E U RO S C I E N C E

ScienceScope
Genes That Guide Brain Development
Third Flood for Grand Canyon
Linked to Dyslexia The U.S. Geological Survey and its part-
ners that care for the Grand Canyon are
Genetic variations that cause miscues in Also at the meeting and in a paper pub-
planning to flood the canyon for the third
brain development may play an important lished on 28 October in PLoS Genetics, Kere
time in 10 years to preserve sandbars
role in reading disabilities such as dyslexia, and colleagues reported evidence linking a along the Colorado River and study the
according to research presented last week at gene on chromosome 3 called ROBO1 to river. Over the years, the Glen Canyon
a meeting of the American Society of dyslexia. In one man with dyslexia, the team Dam has trapped sediment and altered
Human Genetics in Salt Lake City, Utah. found that the ROBO1 gene had been dis- water flow, changing the river environ-
Before these studies, no one has really rupted by a freak genetic accident: a piece of ment. As a follow-up to previous dam
known whats going on in the brain to cause chromosome 8 wedging itself into chromo- releases, hydrologists will lower the flow
dyslexia, says Juha Kere, a molecular geneti- some 3. Keres team also found reduced later this year and then increase it in early
cist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, ROBO1 activity in 21 dyslexic individuals spring to push sand into sandbars
Sweden, and leader of one of the studies. from a large Finnish family. The fruit fly ver- throughout the canyon. Previous releases
Taken together, Kere says, the new have not spread sand as uniformly as offi-
work strongly suggests that cials wanted.

Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on March 10, 2015

dyslexia results from faulty neural ELIZABETH PENNISI
connections formed early in life.
People with dyslexia have Azerbaijani Physicist Held
reading impairments despite nor- Human-rights activists are lobbying for the
mal intelligence. The problem release of a prominent Azerbaijani physicist
affects up to 17% of the popula- detained last week by authorities in an
tion and tends to run in families, ongoing wave of arrests. Eldar Salayev, 72,
pointing to a strong genetic com- former head of the countrys Academy of
ponent. Geneticists have recently Sciences, is among roughly three dozen
implicated several genes, but little people who have been arrrested for plot-
has been known about how they ting to overthrow the government.
might contribute to the disorder. Salayevs son, Elman, is a leader of the
In one new study, a collabora- Azerbaijan Democratic Party, which
tion of 20 researchers led by opposes the authoritarian government of
Haiying Meng and Jeffrey Gruen Reading right? Genetic variations that alter neural wiring President Ilham Aliyev.The elder Salayev
of Yale University School of Med- may contribute to dyslexia. has been an outspoken critic of the govern-
icine homed in on a region of chro- ment, but his lawyer says he sought politi-
mosome 6 that had been fingered previously. sion of ROBO1 helps shape neural connec- cal change through democratic means.
Using DNA from 536 people with a dyslexic tions between the two sides of the brain during BRYON MACWILLIAMS
in their families, the researchers tracked development, and Kere says such connections
147 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), may be impaired in people with dyslexia. Bush Unveils Pandemic
spots where the genetic code differs by one let- A third candidate dyslexia gene called Flu Plan
ter among individuals. Searching for SNPs that KIAA0319, first described by Julie Williams U.S. President George W. Bush this week
tend to have one spelling in people with read- of Cardiff University, U.K., and colleagues announced that he will ask Congress for
ing impairments and another spelling in normal in February in the American Journal of $7.1 billion in emergency funds to help
readers, the researchers found a disproportion- Human Genetics, may also play a role in prepare the nation for an influenza pan-
ate number of such SNPs in a gene called brain development, according to work pre- demic. Speaking at the National Institutes
DCDC2. They also found that about 17% of sented by Anthony Monaco at the Wellcome of Health, Bush noted growing concerns
dyslexics were missing a short stretch of DNA Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford, that the H5N1 avian influenza virus could
within DCDC2. Everyone who had this dele- U.K., and colleagues. acquire the ability to be transmitted from
tion had dyslexia, Gruen says. Gruen predicts that the new work will human to human. If we wait for a pan-
Analyses of cadaver brains revealed high quickly lead to genetic tests for dyslexia sus- demic to appear, it will be too late to pre-
levels of DCDC2 expression in brain regions ceptibility. If we can identify kids early, we pare, he said.
Bush is asking for $2.5 billion to stock-
used during reading. And when the researchers can get them into [classes] tailored to their
pile antiviral drugs and vaccines. In addi-
used a technique called RNA interference to problem, he says. But others arent so sure.
tion to funding for other countries and
dampen DCDC2 activity in fetal rats, newly Monaco and Williams, for example, say local preparations, Bush wants to spend
born neurons didnt migrate to their proper theyve failed to find an association between $2.8 billion on cell-based vaccine technol-
positions in the cerebral cortex, the team DCDC2 and dyslexia in their British popula-
CREDIT: SEYMOUR HEWITT/GETTY IMAGES

ogy to prepare doses against a pandemic

reported at the meeting and online this week in tions. Kere, on the other hand, has a paper in strain in a hurry if needed. The speech
the Proceedings of the National Academy of press at the American Journal of Human comes a week after the Senate approved
Sciences. This suggests that certain variations Genetics replicating the DCDC2 link in a Ger- $8 billion for pandemic flu preparedness,
of the DCDC2 gene may damage development man population. Everyone agrees that more and Congress is expected to meld its
of the neural circuits normally used for read- work is needed to resolve the discrepancies. wishes with the presidents request.
ing, says Gruen. People who inherit those vari- One possibility, Gruen says, is that different JOCELYN KAISER
ations probably compensate by using less effi- genes are more important for dyslexia suscep-
cient circuits for reading, he says. tibility in different populations. GREG MILLER

www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 310 4 NOVEMBER 2005 759

Published by AAAS