Understanding mental illness through gene-environment interactions

New studies in Biological Psychiatry address the role of epigenetic mechanisms in controlling behavioral function and dysfunction. Recent findings demonstrate that individuals' life experiences drive changes in the central nervous system, particularly in relation to learning and memory. Mutations of genes are involved in the regulation of histone lysine methylation, a type of epigenetic modification, that are associated with neurodevelopmental diseases, including mental retardation, autism and schizophrenia. They include novel approaches on examining how these mechanisms operate in a healthy or diseased brain. Researchers examine the epigenetics of Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes mental retardation and autistic-like behavior, as it arises from mutations in a gene that is believed to alter synaptic transmission.

In all, these epigenetics papers provide fundamental new insights into the complex issues of gene-environment interactions and will aid future work that attempts to advance our understanding of mental illness.