Health · Medical Research · 1 hr ago
X chromosome gene may help explain lower autism rates in women and girls
Autism is a developmental condition, and studies have found it is diagnosed more often in males than females, though the size of that gap is disputed.
Researchers say the X chromosome gene ZFX may help protect against autism by regulating other genes linked to the condition.
ZFX is expressed more in women than in men, and may keep some of those genes active.
To study how autism-linked genes interact, a team led by neurogeneticist Rebecca Andersen at Boston Children’s Hospital reduced the activity of 20 such genes in lab-grown cells that can develop into neurons.
Reducing any one gene often lowered the activity of many others, leading the team to identify a network of 70 genes that regulate one another and the 20 autism-linked genes.
The findings may help explain why women diagnosed with autism tend to have more autism-linked mutations than men who are diagnosed.
Autism can be missed or diagnosed later in women and girls, in part because they may camouflage traits and because autism can present differently in females.
A gene on the X chromosome, ZFX, may help explain why autism is less common in women and girls.
The gene is expressed more in women than in men and affects genes associated with autism risk.
Researchers found that reducing the expression of any one of 20 autism-associated genes also tended to reduce the expression of most of the others.
They identified a core group of 70 genes that strongly regulate the 20 genes and regulate one another.
The findings come from experiments on neural progenitor cells grown in culture.
- Who
- Rebecca Andersen, a neurogeneticist at Boston Children’s Hospital, and her colleagues conducted the research.
- What
- The researchers investigated how autism-associated genes interact and identified ZFX as a possible contributor to a female protective effect.
- When
- The article was published on 9 November 2026. The research date is not stated.
- Where
- The researchers grew neural progenitor cells in culture. Andersen is at Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts.
- Why
- The research aimed to understand how many different genes can be relevant to autism and why autism is less common in women and girls.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The researchers grew neural progenitor cells in culture and reduced the expression of 20 autism-associated genes using CRISPR technology.
They found that reducing any one of the 20 genes tended to reduce the expression of most of the others.
The researchers identified a core of 70 genes that strongly regulate the 20 autism-associated genes and one another.
- Gene
- ZFX, located on the X chromosome
- Genes tested
- 20 autism-associated genes
- Core group
- 70 genes
- Autism prevalence
- Up to four times as common in males as in females, though the article says this figure is contested
What people are saying
It’s about the fact that ZFX has a relationship with these other autism-associated genes
There have been a lot of large-scale sequencing studies that have identified hundreds of different genes that are implicated in autism
It seemed to make sense that they would have to converge in some way, in order to be related to autism, but we didn’t necessarily expect to find such a strong degree of convergence