Communities of Mutants Form as DNA Testing Grows

GeneRegulator writes "The NY Times is running a story on communities that are forming around kids with rare genetic mutations. New technology that can scan chromosomes for small errors is being applied first to children with autism and other 'unexplained developmental delays.' It turns out that many of them have small deletions or duplications of DNA. Meanwhile, hundreds of little groups are forming around the banner of their children's shared mutations. As new research shows that many of us have small deletions and duplications of DNA that separate us from our parents, and that many of these "copy number variants" contribute to skills and senses, the families described in the story may presage the formation of all sorts of 'communities of the genetically rare' in the general population, not just amongst the developmentally delayed."

Finally!

[MightyYar (622222)]

Finally I'll be able to find others with an abnormally small penis!

Prior to this I had been hanging around sports car dealerships.

Re:Finally!

[Daniel Dvorkin (106857)]

Finally I'll be able to find others with an abnormally small penis!

Prior to this I had been hanging around sports car dealerships.

Well, that explains why you haven't been able to find others of your kind. Your information is sadly out of date. The micropenis crowd is found in the SUV section these days. If you want to meet some folks who will make you feel like Ron Jeremy by comparison, try a Hummer dealership.

Me, I'll be outside working on my Toyota Corolla.

Re:

[smidget2k4 (847334)]

And I'll be driving two H2s at once. One is remote controlled.

Re:Finally!

[MightyYar (622222)]

A Toyota Corolla? You must be hung like King Kong. Next you'll tell me that you don't even have a speed boat or a gold chain.

Re:

[Jeff DeMaagd (2015)]

I've never really understood this sort of thing, it's really a lame joke at best.

If you had completely "ordinary" interests and had no interest in anything that's different, does that mean you have a really big unit? It just seems like this sort of joke is part of a semi-conscious attempt to homogenize people by mocking others that happen to like or own unusual things.

Re:

[MightyYar (622222)]

Jesus Christ, man. I make a joke at my own expense! Don't get so bent out of shape just because you're into collecting phallic symbols! If you were Bart Simpson, I'd have you write "It was just a silly joke." on the blackboard.

Besides, there's liking unusual things, and then there's spending hundreds of thousands of dollars extra to get 1 extra knot out of a boat... and then you weigh it down with a full kitchen and bedroom. Or getting a really, really fast race-caliber sports car... and then ordering power

Handedness

[CRCulver (715279)]

I've often heard left-handedness attributed to development conditions in the womb, but is it suspected to be one of these random DNA mutations, or to some higher-level effect on the brain?

Re:Handedness

[thewiz (24994)]

Actually, a random mutation would be more like myself and my wife. We both have "disabilities" that, as far as the doctors can tell, are from random mutations. My wife has achondroplasia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarfism [wikipedia.org] and no one else in her family (ancestors included) had dwarfism. The congenital heart defect I was born with is normally caused by the mother having scarlet fever when pregnant and my mother never contracted the disease.

Re:

[hedwards (940851)]

I think that it really depends what the mutation is whether or not this is a good idea. When it comes to dwarfism, that makes some degree of sense in that the community can be scaled appropriately for people of that size.

But in general I think that this is a really, really bad idea. Segregation by religion really worked out well for pre WWII Jews in Europe. Sure that's probably about the worst that it can be, but it is still a good reason to consider whether this kind of thing is a good idea. I personally h

social pressure

[Scrameustache (459504)]

I've often heard left-handedness attributed to development conditions in the womb, but is it suspected to be one of these random DNA mutations, or to some higher-level effect on the brain?

I think that the genetic origin of handedness is greatly exaggerated.

I used to hate being asked if I was right or left handed as a child. I'm not. I use both hands, you weird adults.
Of course, I was taught to use only the right hand to write, so I'm right handed, but I often get "oh, you're left handed?" comments from people who see me use my left hand for mundane tasks (grabbing a folder on a desk at work, or holding a fork).

Re:

[MichaelSmith (789609)]

I think that the genetic origin of handedness is greatly exaggerated.

After I started to develop RSI in my right hand I switched my mouse to the left which helped a lot. Since then I have found that I can do most things with my left and that I don't really have a strong right handed bias.

But I have noticed that my brother's three year old son is very strongly right handed. Much more so than my son or myself. I just don't know if this is caused by genetics or learned behaviour.

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[fluxrad (125130)]

In my experience, most righties are strongly right handed like your nephew. You'll notice a much greater level of ambidextrous behavior in left handed people - generally this is because they were given free reign to figure out which hand they preferred for every-day tasks. Usually, the test is this: ask someone who's right handed to write a sentence with their left. Now do the opposite with a lefty. You'll find that the lefty can generally write far more legibly with their right hand than said righty with t

Re:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

So far as the brain is concerned, handedness is pretty structural, I think. I mean, you are talking about the dominant hemisphere after all. That's not something you just switch back and forth.

Left-handedness runs in my family, has for generations. I am, my father was, my grandfather was (on both sides) although I'm the only lefty in my generation. It's not something you pick: it's intrinsic. As you correctly point out, attempts to "convert" left-handed people into righties not only do not work, but caus

Re:

[timmarhy (659436)]

why would there be social stigma with being left handed? it's been several 100 years since we gave up wiping our assholes with our left hand, so it's not a hygene factor.

i grew up with a few lefties as friends and they never received any flack for it, if anything it made them feel a bit special.

was the 50's in america THAT fucked up?

Re:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Yes, although it was worse a few decades before. But I'm not just talking about America. Anti-left-hand bias is not uncommon in some parts of the world, I mean, just because we got over it doesn't mean that other peoples have. My girlfriend, for example, is a left-handed North African, and during her early childhood there was an ongoing battle between her parents as to whether she should be allowed to use her left hand to write. Her mother felt that there was something "wrong" with left-handedness, and did

That's all well and good ...

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

the families described in the story may presage the formation of all sorts of 'communities of the genetically rare' in the general population

They may not fare so well in the Great Collapse of 2017 (mark my words ... I pick a different year every time so I will be right.) In any post-Apocalyptic environment, everyone knows that those who are "different" are invariably put to death, unless they have some supra-normal power(s) that they can use to defend themselves and rule over the remaining survivors.

Re:That's all well and good ...

[rant64 (1148751)]

Mutation is behind the entire concept of evolution. Sometimes, genetic mutation will drive you bald or limp. Then you die. Sometimes, genetic mutation will cause a newborn to be blessed with +1 CHA or +1 INT. Those are the specimen that thrive.

Re:That's all well and good ...

[i.of.the.storm (907783)]

Haha funny. Hmm, slashdot should have some sort of mini-moderation whereby you can mod people up by 0.01 if you don't have a modpoint, to increase the precision of moderation.

Re:That's all well and good ...

[mrmeval (662166)]

I know you're joking but most will just die because their protected environment went away.
How many will die if insulin were just not available? A friend needs ranitidine to survive, without it he'd be dead within a short period of time. Turn off the civilization switch and you'll lose a huge percentage. It really doesn't take much to turn it off either. :(

Re:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

No kidding ... the great weakness of civilization (at least at our current stage of development) is its essential fragility. It would be hard to wipe out the human race entirely (short of nuclear winter or some engineered pathogen) but civilization can be destroyed very easily. And given that we've consumed most of the readily-available mineral resources, if there is a major worldwide collapse odds are we won't be climbing back.

Re:

[Metasquares (555685)]

Civilization might return by making use of different resources. Also, even if civilization is destroyed, the accumulated knowledge it has built up would likely be more difficult to destroy (and thus civilization could possibly return more quickly). For example, the Aztecs did pretty well prior to their conquest by the Europeans considering that their technology was technically stone-age.

Re:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

True, but more and more of that knowledge is becoming enshrined in storage systems readable only to a technology at least equivalent to our own (and maybe not even then, as encryption becomes more and more prevalent.) I used to think that, well, even if a new Dark Age comes to pass, at least we'll have all the information in the thousands of libraries around the world to help us out of it. The problem is, less and less is being published in paper form every year, more and more is being distributed electroni

Re:

[ultranova (717540)]

I know you're joking but most will just die because their protected environment went away.
How many will die if insulin were just not available? A friend needs ranitidine to survive, without it he'd be dead within a short period of time. Turn off the civilization switch and you'll lose a huge percentage.

Of course, if the protected environment of current civilization were to be taken away, most of the perfectly healthy people would also perish. Not only are there many times more of us than hunter-gathere

Rare != good

[by Anonymous Coward]

Parents are forming communities around their disabled children, and there is no scientific evidence linking the causes of disabilities cited in the article to anything beneficial to life in human society.

I won't help these parents foster an aura of chicness around useless and/or harmful mutations. It's selfish and fundamentally wrong, and the next step - as forwarded by these selfsame groups - is "designer disabled" babies.

I don't support creating children with blindness or autism any more than I support cr

Re:

[Original Replica (908688)]

but in the end, messing with a zygote to give it three eyes or a saucer-shaped head is not worse than not allowing it to live at all.

You must have a very negative view of the afterlife. Everyone dies, it is just a question of when and how much it hurts.

Genetic disease/deformity is one of the best reasons for maintaining legal abortions. In the interests of giving every zygote the highest possible quality of life it is sometime necessary to end that life in the first trimester. It is akin to shooting some

Save the cheerleader...

[slummy (887268)]

save the world

This isn't anything new

[DebateG (1001165)]

Support groups for families and children with rare diseases have been around for decades. Whether someone in your family has Rett sydnrome [rettsyndrome.org], Glanzmann's thrombasthenia [glanzmanns.com], or Schwachman Diamond Syndrome [shwachman-diamond.org], you can find other people who are in a similar situation. There interesting thing here is that doctors are identifying new chromosomal abnormalities and sub-classifying people whose diseases were previously under an umbrella of ambiguous terms such as "autism." This is a good thing, because these diseases are most certainly heterogeneous at the molecular level and probably manifest themselves in subtlety different ways that aren't obvious when there are only four or five cases ever described. Unfortunately, the treatments for them rarely takes into account the underlying genetic cause, and advocacy and support groups such as these can better inform doctors and researchers about these rare diseases.

Re:

[antdude (79039)]

Here's one for Nager's Syndrome [fnms.net] that I have (rare case too). :(

Vive la difference - we all carry lethal alleles

[dstates (629350)]

Another name for these microdeletions is copy number variation [sanger.ac.uk], a normal form of variation in the human genome. There is also a fundamental concept in population genetics called genetic load [wikipedia.org] which are recessive lethal alleles present in any population as a result of new mutations and limited selection against rare recessive alleles. Just be glad we are not all the same because then a single bad virus like the 1918 influenza could wipe us all out. Besides life would be so boring.

Re:Vive la difference - we all carry lethal allele

[Jeff DeMaagd (2015)]

There are ideas that sexual reproduction arose as a response to disease. Every individual having a different genetic combination slows down the effectiveness of any given strain. That's a good defense as a virus can mutate a lot quicker than larger organisms can.

I've heard of one of those communities. . .

[Salgak1 (20136)]

. . . runs out of school for exceptional children on Long Island. Place, as I recall, is called Xavier's Academy. . . .

Branching of the species?

[Original Replica (908688)]

So if "the genetically rare" for their own communities they will inevitably forge their own traditions and standards. ie: a different standard of beauty "There was no missing the similarities: the flat bridge of their noses, the thin lips, the fold near the corner of their eyes" or different etiquette "If one of his siblings is sitting at his place at the breakfast table, Jackson screams. If a schoolmate gets too close to him, Jackson screams. If someone interrupts him while he is speaking, Jackson screams." So this community is well on it's way to being a separate culture. That's fine, perhaps even wonderful. I'm curious about the long term. This new culture, being originally based around genetic differences, will carry these differences from generation to generation. People want children who carry on their traits and culture, if that includes a standard of beauty that is inline with the facial structure and body size of Primordial Dwarfism, then it would make sense that they would want their children to be Primordial Dwarves. I'm wondering at what point of maintaining a consistent genetic difference would that culture become a parallel species in the way that Homo Erectus and Homo Ergaster lived side by side.

I hope that no one takes offense at my ponderings. I do not mean to suggest that anyone born with a genetic difference is less than human. I am simply wondering if and when those differences will become self sustaining and a primary characteristic within a newly forming culture and if that would require a new scientific classification. Humanity is more than just genetics.

Re:

[JustNiz (692889)]

As a parent, it sounds like Jackson is just another spoiled little brat, and he's acting that way because he has bad parents, not because of any genetic difference.

Re:

[Original Replica (908688)]

it sounds like Jackson is just another spoiled little brat

Just like my ADD was "just lazy and undisciplined"?
TFA didn't seem to mention the particular condition that Jackson has, but I know autistic kids that have some socially unwelcome reactions to seemingly minor things. I think it has to do with their perceptual differences, what seems important to them seems unimportant to us and vice versa. Where you think it is no big deal for Jackson to sit in a different chair, jackson may see a deep interrupti

Eugenics is cute.

[FatSean (18753)]

These people are fools, but it will be amusing to see how their experiments work out.

Re:Branching of the species?

[servognome (738846)]

Just like my ADD was "just lazy and undisciplined"?
TFA didn't seem to mention the particular condition that Jackson has, but I know autistic kids that have some socially unwelcome reactions to seemingly minor things. I think it has to do with their perceptual differences, what seems important to them seems unimportant to us and vice versa.

So what if there is a genetic "excuse." Most people have problems, and but are able to overcome them to integrate better into society.

Re:

[Aladrin (926209)]

Note: I am not calling you, or anyone else, racist.

I got through to "want their children to be Primordial Dwarves" and thought: How is this -any- different than racism? It's a genetic difference that basically means nothing. The only difference I see is that they are segregating themselves, instead of the majority doing the segregation. In the end, I predict a bunch of 'genetic difference X' minorities that suddenly want special rights simply because they are different.

Newsflash: Everyone is different.

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[Original Replica (908688)]

How is this -any- different than racism?

The difference is you presumption of a negative connotation. If a person is proud of who they are, they may well want to pass as much of that along to their children as possible. That isn't racism, it's identity. My whole family has blue eyes. When I look as my nephews, I see their blue eyes and how they are so very similar to their father's and to mine. I wouldn't love them less if they had brown eyes, but I also wouldn't have that similarity/connection with them.

Re:

[crashfrog (126007)]

To suggest that a person wouldn't want their child to be like them would seem to be a deeper prejudice to me. Deaf parents are requesting deaf children after all. Once you remove the idea that these people are somehow "broken" it makes a lot of sense.

But a person who is deaf is broken, objectively. They have a hearing impediment, a disability. And it's monstrous - an absolute barbarity, like the sexual abuse of a child - for a deaf person to deafen their child just so that it'll be "more like them."

If a sol

"genetically rare"

[Chapter80 (926879)]

genetically rare

Uniqueness is very common. Almost everybody is!

Howard family?

[Stiletto (12066)]

So where's the Howard family's web site?

Re:Please help out

[nuzak (959558)]

Can we just IP-ban anyone who posts a myminicity link?

Re:Please help out

[The Ultimate Fartkno (756456)]

Myminicity links should get ip-banned.

Stealth myminicity links should have their ip published so nerds with free time and anger issues could track the poster down and punch them in the balls.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

YEAH! 'Cause that's totally what most nerds do! Don't you remember in school? The roaming packs of nerds picking fights with all the bigger, stronger kids?

Re:Please help out

[Chmcginn (201645)]

No, no, no.

They have telekinetic mutant powers.

Hah, call me off-topic now!

Re:

[nuzak (959558)]

Yeah, it's safe. It's basically like a web-based simcity, and overall looks like a cool fun game concept. But apparently they have some kind of "affiliate program" or whatever that pays you by the page hit, so everyone is spamming them all over the intertubes, pissing everyone off, and myminicity isn't doing a thing about it (hell they created the problem in the first place). Supposedly it's against their TOS, but hey rule #1 about spammers. So now I pretty much wait for them to go out of business, and

Re:

[Torvaun (1040898)]

Someone mentioned clickbotting the minicity links to get those cities shut down for fraud.

Just consider...

[Chmcginn (201645)]

whose fault it may be?

Re:

[The Evil Couch (621105)]

Finally X-Men are real. There, I said the first X-Men comment!!!

You got the post in awfully fast. As fast as Quicksilver, you might say.

Re:

[dogugotw (635657)]

Evolution requires that breeding populations exist in isolation for a long enough period of time that the groups diverge. A new species exists when individuals from the separated populations either cannot breed (cats and dogs) or, if they breed, produce only sterile offspring (horses and donkeys).

Just because a group is genetically different, does NOT mean they can or will form a new species.

What you suggest requires that individuals with autism breed ONLY with others having autism for, ohhhhh, a few milli