Rhesus macaque social functioning is paternally, but not maternally, inherited by sons: potential implications for autism.
Joseph P Garner, Catherine F Talbot, Laura A Del Rosso and 5 others
PMID 37480043WHAT IT FOUND
In male rhesus monkeys, sons' social functioning and autistic-like traits were strongly linked to their fathers' genetics but not their mothers'.
This suggests a paternal inheritance pattern for these traits in this species, though direct application to human therapy is unproven.
Key findings
01Paternal genetic contribution to sons' non-social behavior was significant, while maternal contribution was not.
02Paternal genetic contribution to sons' autistic-like trait burden was significant, while maternal contribution was not.
03The difference in genetic contribution between fathers and mothers was statistically significant for both behavioral measures.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
This is an animal model study; findings in monkeys do not directly translate to human clinical practice. The study included only male subjects, so results do not apply to females. Behavioral data were not available for the parents themselves, so findings rely on statistical inference from offspring. Paternal and maternal half-siblings may have been born in different years, introducing potential temporal confounds. The full-sibling dataset was small and limited to one behavioral measure.
Declared interests
Research support was provided by the NIH (Extramural) and Non-U.S. Government funding. No specific commercial conflicts were declared in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this proves a similar paternal inheritance pattern in humans. The study uses a monkey model to control for environmental confounds that are impossible to separate in human families, and the authors explicitly state that generalizability to humans remains to be determined.