Overview

• Analyzing a newly complete human genome, researchers identified repeated ribosomal RNA sequence motifs that occur most often in genes tied to nervous-system function.
• In humans, motif-bearing genes include an outsized share of known risk genes, and several motif copies coincide with GWAS variants for autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
• Parallel analyses in mouse, fruit fly, and worm revealed analogous rRNA motifs that likewise concentrate in each species’ nervous-system genes despite organism-specific sequences.
• The authors suggest this rRNA–genomic-architecture axis could help explain frequent comorbidity across these conditions while emphasizing that the biological mechanism remains unknown.
• The peer-reviewed work, led by Isidore Rigoutsos at Thomas Jefferson University, calls for functional follow-up and cautions that organism-specificity may limit some animal models.