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Bipolar disorder is a common, complex genetic disorder, but the mode of transmission remains to be discovered. Many researchers assume that common genomic variants carry some risk for manifesting the disease. The research community has celebrated the first genome-wide significant associations between common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and bipolar disorder. Currently, attempts are under way to translate these findings into clinical practice, genetic counseling, and predictive testing. However, some experts remain cautious. After all, common variants explain only a very small percentage of the genetic risk, and functional consequences of the discovered SNPs are inconclusive. Furthermore, the associated SNPs are not disease specific, and the majority of individuals with a "risk" allele are healthy. On the other hand, population-based genome-wide studies in psychiatric disorders have rediscovered rare structural variants and mutations in genes, which were previously known to cause genetic syndromes and monogenic Mendelian disorders.

Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., have pinpointed a gene linked to these disorders that seems to be crucial for normal brain structure in prenatal development. The findings, which appear in an open-access article in the Jan. 14 issue of Cell Reports, shed new light on the mechanistic workings of a gene called MDGA1, previously implicated in autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

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