No abstract

No abstract

Stochastic epistasis that is one of the characteristics of epistatic gene modules can have an important role in the maintenance of intraspecific population diversity. The effect of an epistatic modifier variant can vary in size and direction among the modifier careers on the basis of stochastic genetic individuality and the entire module effect can be also individually stochastic. This stochastic genetic contribution under a genetic background may be conditional upon the presence of a monomorphic switch locus in the gene module. The genetic background includes multiple modifier variants and the gene module is composed of the switch and the modifiers. The bell-shaped distribution of quantitative traits can be well simulated by the involvement of multiple stochastic epistatic modules. The phenotypic stochasticity makes the presence of switch and modifiers cryptic or missing in the research field and this cryptic gene networks can maintain and innovate in the phenotypic diversity under selection as a process of the evolution of complexity.

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV), autistic characteristics in social interaction and communication are described as qualitative impairments. However, the difference between autistics and nonautistics in the draft of the 5th edition (DSM-5 draft) is quantitative rather than qualitative. The word “qualitative” is deleted in the draft text, and it is specified that the relation between social demands and individual limited capacities is critical for symptom manifestation (criterion C). Because the proposed levels of support requirement in the draft are mere observable outcomes of social vulnerability, the boundary between level 1 and nonautistic condition is determined by the relation between social demands and individual capacities. In addition to the introduction of the single category (autism spectrum disorder (ASD)) to cover the entire case spectrum, the DSM-5 draft is clearly based on a conviction that ASD is indistinguishable from the normal behavioral range. This concise review provides an explanation for this implicit paradigm shift from qualitative to quantitative. Importantly, the conditional role of social demands for symptom manifestation in the draft can be plausibly interpreted using a unique liability-probability model.

No abstract