Scientists have found new genetic causes for diabetes in babies—in a part of the genome that has historically been overlooked in genetic studies. Until recently, most research has investigated causes of disease in “coding” genes—those that produce proteins. Now, academics at the University of Exeter and their international collaborators have found that DNA changes in two genes that instead make functional RNA molecules are a cause of diabetes. RNA plays various roles in the body, including regulating genes and influencing how genetic information is “read” and interpreted.

The study is titled “Bi-allelic variants in the non-protein-coding minor spliceosome components RNU6ATAC and RNU4ATAC cause syndromic monogenic autoimmune diabetes,” and was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

The team used genome sequencing, a method that reads all the letters in a person’s DNA. They found that changes in two genes called RNU4ATAC and RNU6ATAC were the cause of autoimmune neonatal diabetes in 19 children.