The existence of familial forms of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis is long-standing and the genetic influences in the disease have been well documented. Many international teams aim at identifying genetic markers and narrowing candidate genes associated with an increased risk for AIS.
The study of rare variants in specific genes could also help for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic tolls that identify asymptomatic children at risk of developing scoliosis.
Research published in 2015 indicates the first gene directly identified with scoliosis and show how this mutation suggests that idiopathic scoliosis may primarily result from a brain dysfunction.