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Individual common variants exert weak effects on the risk for autism spectrum disorders
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Individual common variants exert weak effects on the risk for autism spectrum disorders

Richard Anney, Lambertus Klei, Dalila Pinto, Joana Almeida, Elena Bacchelli, Gillian Baird, Nadia Bolshakova, Sven Bölte, Patrick Bolton, Thomas Bourgeron, …
Human molecular genetics, Vol.21(21), pp.4781-4792
11/01/2012
DOI: 10.1093/hmg/dds301
PMID: 22843504
url
https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/dds301View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

While it is apparent that rare variation can play an important role in the genetic architecture of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), the contribution of common variation to the risk of developing ASD is less clear. To produce a more comprehensive picture, we report Stage 2 of the Autism Genome Project genome-wide association study, adding 1301 ASD families and bringing the total to 2705 families analysed (Stages 1 and 2). In addition to evaluating the association of individual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we also sought evidence that common variants, en masse, might affect the risk. Despite genotyping over a million SNPs covering the genome, no single SNP shows significant association with ASD or selected phenotypes at a genome-wide level. The SNP that achieves the smallest P-value from secondary analyses is rs1718101. It falls in CNTNAP2, a gene previously implicated in susceptibility for ASD. This SNP also shows modest association with age of word/phrase acquisition in ASD subjects, of interest because features of language development are also associated with other variation in CNTNAP2. In contrast, allele scores derived from the transmission of common alleles to Stage 1 cases significantly predict case status in the independent Stage 2 sample. Despite being significant, the variance explained by these allele scores was small (Vm< 1%). Based on results from individual SNPs and their en masse effect on risk, as inferred from the allele score results, it is reasonable to conclude that common variants affect the risk for ASD but their individual effects are modest.
Genetics Life Sciences

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