Most genetic risk for autism resides with common variation
- PMID: 25038753
- PMCID: PMC4137411
- DOI: 10.1038/ng.3039
Most genetic risk for autism resides with common variation
Abstract
A key component of genetic architecture is the allelic spectrum influencing trait variability. For autism spectrum disorder (herein termed autism), the nature of the allelic spectrum is uncertain. Individual risk-associated genes have been identified from rare variation, especially de novo mutations. From this evidence, one might conclude that rare variation dominates the allelic spectrum in autism, yet recent studies show that common variation, individually of small effect, has substantial impact en masse. At issue is how much of an impact relative to rare variation this common variation has. Using a unique epidemiological sample from Sweden, new methods that distinguish total narrow-sense heritability from that due to common variation and synthesis of results from other studies, we reach several conclusions about autism's genetic architecture: its narrow-sense heritability is ∼52.4%, with most due to common variation, and rare de novo mutations contribute substantially to individual liability, yet their contribution to variance in liability, 2.6%, is modest compared to that for heritable variation.
Figures
![Figure 1](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/4137411/bin/nihms609231f1.gif)
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Comment in
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Common genetic variants linked with large percentage of autism risk: study finds spontaneous mutations are less-significant risk factors.Am J Med Genet A. 2014 Nov;164A(11):vii-viii. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.a.36817. Am J Med Genet A. 2014. PMID: 25327469 No abstract available.
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Autism genes: the continuum that connects us all.J Genet. 2016 Sep;95(3):481-3. doi: 10.1007/s12041-016-0688-0. J Genet. 2016. PMID: 27659318 No abstract available.
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