Evidence for genetic linkage of autism to chromosomes 7 and 4

Molecular Psychiatry (2006) 11, 979 & 2006 Nature Publishing Group All rights reserved 1359-4184/06 $ 30.00 www.nature.com/mp IMAGE Evidence for genetic linkage of autism to chromosomes 7 and 4 GD Schellenberg 1,2,3 , G Dawson 4,5 , YJ Sung 6 , A Estes 5 , J Munson 4 , E Rosenthal 7 , J Rothstein 7 , P Flodman 8 , M Smith 8 , H Coon 9 , L Leong 1,2 , C-E Yu 1,2 , C Stodgell 10 , PM Rodier 10 , MA Spence 8 , N Minshew 11 , WM McMahon 9 and EM Wijsman 6,7 Geriatrics Research Education and Clinical Center, Puget Sound Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA; Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; 3 Departments of Neurology and Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; 4 Department of Psychology and the Center on Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; 5 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; 6 Division of Medical Genetics, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; 7 Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; 8 Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; 9 Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; 10 Department of OB/GYN, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA and 11 Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA a c E D A B C F -log p b d WBS Reelin WNT2 EN2 all MO FC reg+ reg- phrase word FOXP2 -log p location (cM) location (cM) Molecular Psychiatry (2006) 11, 979. doi:10.1038/sj.mp.4001918 The plots are of significance levels for linkage of autism to genetic markers on chromosomes 7 and 4 expressed as log 10 of the P-value. The top row (a, c) is for families with a strict diagnosis of autism and the bottom row (b, d) is all families, some with a broader diagnostic classification. The left panes (a, b) are for chromosome 7 and the right panel (b, d) are for chromosome 4. Lines are: all, all families; MO, male-only families where all affected subjects are male; FC, female containing families where at least one affected subjects is female; reg þ , regression positive families; reg-, regression negative families; phrase, age-at-first phrase as a quantitative trait; word, age-at-first word as a quantitative trait. Locations of chromosome 7 genes are indicated by arrows. WBS, Williams-Beuren syndrome region (85.34–87.4 cM). Bars at the top of (a) are locations of autism linkage signals from other studies. For more information on this topic, please refer to article by Schellenberg et al on pages 1049–1060.