Social Responsiveness, an Autism Endophenotype: Genomewide Significant Linkage to Two Regions on Chromosome 8

Abstract

Objective Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by deficits in social function and the presence of repetitive and restrictive behaviors. Following a previous test of principle, we adopted a quantitative approach to discovering genes contributing to the broader autism phenotype by using social responsiveness as an endophenotype for ASD. Method Linkage analyses using scores from the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) were performed in 590 families from AGRE, a largely multiplex ASD cohort. Regional and genome-wide association analyses were performed to search for common variants contributing to social responsiveness. Results SRS is unimodally distributed in male offspring from multiplex autism families, in contrast with a bimodal distribution observed in females. In correlated analyses differing by SRS respondent, genome-wide significant linkage for social responsiveness was identified at chr8p21.3 (multi-point LOD=4.11; teacher/parent scores) and chr8q24.22 (multi-point LOD=4.54; parent-only scores), respectively. Genome-wide or linkage-directed association analyses did not detect common variants contributing to social responsiveness. Conclusions The sex-differential distributions of SRS in multiplex autism families likely reflect mechanisms contributing to the sex ratio for autism observed in the general population and form a quantitative signature of reduced penetrance of inherited liability to ASD among females. The identification of two strong loci for social responsiveness validates the endophenotype approach for the identification of genetic variants contributing to complex traits such as ASD. While causal mutations have yet to be identified, these findings are consistent with segregation of rare genetic variants influencing social responsiveness and underscore the increasingly recognized role of rare inherited variants in the genetic architecture of ASD.

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