Lack of evidence for an association between WNT2 and RELN polymorphisms and autism

Autism is a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in language development and social interaction, as well as stereotypical, repetitive behaviors. The etiology of autism is largely unknown. Family and twin studies have provided compelling evidence for a strong genetic component in most idiopathic cases. Several recent candidate gene studies have suggested that alleles of WNT2 and the reelin gene (RELN), two genes involved in distinct aspects of neurodevelopment, confer greater susceptibility to autism. We screened WNT2 for DNA polymorphisms by sequencing all exons and adjacent intronic regions in 24 autistic patients, and identified not only the WNT2 variants reported previously (two common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the 5' upstream region and the 3' untranslated region (UTR), respectively), but also two new SNPs in its 3' UTR. We genotyped all four WNT2 polymorphisms and a polymorphic trinucleotide repeat in the 5' UTR of RELN in 107 families with multiple autistic children, and evaluated evidence for association between these variants and autism by the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT). Our results revealed no deviation from the null hypothesis of no association. Our interpretation of these findings is that it is unlikely that DNA variations in RELN and WNT2 play a significant role in the genetic predisposition to autism. (C) 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.