Genome-wide association scan of Korean autism spectrum disorders with language delay: A preliminary study

Objective Communication problems are a prevalent symptom of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), which have a genetic background. Although several genome-wide studies on ASD have suggested a number of candidate genes, few studies have reported the association or linkage of specific endophenotypes to ASDs. Methods Forty-two Korean ASD patients who showed a language delay were enrolled in this study with their parents. We performed a genome-wide scan by using the Affymetrix SNP Array 5.0 platform to identify candidate genes responsible for language delay in ASDs. Results We detected candidate single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in chromosome 11, rs11212733 (p-value=9.76×10-6) and rs7125479 (p-value=1.48×10-4), as a marker of language delay in ASD using the transmission disequilibrium test and multifactor dimensionality reduction test. Conclusion Although our results suggest that several SNPs are associated with language delay in ASD, rs11212733 we were not able to observe any significant results after correction of multiple comparisons. This may imply that more samples may be required to identify genes associated with language delay in ASD.