Phenotypic and ancestry-related assortative mating in autism.
Jing Zhang, J Dylan Weissenkampen, Rachel L Kember and 7 others
PMID 38877467WHAT IT FOUND
Parents of children with autism showed spouse similarity in genetic ancestry and autistic-trait scores, but not in common genetic autism risk scores.
The similarity was similar whether the child had cognitive or intellectual impairment.
Key findings
01In families of European ancestry, spouse pairs showed positive correlations for genetic ancestry, and in SSC they also showed positive correlations for autistic-trait scores.
02Autism common genetic risk scores did not show spousal similarity at the study's threshold.
03Spouse similarity in genetic ancestry and autistic-trait scores was similar in families with and without child cognitive or intellectual impairment.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study analysed only families of European ancestry, so its patterns may not apply to other ancestry groups. It used existing autism family collections and did not test a therapy, so it cannot show that any treatment changes these patterns. The families were recruited from multiple sites, but site locations were not available, so geographic clustering of ancestry could partly look like mate choice. The autism common genetic risk scores showed no spousal similarity, but the authors note this could be limited by how well the scores detect autism-related genetic influence. The analysis used autosomal SNPs only and did not include sex-linked variants.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include a funding or conflicts declaration; the article is tagged as supported by non-U.S. government and NIH extramural research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that parents choosing similar partners causes autism. The study observed existing autism families, did not test a treatment, and did not find spousal similarity in autism common genetic risk scores at its threshold.