Autism and genetics: clinical approach and association study with two markers of HRAS gene.

Twin studies and familial aggregation studies indicate that genetic factors could play a role in infantile autism. In an earlier study, we identified a possible positive association between autism and a c-Harvey-ras (HRAS) oncogene marker at the 3' end of the coding region. In an attempt to confirm this finding, we studied a larger population, well-characterized clinically and genetically. We report a positive association between autism and two HRAS markers, the 3' marker used in the initial study and an additional marker in exon 1.