Concepts of Genetics 11th Edition by William Klug,Michael Cummings,Charlotte Spencer,Michael Palladino

Exercise 3

As parents of an autistic child, a couple decided that entering a research study would not only educate them about their son's condition, but also help further research into this complex, behaviorally defined disorder. In an interview, researchers explained to the parents that autism results from the action of hundreds of genes and that no single gene accounts for more than a small percentage of cases. Recent studies have identified 18 genes that have a higher likelihood of involvement, referred to as candidate genes; three of these, on chromosomes 2, 7, and 14, are regarded as very strong candidate genes. Generally unaware of the principles of basic genetics, the couple asked a number of interesting questions. If you were the interviewer, how would you respond to them?
With such a complex genetic condition that may also depend on environmental factors, is there a way to calculate the risk that our next child will be autistic?