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Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Paradigms for Behavioral Assessment in Drosophila Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder
Published on: September 6, 2024
A common variant in DRD3 receptor is associated with autism spectrum disorder
Mariken de Krom1, Wouter G Staal, Roel A Ophoff
1Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology and Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Rudolph Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 100, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Background:
The presence of specific and common genetic etiologies for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was investigated for 132 candidate genes in a two-stage design-association study.
Methods:
1,536 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) covering these candidate genes were tested in ASD (n = 144) and ADHD (n = 110) patients and control subjects (n = 404) from The Netherlands. A second stage was performed with those SNPs from Stage I reaching a significance threshold for association of p < .01 in an independent sample of ASD patients (n = 128) and controls (n = 124) from the United Kingdom and a Dutch ADHD (n = 150) and control (n = 149) sample.
Results:
No shared association was found between ASD and ADHD. However, in the first and second ASD samples and in a joint statistical analysis, a significant association between SNP rs167771 located in the DRD3 gene was found (joint analysis uncorrected: p = 3.11 x 10(-6); corrected for multiple testing and potential stratification: p = .00162).
Conclusions:
The DRD3 gene is related to stereotyped behavior, liability to side effects of antipsychotic medication, and movement disorders and may therefore have important clinical implications for ASD.
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