I read somewhere that Autism is a bit more complicated than the standard Mendel-phenomena. A bit more complicated than the colour-of-the-eye phenomenon... allowing for it to be a spectrum :)
There's more than one gene that has an impact. Only one seems to be on the X-chromosome, the rest just scattered in the genome.
Still 5 times more men are diagnosed with ASD than women...
That could be because of the same reason why a woman is more likely to recover speech after a CVA (bloodcloth in the brain)... So she would be more likely to function well... even with some defective genes, where a man would be 'lost'.
At least one defective recessive gene is on the X-chromosome... If you get this one as a boy, you got it from your mother. That seems to support the 'more men than woman' conclusion...
Your mother might still not have any negative influence from it, since she's a woman - with two X-chromosomes... likely to have a 'good' gene on the other X-chromosome. Even stranger, if she's just a 'passive carrier', her boys will have a 1/2 chance of having the gene and suffering from it (no counterpart on the Y-chromosome)... If the husband doesn't have the gene on the X-chromosome, the woman's girls will have a 1/2 chance to be mere carrier (like herself) and a 1/2 chance to be free of it.
Another interesting question... is an ASD-person more likely to marry another ASD-person? I read harsh stories of NT woman suffering with their ASD-husband... mental neglect, no laughing matter...
I repeat that the thing is more complicated than just the mendel-phenomena of one gene = one trait. Note also that because of crossover the chromosomes get reshuffled like a deck of playing cards... So genes recombine in funny ways... but again, not the Y chromosome and the X chromosome. A man passes the Y chromosome in its entirety to his son...
