Gene discovery and polygenic prediction from a genome-wide association study of educational attainment in 1.1 million individuals

Citation

Lee, James J.; Wedow, Robbee; Okbay, Aysu; Kong, Edward; Maghzian, Omeed; Zacher, Meghan; Nguyen-Viet, Tuan Anh; Bowers, Peter; Sidorenko, Julia K.; & Linnér, Richard, et al. (2018). Gene discovery and polygenic prediction from a genome-wide association study of educational attainment in 1.1 million individuals. Nature Genetics.

Abstract

Here we conducted a large-scale genetic association analysis of educational attainment in a sample of approximately 1.1 million individuals and identify 1,271 independent genome-wide-significant SNPs. For the SNPs taken together, we found evidence of heterogeneous effects across environments. The SNPs implicate genes involved in brain-development processes and neuron-to-neuron communication. In a separate analysis of the X chromosome, we identify 10 independent genome-wide-significant SNPs and estimate a SNP heritability of around 0.3% in both men and women, consistent with partial dosage compensation. A joint (multi-phenotype) analysis of educational attainment and three related cognitive phenotypes generates polygenic scores that explain 11–13% of the variance in educational attainment and 7–10% of the variance in cognitive performance. This prediction accuracy substantially increases the utility of polygenic scores as tools in research.

URL

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0147-3

Reference Type

Journal Article

Journal Title

Nature Genetics

Author(s)

Lee, James J.
Wedow, Robbee
Okbay, Aysu
Kong, Edward
Maghzian, Omeed
Zacher, Meghan
Nguyen-Viet, Tuan Anh
Bowers, Peter
Sidorenko, Julia K.
Linnér, Richard
Fontana, Mark Alan
Kundu, Tushar
Lee, Chanwook
Li, Hui
Li, Ruoxi
Royer, Rebecca
Timshel, Pascal N.
Walters, Raymond K.
Willoughby, Emily A.
Yengo, Loïc
Alver, Maris
Bao, Yanchun
Clark, David W.
Day, Felix R.
Furlotte, Nicholas A.
Joshi, Peter K.
Kemper, Kathryn E.
Kleinman, Aaron
Langenberg, Claudia
Mägi, Reedik
Trampush, Joey W.
Verma, Shefali Setia
Wu, Yang
Lam, Max
Zhao, Jing Hua
Zheng, Zhili
Boardman, Jason D.
Campbell, Harry
Freese, Jeremy
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
Hayward, Caroline
Herd, Pamela
Kumari, Meena
Lencz, Todd
Luan, Jian’an
Malhotra, Anil K.
Metspalu, Andres
Milani, Lili
Ong, Ken K.
Perry, John R. B.
Porteous, David J.
Ritchie, Marylyn D.
Smart, Melissa C.
Smith, Blair H.
Tung, Joyce Y.
Wareham, Nicholas J.
Wilson, James F.
Beauchamp, Jonathan P.
Conley, Dalton C.
Esko, Tõnu
Lehrer, Steven F.
Magnusson, Patrik K. E.
Oskarsson, Sven
Pers, Tune H.
Robinson, Matthew R.
Thom, Kevin
Watson, Chelsea
Chabris, Christopher F.
Meyer, Michelle N.
Laibson, David I.
Yang, Jian
Johannesson, Magnus
Koellinger, Philipp D.
Turley, Patrick
Visscher, Peter M.
Benjamin, Daniel J.
Cesarini, David

Year Published

2018

Edition

July 23, 2018

ISSN/ISBN

1546-1718

DOI

10.1038/s41588-018-0147-3

Reference ID

8412