Citation
Wedow, Robbee (2018). Gene discovery and polygenic prediction from a 1.1-million-person GWAS of educational attainment.
2018 Add Health Users Conference. Bethesda, MD.
Abstract
We conduct a large-scale genetic association analysis of educational attainment in a sample of ~1.1 million individuals and identify 1,271 independent genome-wide significant loci. For the loci taken together, we find evidence of heterogeneous effects across environments. The loci implicate genes involved in brain-development processes and neuron-to-neuron communication. In a separate analysis of the X chromosome, we identify 10 loci and estimate a SNP heritability of ~0.3%, lower than that expected for an autosome of similar length. 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 in the Add Health dataset. This prediction accuracy substantially increases the utility of polygenic scores as tools in research.
Reference Type
Conference proceeding
Book Title
2018 Add Health Users Conference
Author(s)
Wedow, Robbee
Year Published
2018
City of Publication
Bethesda, MD
Reference ID
9399
