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

23andMe Research Team, COGENT (Cognitive Genomics Consortium), Social Science Genetic Association Consortium

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1459 Scopus citations

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1112-1121
Number of pages10
JournalNature Genetics
Volume50
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was carried out under the auspices of the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (SSGAC). The research has also been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource under application numbers 11425 and 12512. We acknowledge the Swedish Twin Registry for access to data. The Swedish Twin Registry is managed by the Karolinska Institutet and receives funding through the Swedish Research Council under the grant number 2017-00641. This study was supported by funding from the Ragnar Söderberg Foundation (E9/11, E42/15), the Swedish Research Council (421-2013-1061), The Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, an ERC Consolidator Grant (647648 EdGe), the Pershing Square Fund of the Foundations of Human Behavior, The Open Philanthropy Project (2016-152872), and the NIA/NIH through grants P01-AG005842, P01-AG005842-20S2, P30-AG012810 and T32-AG000186-23 to N.B.E.R. and R01-AG042568 to U.S.C. A full list of acknowledgments is provided in the Supplementary Note.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The Author(s).

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