Intelligence in childhood, as measured by psychometric cognitive tests, is a strong predictor of many important life outcomes, including educational attainment, income, health and lifespan. Results from twin, family and adoption studies are consistent with general intelligence being highly heritable and genetically stable throughout the life course. No robustly associated genetic loci or variants for childhood intelligence have been reported. Here, we report the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) on childhood intelligence (age range 6-18 years) from 17 989 individuals in six discovery and three replication samples. Although no individual single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected with genome-wide significance, we show that the aggregate effects of common SNPs explain 22-46% of phenotypic variation in childhood intelligence in the three largest cohorts (P=3.9 × 10(-15), 0.014 and 0.028). FNBP1L, previously reported to be the most significantly associated gene for adult intelligence, was also significantly associated with childhood intelligence (P=0.003). Polygenic prediction analyses resulted in a significant correlation between predictor and outcome in all replication cohorts. The proportion of childhood intelligence explained by the predictor reached 1.2% (P=6 × 10(-5)), 3.5% (P=10(-3)) and 0.5% (P=6 × 10(-5)) in three independent validation cohorts. Given the sample sizes, these genetic prediction results are consistent with expectations if the genetic architecture of childhood intelligence is like that of body mass index or height. Our study provides molecular support for the heritability and polygenic nature of childhood intelligence. Larger sample sizes will be required to detect individual variants with genome-wide significance. Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication, 29 January 2013; doi:10.1038/mp.2012.184.
Childhood intelligence is heritable, highly polygenic and associated with FNBP1L
New paper from Visscher, Deary, Plomin, and others, with results consistent with previous findings:
A Genetic Code for Genius?
ReplyDeleteIn China, a research project aims to find the roots of intelligence in our DNA; searching for the supersmart
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324162304578303992108696034.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_lifestyle
In its scientific work, BGI often acts as the enabler of other people’s ideas. That is the case in a major project conceived by Steve Hsu, vice president for research at Michigan State University, to search for genes that influence intelligence. Under the guidance of Zhao Bowen, BGI is now sequencing the DNA of more than 2,000 people—mostly Americans—who have IQ scores of at least 160, or four standard deviations above the mean.
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/511051/inside-chinas-genome-factory/