Genome-wide association study identifies 74 loci associated with educational attainment

David A. Bennett, Klaus Berger, Lars Bertram, Hans Bisgaard, Dorret I. Boomsma, Ingrid B. Borecki, Ute Bültmann, Christopher F. Chabris, Francesco Cucca, Daniele Cusi, Ian J. Deary, George V. Dedoussis, Cornelia M. Duijn, Johan G. Eriksson, Barbara Franke, Lude Franke, Paolo Gasparini, Pablo V. Gejman, Christian Gieger, Hans-Jörgen Grabe, Jacob Gratten, Patrick Groenen (), Vilmundur Gudnason, Pim Harst, Caroline Hayward, David A. Hinds, Wolfgang Hoffmann, Elina Hyppönen, William G. Iacono, Bo Jacobsson, Marjo-Riitta Järvelin, Karl-Heinz Jöckel, Jaakko Kaprio, Sharon L. R. Kardia, Terho Lehtimäki, Steven Lehrer (), Patrik K. E. Magnusson, Nicholas G. Martin, Matt Mcgue, Andres Metspalu, Neil Pendleton, Brenda W. J. H. Penninx, Markus Perola, Nicola Pirastu, Mario Pirastu, Ozren Polasek, Danielle Posthuma, Christine Power, Michael A. Province, Nilesh J. Samani, David Schlessinger, Reinhold Schmidt, Thorkild I. A. Sørensen, Tim D. Spector, Kari Stefansson, Unnur Thorsteinsdottir, Roy Thurik, Nicholas J. Timpson, Henning Tiemeier, Joyce Y. Tung, André G. Uitterlinden, Veronique Vitart, Peter Vollenweider, David R. Weir, James F. Wilson, Alan F. Wright, Dalton C. Conley, Robert F. Krueger, George Davey Smith, Albert Hofman, David Laibson, Sarah E. Medland, Michelle N. Meyer, Jian Yang, Magnus Johannesson, Peter M. Visscher, Tõnu Esko, Philipp Koellinger, David Cesarini, Daniel Benjamin, Aysu Okbay, Jonathan P. Beauchamp, Mark Alan Fontana, James J. Lee, Tune H. Pers, Cornelius A. Rietveld, Patrick Turley, Guo-Bo Chen, Valur Emilsson, S. Fleur W. Meddens, Sven Oskarsson, Joseph K. Pickrell, Kevin Thom, Pascal Timshel, Ronald Vlaming, Abdel Abdellaoui, Tarunveer S. Ahluwalia, Jonas Bacelis, Clemens Baumbach, Gyda Bjornsdottir, Johannes H. Brandsma, Maria Pina Concas, Jaime Derringer, Nicholas A. Furlotte, Tessel E. Galesloot, Giorgia Girotto, Richa Gupta, Leanne M. Hall, Sarah E. Harris, Edith Hofer, Momoko Horikoshi, Jennifer E. Huffman, Kadri Kaasik, Ioanna P. Kalafati, Robert Karlsson, Augustine Kong, Jari Lahti, Sven J. van Der Lee, Christiaan Deleeuw, Penelope A. Lind, Karl-Oskar Lindgren, Tian Liu, Massimo Mangino, Jonathan Marten, Evelin Mihailov, Michael B. Miller, Peter J. van Der Most, Christopher Oldmeadow, Antony Payton, Natalia Pervjakova, Wouter J. Peyrot, Yong Qian, Olli Raitakari, Rico Rueedi, Erika Salvi, Börge Schmidt, Katharina E. Schraut, Jianxin Shi, Albert V. Smith, Raymond A. Poot, Beate St Pourcain, Alexander Teumer, Gudmar Thorleifsson, Niek Verweij, Dragana Vuckovic, Juergen Wellmann, Harm-Jan Westra, Jingyun Yang, Wei Zhao, Zhihong Zhu, Behrooz Z. Alizadeh, Najaf Amin, Andrew Bakshi, Sebastian E. Baumeister, Ginevra Biino, Klaus Bønnelykke, Patricia A. Boyle, Harry Campbell, Francesco P. Cappuccio, Gail Davies, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Panos Deloukas, Ilja Demuth, Jun Ding, Peter Eibich, Lewin Eisele, Niina Eklund, David M. Evans, Jessica D. Faul, Mary F. Feitosa, Andreas J. Forstner, Ilaria Gandin, Bjarni Gunnarsson, Bjarni V. Halldórsson, Tamara B. Harris, Andrew C. Heath, Lynne J. Hocking, Elizabeth G. Holliday, Georg Homuth, Michael A. Horan, Jouke-Jan Hottenga, Philip L. Jager, Peter K. Joshi, Astanand Jugessur, Marika A. Kaakinen, Mika Kähönen, Stavroula Kanoni, Liisa Keltigangas-Järvinen, Lambertus A. L. M. Kiemeney, Ivana Kolcic, Seppo Koskinen, Aldi T. Kraja, Martin Kroh, Zoltan Kutalik, Antti Latvala, Lenore J. Launer, Maël P. Lebreton (), Douglas F. Levinson, Paul Lichtenstein, Peter Lichtner, David C. M. Liewald, Lifelines Cohort Study, Anu Loukola, Pamela A. Madden, Reedik Mägi, Tomi Mäki-Opas, Riccardo E. Marioni, Pedro Marques-Vidal, Gerardus A. Meddens, George Mcmahon, Christa Meisinger, Thomas Meitinger, Yusplitri Milaneschi, Lili Milani, Grant W. Montgomery, Ronny Myhre, Christopher P. Nelson, Dale R. Nyholt, William E. R. Ollier, Aarno Palotie, Lavinia Paternoster, Nancy L. Pedersen, Katja E. Petrovic, David J. Porteous, Katri Räikkönen, Susan M. Ring, Antonietta Robino, Olga Rostapshova, Igor Rudan, Aldo Rustichini, Veikko Salomaa, Alan R. Sanders, Antti-Pekka Sarin, Helena Schmidt, Rodney J. Scott, Blair H. Smith, Jennifer A. Smith, Jan A. Staessen, Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen, Konstantin Strauch, Antonio Terracciano, Martin D. Tobin, Sheila Ulivi, Simona Vaccargiu, Lydia Quaye, Frank J. A. Rooij, Cristina Venturini, Anna A. E. Vinkhuyzen, Uwe Völker, Henry Völzke, Judith M. Vonk, Diego Vozzi, Johannes Waage, Erin B. Ware, Gonneke Willemsen and John R. Attia
Additional contact information
David A. Bennett: Rush University Medical Center [Chicago]
Cornelia M. Duijn: Department of Epidemiology [Rotterdam] - Erasmus MC - Erasmus University Medical Center [Rotterdam]
Christian Gieger: HMGU - Helmholtz Zentrum München = German Research Center for Environmental Health
Jacob Gratten: UQ [All campuses : Brisbane, Dutton Park Gatton, Herston, St Lucia and other locations] - The University of Queensland
Wolfgang Hoffmann: UNAV - Universidad de Navarra [Pamplona]
Jaakko Kaprio: National Institute for Health and Welfare [Helsinki]
Markus Perola: FIMM - Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland [Helsinki] - HiLIFE - Helsinki Institute of Life Science - Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki
Mario Pirastu: CNR - National Research Council of Italy | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
André G. Uitterlinden: Erasmus MC - Erasmus University Medical Center [Rotterdam]
George Davey Smith: University of Bristol [Bristol]
Sarah E. Medland: Queensland Institute of Medical Research
Edith Hofer: Medical University of Graz = Medizinische Universität Graz
Tian Liu: ISM - Institut des Sciences Moléculaires - UB - Université de Bordeaux - École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie et de Physique de Bordeaux (ENSCPB) - INC-CNRS - Institut de Chimie - CNRS Chimie - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Massimo Mangino: King‘s College London
Olli Raitakari: Tampere University Hospital, University of Turku
Alexander Teumer: King‘s College London
Wei Zhao: AP-HP Hôpital universitaire Robert-Debré [Paris] - AP-HP - Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP)
Harry Campbell: The University of Edinburgh
Ilja Demuth: Charité - UniversitätsMedizin = Berlin University Medicine
David M. Evans: Imperial College London
Bjarni V. Halldórsson: Reykjavík University - Reykjavík University
Jouke-Jan Hottenga: King‘s College London
Lenore J. Launer: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour - Radboud University [Nijmegen]
Paul Lichtenstein: Karolinska Institutet [Stockholm]
Grant W. Montgomery: Queensland Institute of Medical Research
Christopher P. Nelson: Department of Health Sciences [Leicester] - University of Leicester
Aarno Palotie: BROAD INSTITUTE - Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard - HMS - Harvard Medical School [Boston] - MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Massachusetts General Hospital [Boston], Massachusetts General Hospital [Boston]
Nancy L. Pedersen: MEB - Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics - Karolinska Institutet [Stockholm]
Helena Schmidt: Dpt of Pharmacology and Personalised Medicine [Maastricht] - Maastricht University [Maastricht]
Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen: Charité - UniversitätsMedizin = Berlin University Medicine
Antonio Terracciano: FSU - Florida State University [Tallahassee]
Johannes Waage: ITU - IT University of Copenhagen

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Educational attainment is strongly influenced by social and other environmental factors, but genetic factors are estimated to account for at least 20% of the variation across individuals1. Here we report the results of a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for educational attainment that extends our earlier discovery sample1,2 of 101,069 individuals to 293,723 individuals, and a replication study in an independent sample of 111,349 individuals from the UK Biobank. We identify 74 genome-wide significant loci associated with the number of years of schooling completed. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with educational attainment are disproportionately found in genomic regions regulating gene expression in the fetal brain. Candidate genes are preferentially expressed in neural tissue, especially during the prenatal period, and enriched for biological pathways involved in neural development. Our findings demonstrate that, even for a behavioural phenotype that is mostly environmentally determined, a well-powered GWAS identifies replicable associated genetic variants that suggest biologically relevant pathways. Because educational attainment is measured in large numbers of individuals, it will continue to be useful as a proxy phenotype in efforts to characterize the genetic influences of related phenotypes, including cognition and neuropsychiatric diseases.

Keywords: Learning and memory; Psychiatric disorders; Genome-wide association studies; Behavioural genetics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-02017372v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (45)

Published in Nature, 2016, 533 (7604), pp.539-542. ⟨10.1038/nature17671⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02017372

DOI: 10.1038/nature17671

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