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Meta-Analysis
. 2013 Jun 21;340(6139):1467-71.
doi: 10.1126/science.1235488. Epub 2013 May 30.

GWAS of 126,559 individuals identifies genetic variants associated with educational attainment

Cornelius A Rietveld  1 , Sarah E Medland, Jaime Derringer, Jian Yang, Tõnu Esko, Nicolas W Martin, Harm-Jan Westra, Konstantin Shakhbazov, Abdel Abdellaoui, Arpana Agrawal, Eva Albrecht, Behrooz Z Alizadeh, Najaf Amin, John Barnard, Sebastian E Baumeister, Kelly S Benke, Lawrence F Bielak, Jeffrey A Boatman, Patricia A Boyle, Gail Davies, Christiaan de Leeuw, Niina Eklund, Daniel S Evans, Rudolf Ferhmann, Krista Fischer, Christian Gieger, Håkon K Gjessing, Sara Hägg, Jennifer R Harris, Caroline Hayward, Christina Holzapfel, Carla A Ibrahim-Verbaas, Erik Ingelsson, Bo Jacobsson, Peter K Joshi, Astanand Jugessur, Marika Kaakinen, Stavroula Kanoni, Juha Karjalainen, Ivana Kolcic, Kati Kristiansson, Zoltán Kutalik, Jari Lahti, Sang H Lee, Peng Lin, Penelope A Lind, Yongmei Liu, Kurt Lohman, Marisa Loitfelder, George McMahon, Pedro Marques Vidal, Osorio Meirelles, Lili Milani, Ronny Myhre, Marja-Liisa Nuotio, Christopher J Oldmeadow, Katja E Petrovic, Wouter J Peyrot, Ozren Polasek, Lydia Quaye, Eva Reinmaa, John P Rice, Thais S Rizzi, Helena Schmidt, Reinhold Schmidt, Albert V Smith, Jennifer A Smith, Toshiko Tanaka, Antonio Terracciano, Matthijs J H M van der Loos, Veronique Vitart, Henry Völzke, Jürgen Wellmann, Lei Yu, Wei Zhao, Jüri Allik, John R Attia, Stefania Bandinelli, François Bastardot, Jonathan Beauchamp, David A Bennett, Klaus Berger, Laura J Bierut, Dorret I Boomsma, Ute Bültmann, Harry Campbell, Christopher F Chabris, Lynn Cherkas, Mina K Chung, Francesco Cucca, Mariza de Andrade, Philip L De Jager, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Ian J Deary, George V Dedoussis, Panos Deloukas, Maria Dimitriou, Guðny Eiríksdóttir, Martin F Elderson, Johan G Eriksson, David M Evans, Jessica D Faul, Luigi Ferrucci, Melissa E Garcia, Henrik Grönberg, Vilmundur Guðnason, Per Hall, Juliette M Harris, Tamara B Harris, Nicholas D Hastie, Andrew C Heath, Dena G Hernandez, Wolfgang Hoffmann, Adriaan Hofman, Rolf Holle, Elizabeth G Holliday, Jouke-Jan Hottenga, William G Iacono, Thomas Illig, Marjo-Riitta Järvelin, Mika Kähönen, Jaakko Kaprio, Robert M Kirkpatrick, Matthew Kowgier, Antti Latvala, Lenore J Launer, Debbie A Lawlor, Terho Lehtimäki, Jingmei Li, Paul Lichtenstein, Peter Lichtner, David C Liewald, Pamela A Madden, Patrik K E Magnusson, Tomi E Mäkinen, Marco Masala, Matt McGue, Andres Metspalu, Andreas Mielck, Michael B Miller, Grant W Montgomery, Sutapa Mukherjee, Dale R Nyholt, Ben A Oostra, Lyle J Palmer, Aarno Palotie, Brenda W J H Penninx, Markus Perola, Patricia A Peyser, Martin Preisig, Katri Räikkönen, Olli T Raitakari, Anu Realo, Susan M Ring, Samuli Ripatti, Fernando Rivadeneira, Igor Rudan, Aldo Rustichini, Veikko Salomaa, Antti-Pekka Sarin, David Schlessinger, Rodney J Scott, Harold Snieder, Beate St Pourcain, John M Starr, Jae Hoon Sul, Ida Surakka, Rauli Svento, Alexander Teumer; LifeLines Cohort Study; Henning Tiemeier, Frank J A van Rooij, David R Van Wagoner, Erkki Vartiainen, Jorma Viikari, Peter Vollenweider, Judith M Vonk, Gérard Waeber, David R Weir, H-Erich Wichmann, Elisabeth Widen, Gonneke Willemsen, James F Wilson, Alan F Wright, Dalton Conley, George Davey-Smith, Lude Franke, Patrick J F Groenen, Albert Hofman, Magnus Johannesson, Sharon L R Kardia, Robert F Krueger, David Laibson, Nicholas G Martin, Michelle N Meyer, Danielle Posthuma, A Roy Thurik, Nicholas J Timpson, André G Uitterlinden, Cornelia M van Duijn, Peter M Visscher, Daniel J Benjamin, David Cesarini, Philipp D Koellinger
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

GWAS of 126,559 individuals identifies genetic variants associated with educational attainment

Cornelius A Rietveld et al. Science. .

Abstract

A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of educational attainment was conducted in a discovery sample of 101,069 individuals and a replication sample of 25,490. Three independent single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are genome-wide significant (rs9320913, rs11584700, rs4851266), and all three replicate. Estimated effects sizes are small (coefficient of determination R(2) ≈ 0.02%), approximately 1 month of schooling per allele. A linear polygenic score from all measured SNPs accounts for ≈2% of the variance in both educational attainment and cognitive function. Genes in the region of the loci have previously been associated with health, cognitive, and central nervous system phenotypes, and bioinformatics analyses suggest the involvement of the anterior caudate nucleus. These findings provide promising candidate SNPs for follow-up work, and our effect size estimates can anchor power analyses in social-science genetics.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Regional association plots of replicated loci associated with educational attainment [(A): rs9320913, (B): rs11584700, (C): rs4851266]. The plots are centered on the SNPs with the lowest p-values in the discovery stage (purple diamond). The R2 values are from the CEU HapMap 2 samples. The CEU HapMap 2 recombination rates are indicated with a blue line on the right-hand y-axis. The figures were created with LocusZoom (http://csg.sph.umich.edu/locuszoom/).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Solid lines show results from regressions of EduYears on linear polygenic scores in a set of unrelated individuals from the QIMR (N = 3526) and STR (N = 6770) cohorts. Dashed lines show results from regressions of Cognitive function on linear polygenic scores in a sample from STR (N = 1419). The scores are constructed from the meta-analysis for either EduYears or College, excluding the QIMR and STR cohorts.
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Comment in

  • Genetics. Herit-ability.
    Flint J, Munafò M. Flint J, et al. Science. 2013 Jun 21;340(6139):1416-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1240684. Science. 2013. PMID: 23788790 No abstract available.

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