Evidence for specificity of polygenic contributions to attainment in English, maths and science during adolescence

Abstract How well one does at school is predictive of a wide range of important cognitive, socioeconomic, and health outcomes. The last few years have shown marked advancement in our understanding of the genetic contributions to, and correlations with, academic attainment. However, there exists a ga...

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Main Authors: Georgina Donati, Iroise Dumontheil, Oliver Pain, Kathryn Asbury, Emma L. Meaburn
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2021-02-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82877-y
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spelling doaj-a23db654804949a2b833532c02084feb2021-02-21T12:31:17ZengNature Publishing GroupScientific Reports2045-23222021-02-0111111110.1038/s41598-021-82877-yEvidence for specificity of polygenic contributions to attainment in English, maths and science during adolescenceGeorgina Donati0Iroise Dumontheil1Oliver Pain2Kathryn Asbury3Emma L. Meaburn4Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of LondonCentre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of LondonSocial Genetic and Developmental Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College LondonDepartment of Education, University of YorkCentre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of LondonAbstract How well one does at school is predictive of a wide range of important cognitive, socioeconomic, and health outcomes. The last few years have shown marked advancement in our understanding of the genetic contributions to, and correlations with, academic attainment. However, there exists a gap in our understanding of the specificity of genetic associations with performance in academic subjects during adolescence, a critical developmental period. To address this, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children was used to conduct genome-wide association studies of standardised national English (N = 5983), maths (N = 6017) and science (N = 6089) tests. High SNP-based heritabilities (h2 SNP) for all subjects were found (41–53%). Further, h2 SNP for maths and science remained after removing shared variance between subjects or IQ (N = 3197–5895). One genome-wide significant single nucleotide polymorphism (rs952964, p = 4.86 × 10–8) and four gene-level associations with science attainment (MEF2C, BRINP1, S100A1 and S100A13) were identified. Rs952964 remained significant after removing the variance shared between academic subjects. The findings highlight the benefits of using environmentally homogeneous samples for genetic analyses and indicate that finer-grained phenotyping will help build more specific biological models of variance in learning processes and abilities.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82877-y
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Georgina Donati
Iroise Dumontheil
Oliver Pain
Kathryn Asbury
Emma L. Meaburn
spellingShingle Georgina Donati
Iroise Dumontheil
Oliver Pain
Kathryn Asbury
Emma L. Meaburn
Evidence for specificity of polygenic contributions to attainment in English, maths and science during adolescence
Scientific Reports
author_facet Georgina Donati
Iroise Dumontheil
Oliver Pain
Kathryn Asbury
Emma L. Meaburn
author_sort Georgina Donati
title Evidence for specificity of polygenic contributions to attainment in English, maths and science during adolescence
title_short Evidence for specificity of polygenic contributions to attainment in English, maths and science during adolescence
title_full Evidence for specificity of polygenic contributions to attainment in English, maths and science during adolescence
title_fullStr Evidence for specificity of polygenic contributions to attainment in English, maths and science during adolescence
title_full_unstemmed Evidence for specificity of polygenic contributions to attainment in English, maths and science during adolescence
title_sort evidence for specificity of polygenic contributions to attainment in english, maths and science during adolescence
publisher Nature Publishing Group
series Scientific Reports
issn 2045-2322
publishDate 2021-02-01
description Abstract How well one does at school is predictive of a wide range of important cognitive, socioeconomic, and health outcomes. The last few years have shown marked advancement in our understanding of the genetic contributions to, and correlations with, academic attainment. However, there exists a gap in our understanding of the specificity of genetic associations with performance in academic subjects during adolescence, a critical developmental period. To address this, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children was used to conduct genome-wide association studies of standardised national English (N = 5983), maths (N = 6017) and science (N = 6089) tests. High SNP-based heritabilities (h2 SNP) for all subjects were found (41–53%). Further, h2 SNP for maths and science remained after removing shared variance between subjects or IQ (N = 3197–5895). One genome-wide significant single nucleotide polymorphism (rs952964, p = 4.86 × 10–8) and four gene-level associations with science attainment (MEF2C, BRINP1, S100A1 and S100A13) were identified. Rs952964 remained significant after removing the variance shared between academic subjects. The findings highlight the benefits of using environmentally homogeneous samples for genetic analyses and indicate that finer-grained phenotyping will help build more specific biological models of variance in learning processes and abilities.
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82877-y
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