e-space
Manchester Metropolitan University's Research Repository

    Genome-wide association meta-analysis of 78,308 individuals identifies new loci and genes influencing human intelligence

    Sniekers, Suzanne, Stringer, Sven, Watanabe, Kyoko, Jansen, Philip R, Coleman, Jonathan RI, Krapohl, Eva, Taskesen, Erdogan, Hammerschlag, Anke R, Okbay, Aysu, Zabaneh, Delilah, Amin, Najaf, Breen, Gerome, Cesarini, David, Chabris, Christopher F, Iacono, William G, Ikram, M Arfan, Johannesson, Magnus, Koellinger, Philipp, Lee, James J, Magnusson, Patrik KE, McGue, Matt, Miller, Mike B, Ollier, William ER, Payton, Antony, Pendleton, Neil, Plomin, Robert, Rietveld, Cornelius A, Tiemeier, Henning, van Duijn, Cornelia M and Posthuma, Danielle (2017) Genome-wide association meta-analysis of 78,308 individuals identifies new loci and genes influencing human intelligence. Nature Genetics, 49 (7). pp. 1107-1112. ISSN 1061-4036

    [img]
    Preview
    Accepted Version
    Download (3MB) | Preview

    Abstract

    Intelligence is associated with important economic and health-related life outcomes1. Despite intelligence having substantial heritability2 (0.54) and a confirmed polygenic nature, initial genetic studies were mostly underpowered3,4,5. Here we report a meta-analysis for intelligence of 78,308 individuals. We identify 336 associated SNPs (METAL P < 5 × 10−8) in 18 genomic loci, of which 15 are new. Around half of the SNPs are located inside a gene, implicating 22 genes, of which 11 are new findings. Gene-based analyses identified an additional 30 genes (MAGMA P < 2.73 × 10−6), of which all but one had not been implicated previously. We show that the identified genes are predominantly expressed in brain tissue, and pathway analysis indicates the involvement of genes regulating cell development (MAGMA competitive P = 3.5 × 10−6). Despite the well-known difference in twin-based heritability2 for intelligence in childhood (0.45) and adulthood (0.80), we show substantial genetic correlation (rg = 0.89, LD score regression P = 5.4 × 10−29). These findings provide new insight into the genetic architecture of intelligence.

    Impact and Reach

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    292Downloads
    6 month trend
    182Hits

    Additional statistics for this dataset are available via IRStats2.

    Altmetric

    Repository staff only

    Edit record Edit record