Gene discovery and polygenic prediction from a genome-wide association study of educational attainment in 1.1 million individuals

Journal article

Here we conducted a large-scale genetic association analysis of educational attainment in a sample of approximately 1.1 million individuals and identify 1,271 independent genome-wide-significant SNPs. For the SNPs taken together, we found evidence of heterogeneous effects across environments. The SNPs implicate genes involved in brain-development processes and neuron-to-neuron communication. In a separate analysis of the X chromosome, we identify 10 independent genome-wide-significant SNPs and estimate a SNP heritability of around 0.3% in both men and women, consistent with partial dosage compensation. A joint (multi-phenotype) analysis of educational attainment and three related cognitive phenotypes generates polygenic scores that explain 11–13% of the variance in educational attainment and 7–10% of the variance in cognitive performance. This prediction accuracy substantially increases the utility of polygenic scores as tools in research.

Authors: Lee, JJ; Wedow, R; Okbay, A; Kong, E; Maghzian, O

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Journal: Nature Genetics
• Volume: 50
• Pages: 1112–1121
• Publication date: 2018-07-23
• Acceptance date: 2018-04-30
• DOI: 10.1038/s41588-018-0147-3
• EISSN: 1546-1718
• ISSN: 1061-4036