GWAS of 126,559 Individuals Identifies Genetic Variants Associated with Educational Attainment
Grant W. Montgomery, Terho Lehtimäki, Jaakko Kaprio, Véronique Vitart, Mina K. Chung, John Barnard, Brenda W.J.H. Penninx, Laura J. Bierut, Arpana Agrawal, Jian Yang, Peter M. Visscher, Sang Lee, Ching‐Ti Liu, Abdel Abdellaoui, Cornelia M. van Duijn, Aarno Palotie, Carla A. Ibrahim‐Verbaas, Albert V. Smith, Helena Schmidt, Vilmundur Guðnason, Najaf Amin, Philip L. De Jager, Lei Yu, Tamara B. Harris, Reinhold Schmidt, Albert Hofman, Melissa E. Garcia, Fernando Rivadeneira, André G. Uitterlinden, Gail Davies, John M. Starr, Ian J. Deary, Guðný Eiríksdóttir, Panos Deloukas, Sara Hägg, Christiaan de Leeuw, Daniëlle Posthuma, Lenore J. Launer, Osorio Meirelles, Andres Metspalu, Pedro Marques‐Vidal, Jorma Viikari, Olli T. Raitakari, Debbie A. Lawlor, Mika Kähönen, Andrew C. Heath, Nicholas G. Martin, Patrick J. F. Groenen, Henning Tiemeier, Luigi Ferrucci, Dorret I. Boomsma, Sarah E. Medland, Erkki Vartiainen, Paul Lichtenstein, Katri Räikkönen, Johan G. Eriksson, Lawrence F. Bielak, Patricia A. Peyser, Nicholas J. Timpson, Dena Hernández, Jari Lahti, François Bastardot, Igor Rudan, Lude Franke, Peter Lichtner, Nicholas D. Hastie, Péter Vollenweider, Martin Preisig, Erik Ingelsson, Henry Völzke, Alexander Teumer, Jürgen Wellmann, Marika Kaakinen, Gonneke Willemsen, Marjo‐Riitta Järvelin, Caroline Hayward, Ute Bültmann, Christopher Oldmeadow, John Attia, Francesco Cucca, Juha Karjalainen, Peter K. Joshi, Penelope A. Lind, Jessica D. Faul, Ida Surakka, Kelly S. Benke, Zoltán Kutalik, Jennifer A. Smith, Tõnu Esko, Lili Milani, Sutapa Mukherjee, Lyle J. Palmer, Dalton Conley, David M. Evans, Jüri Allïk, Anu Realo, Aldo Rustichini, David R. Van Wagoner, David Laibson, Cornelius A. Rietveld, Henrik Grönberg, Per Hall, Rodney J. Scott, Patrik K. E. Magnusson, Krista Fischer, Stavroula Kanoni, Kati Kristiansson, Eva Albrecht, Stefania Bandinelli, Maria Dimitriou, Eva Reinmaa, Veikko Salomaa, Samuli Ripatti, Niina Eklund, Christian Gieger, Lydia Quaye, Harold Snieder, James F. Wilson, John P. Rice, Astanand Jugessur, Jouke‐Jan Hottenga, Susan M. Ring, Judith M. Vonk, H.‐Erich Wichmann, Ben A. Oostra, Alan F. Wright, Harry Campbell, Wei Zhao, Toshiko Tanaka, David R. Weir, Frank J.A. van Rooij, Ivana Kolčić, David C. Liewald, Ozren Polašek, Antti-Pekka Sarin, Antti Latvala, Matt McGue, Daniel S. Evans, Mariza de Andrade, David Schlessinger, Antonio Terracciano, George Dedoussis, Jennifer R. Harris, Pamela A. F. Madden, Dale R. Nyholt, The LifeLines Cohort Study, Wolfgang Hoffmann, Elisabeth Widén, Jae Hoon Sul, William G. Iacono, Sharon L. R. Kardia, George McMahon, Beaté St Pourcain, Christina Holzapfel, Juliette Harris, Håkon K. Gjessing, Bo Jacobsson, Kurt Lohman, Klaus Berger, Wouter J. Peyrot, Roy Thurik, Jingmei Li, Philipp Koellinger, Magnus Johannesson, Rolf Holle, Jaime Derringer, Matthijs J. H. M. van der Loos, Sebastian E. Baumeister, Gérard Waeber, George Davey-Smith, Jonathan Beauchamp, Christopher F. Chabris, Daniel J. Benjamin, David Cesarini, Patricia A. Boyle, Thomas Illig, Andreas Mielck, Lynn Cherkas, Michael B. Miller, Nicolás W. Martín, Harm-Jan Westra, Konstantin Shakhbazov, Behrooz Z. Alizadeh, Jeffrey A. Boatman, Rudolf Ferhmann, Peng Lin, Marisa Loitfelder, Ronny Myhre, Marja-Liisa Nuotio, Katja Petrovic, Thais S. Rizzi, David A. Bennett, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Martin F. Elderson, Adriaan Hofman, Elizabeth G. Holliday, Robert M. Kirkpatrick, Matthew Kowgier, Tomi Mäki‐Opas, Marco Masala, Markus Perola, Rauli Svento, Robert F. Krueger, Michelle N. Meyer
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.