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Meta-Analysis
. 2016 Mar;46(2):170-82.
doi: 10.1007/s10519-015-9735-5. Epub 2015 Sep 11.

Meta-analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies for Extraversion: Findings from the Genetics of Personality Consortium

Stéphanie M van den Berg  1 Marleen H M de Moor  2   3   4 Karin J H Verweij  5   6 Robert F Krueger  7 Michelle Luciano  8   9 Alejandro Arias Vasquez  10   11   12   13 Lindsay K Matteson  7 Jaime Derringer  14 Tõnu Esko  15 Najaf Amin  16 Scott D Gordon  5 Narelle K Hansell  5 Amy B Hart  17 Ilkka Seppälä  18 Jennifer E Huffman  19 Bettina Konte  20 Jari Lahti  21   22 Minyoung Lee  23 Mike Miller  7 Teresa Nutile  24 Toshiko Tanaka  25 Alexander Teumer  26 Alexander Viktorin  27 Juho Wedenoja  28 Abdel Abdellaoui  2 Goncalo R Abecasis  29 Daniel E Adkins  30 Arpana Agrawal  31 Jüri Allik  32   33 Katja Appel  34 Timothy B Bigdeli  23 Fabio Busonero  35 Harry Campbell  36 Paul T Costa  37 George Davey Smith  38 Gail Davies  8   9 Harriet de Wit  39 Jun Ding  40 Barbara E Engelhardt  41 Johan G Eriksson  22   42   43   44   45 Iryna O Fedko  2 Luigi Ferrucci  25 Barbara Franke  10   11   12 Ina Giegling  20 Richard Grucza  31 Annette M Hartmann  20 Andrew C Heath  31 Kati Heinonen  21 Anjali K Henders  5 Georg Homuth  46 Jouke-Jan Hottenga  2 William G Iacono  7 Joost Janzing  11 Markus Jokela  21 Robert Karlsson  27 John P Kemp  38   47 Matthew G Kirkpatrick  39 Antti Latvala  28   42 Terho Lehtimäki  18 David C Liewald  8   9 Pamela A F Madden  31 Chiara Magri  48 Patrik K E Magnusson  27 Jonathan Marten  19 Andrea Maschio  35 Hamdi Mbarek  2 Sarah E Medland  5 Evelin Mihailov  15   49 Yuri Milaneschi  50 Grant W Montgomery  5 Matthias Nauck  51 Michel G Nivard  2 Klaasjan G Ouwens  2 Aarno Palotie  52   53 Erik Pettersson  27 Ozren Polasek  54 Yong Qian  40 Laura Pulkki-Råback  21 Olli T Raitakari  55   56 Anu Realo  32 Richard J Rose  57 Daniela Ruggiero  24 Carsten O Schmidt  26 Wendy S Slutske  58 Rossella Sorice  24 John M Starr  9   59 Beate St Pourcain  38   60   61 Angelina R Sutin  25   62 Nicholas J Timpson  38 Holly Trochet  19 Sita Vermeulen  12   63 Eero Vuoksimaa  28 Elisabeth Widen  53 Jasper Wouda  64   2 Margaret J Wright  5 Lina Zgaga  36   65 Generation ScotlandDavid Porteous  66 Alessandra Minelli  48 Abraham A Palmer  17   39 Dan Rujescu  20 Marina Ciullo  24 Caroline Hayward  19 Igor Rudan  36 Andres Metspalu  15   33 Jaakko Kaprio  28   42   53 Ian J Deary  8   9 Katri Räikkönen  21 James F Wilson  19   36 Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen  21 Laura J Bierut  31 John M Hettema  23 Hans J Grabe  34   67 Brenda W J H Penninx  50 Cornelia M van Duijn  16 David M Evans  38 David Schlessinger  40 Nancy L Pedersen  27 Antonio Terracciano  22   25 Matt McGue  7   68 Nicholas G Martin  5 Dorret I Boomsma  2
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Meta-analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies for Extraversion: Findings from the Genetics of Personality Consortium

Stéphanie M van den Berg et al. Behav Genet. 2016 Mar.

Abstract

Extraversion is a relatively stable and heritable personality trait associated with numerous psychosocial, lifestyle and health outcomes. Despite its substantial heritability, no genetic variants have been detected in previous genome-wide association (GWA) studies, which may be due to relatively small sample sizes of those studies. Here, we report on a large meta-analysis of GWA studies for extraversion in 63,030 subjects in 29 cohorts. Extraversion item data from multiple personality inventories were harmonized across inventories and cohorts. No genome-wide significant associations were found at the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) level but there was one significant hit at the gene level for a long non-coding RNA site (LOC101928162). Genome-wide complex trait analysis in two large cohorts showed that the additive variance explained by common SNPs was not significantly different from zero, but polygenic risk scores, weighted using linkage information, significantly predicted extraversion scores in an independent cohort. These results show that extraversion is a highly polygenic personality trait, with an architecture possibly different from other complex human traits, including other personality traits. Future studies are required to further determine which genetic variants, by what modes of gene action, constitute the heritable nature of extraversion.

Keywords: Common genetic variants; Imputation; Personality; Phenotype harmonization; Polygenic risk.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Manhattan plot for meta-analysis results of 29 discovery cohorts for extraversion in the Genetics of Personality Consortium
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Quantile-Quantile plots for meta-analysis results of 29 discovery cohorts for extraversion in the Genetics of Personality Consortium

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