Gene discovery & polygenic prediction from a genome-wide association study in 1.1 million individuals: Explain 11–13% of the variance in educational attainment & 7–10% in cognitive performance

Gene discovery and polygenic prediction from a genome-wide association study of educational attainment in 1.1 million individuals. James J. Lee et al. Nature Genetics, volume 50, pages1112–1121 (Jul 2018). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-018-0147-3

Abstract: 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.