Genome-wide association study reveals new insights into the heritability and genetic correlates of developmental dyslexia.
Gialluisi A., Andlauer TFM., Mirza-Schreiber N., Moll K., Becker J., Hoffmann P., Ludwig KU., Czamara D., Pourcain BS., Honbolygó F., Tóth D., Csépe V., Huguet G., Chaix Y., Iannuzzi S., Demonet J-F., Morris AP., Hulslander J., Willcutt EG., DeFries JC., Olson RK., Smith SD., Pennington BF., Vaessen A., Maurer U., Lyytinen H., Peyrard-Janvid M., Leppänen PHT., Brandeis D., Bonte M., Stein JF., Talcott JB., Fauchereau F., Wilcke A., Kirsten H., Müller B., Francks C., Bourgeron T., Monaco AP., Ramus F., Landerl K., Kere J., Scerri TS., Paracchini S., Fisher SE., Schumacher J., Nöthen MM., Müller-Myhsok B., Schulte-Körne G.
Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a learning disorder affecting the ability to read, with a heritability of 40-60%. A notable part of this heritability remains unexplained, and large genetic studies are warranted to identify new susceptibility genes and clarify the genetic bases of dyslexia. We carried out a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 2274 dyslexia cases and 6272 controls, testing associations at the single variant, gene, and pathway level, and estimating heritability using single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data. We also calculated polygenic scores (PGSs) based on large-scale GWAS data for different neuropsychiatric disorders and cortical brain measures, educational attainment, and fluid intelligence, testing them for association with dyslexia status in our sample. We observed statistically significant (p