| Literature DB >> 28383074 |
Katie M Williams1,2, Pirro G Hysi2, Ekaterina Yonova-Doing2, Omar A Mahroo1, Harold Snieder3, Christopher J Hammond1,2.
Abstract
Myopia, or near-sightedness, is our most common eye condition and the prevalence is increasing globally. Visual impairment will occur if uncorrected, whilst high myopia causes sight-threatening complications. Myopia is associated with higher intelligence. As both are heritable, we set out to examine whether there is a genetic correlation between myopia and intelligence in over 1,500 subjects (aged 14-18 years) from a twin birth cohort. The phenotypic correlation between refractive error and intelligence was -0.116 (p < 0.01) - the inverse correlation due to the fact that myopia is a negative refractive error. Bivariate twin modeling confirmed both traits were heritable (refractive error 85%, intelligence 47%) and the genetic correlation was -0.143 (95% CI -0.013 to -0.273). Of the small phenotypic correlation the majority (78%) was explained by genetic factors. Polygenic risk scores were constructed based on common genetic variants identified in previous genome-wide association studies of refractive error and intelligence. Genetic variants for intelligence and refractive error explain some of the reciprocal variance, suggesting genetic pleiotropy; in the best-fit model the polygenic score for intelligence explained 0.99% (p = 0.008) of refractive error variance. These novel findings indicate shared genetic factors contribute significantly to the covariance between myopia and intelligence.Entities:
Mesh:
Year: 2017 PMID: 28383074 PMCID: PMC5382686 DOI: 10.1038/srep45977
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Sci Rep ISSN: 2045-2322 Impact factor: 4.379
Twin participant characteristics by zygosity, myopic status and genotype availability.
| Mean age at refraction measurement (years), SD | Mean age at IQ measurement (years), SD | Sex, % male | Ethnicity, % White European | Academic achievement (mean total GCSE score), SD | Maternal education (mean highest education level), SD | Mean time spent reading (hours), SD | Mean refractive error (D), SD | Mean IQ (g), SD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MZ twins (n = 564) | 16.5, 1.80 | 15.9, 1.04 | 36.6 | 94.9 | 90.5, 23.1 | 4.17, 1.96 | 5.09, 6.80 | −0.61, 1.79 | 0.00, 0.95 |
| DZ twins (n = 965) | 16.4, 1.73 | 15.7, 1.27 | 41.2 | 96.2 | 90.2, 24.3 | 4.50, 2.13 | 4.55, 6.01 | −0.30, 1.77 | 0.12, 1.05 |
| Combined (n = 1529) | 16.4, 1.76 | 15.8, 1.20 | 39.5 | 95.7 | 90.3, 23.9 | 4.37, 2.07 | 4.75, 6.32 | −0.41, 1.78 | 0.07, 1.01 |
| Participants with myopia (n = 409) | 17.0, 0.82 | 15.9, 1.12 | 39.6 | 93.8 | 93.0, 24.2 | 4.64, 2.04 | 5.10, 7.50 | −2.42, 1.57 | 0.24, 1.02 |
| Participants without myopia (n = 1120) | 16.1, 1.92 | 15.7, 1.25 | 42.8 | 96.5 | 87.9, 23.8 | 4.16, 2.05 | 4.37, 5.63 | 0.37, 1.07 | 0.02, 1.00 |
| p value | <0.01 | 0.03 | 0.21 | <0.01 | <0.01 | <0.01 | 0.08 | <0.01 | <0.01 |
| Participants with genotype data | 16.2, 1.79 | 15.8, 1.20 | 45.4 | 100 | 85.6, 24.1 | 4.00, 1.98 | 5.93, 8.94 | −0.38, 1.70 | 0.01, 0.98 |
Abbreviations: Standard deviation (SD), General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), Diopters (D). Maternal educational levels graded 1–7 (none, primary school, secondary school, vocational certificate/diploma, undergraduate, postgraduate). IQ (Intelligent Quotient) score provided by g (general cognitive ability), which is a composite score of tests of verbal and non-verbal cognitive ability.
Figure 1Scatter plot of refrective error against IQ (both variables adjusted for age and sex) with linear regression line and 95% confidence region [n = 1529].
Figure 2Bivariate twin ACE model for refractive error and IQ.
Path estimates with 95% confidence intervals; A = additive genetic factors, C = common environmental factors, E = unique environmental factors; †=significant path estimates [n = 1529].
Figure 3Genome-wide polygenic scores for intelligence (A) and refractive error (B) respectively predict variance in refractive error and intelligence. Polygenic risk scores were created using different significance thresholds for inclusion of SNPs (<0.001 to <0.50). The uncorrected p-values above each bar indicate the statistical significance of the association between the polygenic score and the respective trait. (A) n = 696, adjusted for two principal components, age and sex. (B) n = 1517, adjusted for two principal components, age and sex.