Reading and writing are crucial life skills but roughly 1 in 10 children are affected by dyslexia, which can persist into adulthood. Family studies of dyslexia suggest heritability up to 70%, yet few convincing genetic markers have been found. Our genome-wide association study of 51,800 adults self-reporting a dyslexia diagnosis and 1,087,070 controls identified 42 independent significant loci: 15 in genes linked to cognitive ability/educational attainment; 27 novel and potentially more specific to dyslexia. Twenty-three loci (13 novel) were validated in independent cohorts of Chinese and European ancestry. Genetic aetiology of dyslexia was similar between sexes, and genetic covariance with many traits was found, including ambidexterity, but not neuroanatomical measures of language-related circuitry. Dyslexia polygenic scores explained up to 6% of variance in reading traits, and might in future contribute to earlier identification and remediation of dyslexia.
Doust, CatherineFontanillas, Pierre Eising, ElseGordon, Scott D.Wang ZhengjunAlagöz, GökberkMolz, Barbara23andMe Research Team Quantitative Trait Working Group of the GenLang ConsortiumSt Pourcain, BeateFrancks, ClydeMarioni, Riccardo E.Zhao JingjingParacchini, SilviaTalcott, Joel B.Monaco, Anthony P.Stein, John F.Gruen, Jeffrey R.Olson, Richard K.Willcutt, Erik G.DeFries, John C.Pennington, Bruce F.Smith, Shelley D.Wright, Margaret J.Martin, Nicholas G.Auton, AdamBates, Timothy C.Fisher, Simon E.Luciano, Michelle
Department of Biological and Medical Sciences
Year of publication: 2022Date of RADAR deposit: 2022-04-11