Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
20949370
TITLE
Genetic variance in a component of the language acquisition device: ROBO1 polymorphisms associated with phonological buffer deficits.
ABSTRACT
The region containing ROBO1 (Chromosome 3p12.3) has been implicated as a susceptibility gene for reading disorder and language deficit by translocation and linkage data. No association studies have yet been reported supporting any candidate gene. Here we report the first association of this gene with language deficits, specifically with phonological buffer deficits (a phenotype implicated in language acquisition, Specific Language Impairment and Speech Sound Disorder) and dyslexia (reading and spelling ability traits) in an unselected sample of adolescent twins and their siblings. Family-based analyses were performed on 144 tag SNPs in ROBO1, typed in 538 families with up to five offspring and tested for association with a developmental marker of language impairment (phonological buffer capacity, assessed using non word repetition). A reading and spelling ability measure--based on validated measures of lexical processing (irregular word) and grapheme-phoneme decoding (pseudo word)--and measures of short-term and working memory were also analysed. Significant association for phonological buffer capacity was observed for 21 of 144 SNPs tested, peaking at 8.70 × 10(-05) and 9.30 × 10(-05) for SNPs rs6803202 and rs4535189 respectively for nonword repetition, values that survive correction for multiple testing. Twenty-two SNPs showed significant associations for verbal storage (forward digit span)--a trait linked to phonological span. By contrast, just 5 SNPs reached nominal significance for working-memory, not surviving correction, and, importantly, only one SNP in the 144 tested reached nominal significance (0.04) for association with reading and spelling ability. These results provide strong support for ROBO1 as a gene involved in a core trait underpinning language acquisition, with a specific function in supporting a short-term buffer for arbitrary phonological strings. These effects of ROBO1 appear to be unrelated to brain mechanisms underpinning reading ability, at least by adolescence. While replication will be critical, the present results strongly support ROBO1 as the first gene discovered to be associated with language deficits affecting normal variation in language ability. Its functional role in neuronal migration underlying bilateral symmetry and lateralization of neuronal function further suggests a role in the evolution of human language ability.
DATE PUBLISHED
2011 Jan
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
received 2010/01/27
accepted 2010/09/28
entrez 2010/10/16 06:00
pubmed 2010/10/16 06:00
medline 2011/06/29 06:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Bates TC Bates Timothy C TC Centre for Cognitive Aging and Cognitive Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. tim.bates@ed.ac.uk
Luciano M Luciano Michelle M
Medland SE Medland Sarah E SE
Montgomery GW Montgomery Grant W GW
Wright MJ Wright Margaret J MJ
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 41
ISSUE: 1
TITLE: Behavior genetics
ISOABBREVIATION: Behav Genet
YEAR: 2011
MONTH: Jan
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Internet
ISSN: 1573-3297
ISSNTYPE: Electronic
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Behav Genet
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0001-8244
NLMUNIQUEID: 0251711
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
CZB/4/536 Chief Scientist Office United Kingdom
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adolescent
Adult
Alleles
Child
Chromosomes, Human, Pair 3 genetics
Diseases in Twins genetics
Dyslexia genetics
Female genetics
Genetic Predisposition to Disease genetics
Genetic Variation genetics
Genotype genetics
Humans genetics
Language Development Disorders genetics
Male genetics
Nerve Tissue Proteins genetics
Phenotype genetics
Phonetics genetics
Polymorphism, Genetic genetics
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide genetics
Queensland genetics
Receptors, Immunologic genetics
Young Adult genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
REGISTRYNUMBER NAMEOFSUBSTANCE
0 Nerve Tissue Proteins
0 Receptors, Immunologic
0 roundabout protein
OTHER ID's