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
40991152
TITLE
Dyslexia Polygenic Index and Socio-Economic Status Interaction Effects on Reading Skills in Australia and the United Kingdom.
ABSTRACT
Literacy is a significant predictor of important life outcomes, such as attained education and income (Ritchie and Bates in Psychol Sci 24(7):1301-1308, 2013. 10.1177/0956797612466268) yet difficulties in reading and spelling are common. Both genetic and environmental factors account for individual differences in reading and spelling abilities (Little et al. in Behav Genet 47:52-76, 2017. 10.1007/s10519-016-9810-6), but there is some evidence that genetic factors can be moderated by environmental factors, many of which relate to differences in socio-economic status (SES). Studies in the US indicate that the heritability of reading and spelling abilities is higher in higher SES environments (Hart et al. in J Child Psychol Psychiatry 54(10):1047-1055, 2013. 10.1111/jcpp.12083; Friend et al. in Psychol Sci 19(11), 2008. 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02213.x). Because countries differ in terms of factors such as education access and social mobility, the genetics (or simply gene) x SES interaction may or may not be present in other populations. Here, we utilise summary statistics from a well-powered genome-wide association study on dyslexia (Doust et al. in Nat Genet 54:1621-1629, 2022. 10.1038/s41588-022-01192-y) to construct polygenic indices in two cohorts of children/adolescents in Australia (N = 1315) and the United Kingdom (N = 5461 at age 7; N = 4306 at age 16), and test whether the effect of measured genes on variation in reading ability is moderated by family SES. While polygenic indices and SES both showed statistically significant effects on reading and spelling performance, no interaction effect was found. These results are contrary to results of some twin studies in the United States that have found an interaction effect. Yet, these findings support the broader literature on gene x SES interaction that mostly report no such interaction in other cognitive traits outside the United States suggesting country differences in how strongly SES relates to education quality.
© 2025. The Author(s).
DATE PUBLISHED
2025 Sep
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
received 2025/03/17
accepted 2025/08/07
medline 2025/10/03 12:34
pubmed 2025/09/24 13:00
entrez 2025/09/24 11:20
pmc-release 2025/09/24
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Bicona D Bicona Diana D Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Mountford HS Mountford Hayley S HS Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Bridges EC Bridges Elinor C EC Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Fontanillas P Fontanillas Pierre P 23andMe, Inc, Sunnyvale, CA, USA.
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer, Brisbane, Australia.
Fisher SE Fisher Simon E SE Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Bates TC Bates Timothy C TC Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Luciano M Luciano Michelle M Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. michelle.luciano@ed.ac.uk.
23andMe Research Team
INVESTIGATORS
LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION
Agee Michelle M
Aslibekyan Stella S
Auton Adam A
Babalola Elizabeth E
Bell Robert K RK
Bielenberg Jessica J
Bryc Katarzyna K
Bullis Emily E
Cameron Briana B
Coker Daniella D
Partida Gabriel Cuellar GC
Dhamija Devika D
Das Sayantan S
Elson Sarah L SL
Filshtein Teresa T
Fletez-Brant Kipper K
Freyman Will W
Gandhi Pooja M PM
Heilbron Karl K
Hicks Barry B
Hinds David A DA
Huber Karen E KE
Jewett Ethan M EM
Jiang Yunxuan Y
Kleinman Aaron A
Kukar Katelyn K
Lane Vanessa V
Lin Keng-Han KH
Lowe Maya M
Luff Marie K MK
McCreight Jey C JC
McIntyre Matthew H MH
McManus Kimberly F KF
Micheletti Steven J SJ
Moreno Meghan E ME
Mountain Joanna L JL
Mozaffari Sahar V SV
Nandakumar Priyanka P
Noblin Elizabeth S ES
O'Connell Jared J
Petrakovitz Aaron A AA
Poznik G David GD
Schumacher Morgan M
Shastri Anjali J AJ
Shelton Janie F JF
Shi Jingchunzi J
Shringarpure Suyash S
Tian Chao C
Tran Vinh V
Tung Joyce Y JY
Wang Xin X
Wang Wei W
Weldon Catherine H CH
Wilton Peter P
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 55
ISSUE: 5
TITLE: Behavior genetics
ISOABBREVIATION: Behav Genet
YEAR: 2025
MONTH: Sep
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
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
BB/T000813/1 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council United Kingdom
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
KEYWORD
Gene x environment interaction
Polygenic index
Reading
School
Socio-economic status
Spelling
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Humans
Australia
United Kingdom
Multifactorial Inheritance genetics
Reading genetics
Male genetics
Dyslexia genetics
Female genetics
Social Class genetics
Child genetics
Gene-Environment Interaction genetics
Genome-Wide Association Study genetics
Adolescent genetics
Educational Status genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's