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Pleiotropy across academic subjects at the end of compulsory education

Research has shown that genes play an important role in educational achievement. A key question is the extent to which the same genes affect different academic subjects before and after controlling for general intelligence. The present study investigated genetic and environmental influences on, and...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rimfeld, Kaili, Kovas, Yulia, Dale, Philip S., Plomin, Robert
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4512149/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26203819
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep11713
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author Rimfeld, Kaili
Kovas, Yulia
Dale, Philip S.
Plomin, Robert
author_facet Rimfeld, Kaili
Kovas, Yulia
Dale, Philip S.
Plomin, Robert
author_sort Rimfeld, Kaili
collection PubMed
description Research has shown that genes play an important role in educational achievement. A key question is the extent to which the same genes affect different academic subjects before and after controlling for general intelligence. The present study investigated genetic and environmental influences on, and links between, the various subjects of the age-16 UK-wide standardized GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) examination results for 12,632 twins. Using the twin method that compares identical and non-identical twins, we found that all GCSE subjects were substantially heritable, and that various academic subjects correlated substantially both phenotypically and genetically, even after controlling for intelligence. Further evidence for pleiotropy in academic achievement was found using a method based directly on DNA from unrelated individuals. We conclude that performance differences for all subjects are highly heritable at the end of compulsory education and that many of the same genes affect different subjects independent of intelligence.
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spelling pubmed-45121492015-07-28 Pleiotropy across academic subjects at the end of compulsory education Rimfeld, Kaili Kovas, Yulia Dale, Philip S. Plomin, Robert Sci Rep Article Research has shown that genes play an important role in educational achievement. A key question is the extent to which the same genes affect different academic subjects before and after controlling for general intelligence. The present study investigated genetic and environmental influences on, and links between, the various subjects of the age-16 UK-wide standardized GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) examination results for 12,632 twins. Using the twin method that compares identical and non-identical twins, we found that all GCSE subjects were substantially heritable, and that various academic subjects correlated substantially both phenotypically and genetically, even after controlling for intelligence. Further evidence for pleiotropy in academic achievement was found using a method based directly on DNA from unrelated individuals. We conclude that performance differences for all subjects are highly heritable at the end of compulsory education and that many of the same genes affect different subjects independent of intelligence. Nature Publishing Group 2015-07-23 /pmc/articles/PMC4512149/ /pubmed/26203819 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep11713 Text en Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Rimfeld, Kaili
Kovas, Yulia
Dale, Philip S.
Plomin, Robert
Pleiotropy across academic subjects at the end of compulsory education
title Pleiotropy across academic subjects at the end of compulsory education
title_full Pleiotropy across academic subjects at the end of compulsory education
title_fullStr Pleiotropy across academic subjects at the end of compulsory education
title_full_unstemmed Pleiotropy across academic subjects at the end of compulsory education
title_short Pleiotropy across academic subjects at the end of compulsory education
title_sort pleiotropy across academic subjects at the end of compulsory education
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4512149/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26203819
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep11713
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