Genome Wide Association Scan identifies new variants associated with a cognitive predictor of dyslexia.

Alessandro Gialluisi; Till F. M. Andlauer; Nazanin Mirza‐Schreiber; Kristina Moll; Jessica Becker; Per Hoffmann; Kerstin U. Ludwig; Darina Czamara; Beaté St Pourcain; William M. Brandler; Ferenc Honbolygó; Dénes Tóth; Valéria Csépe; Guillaume Huguet; Andrew P. Morris; Jacqueline Hulslander; Erik G. Willcutt; John C. DeFries; Richard K. Olson; Shelley D. Smith; Bruce F. Pennington; Anniek Vaessen; Urs Maurer; Heikki Lyytinen; Myriam Peyrard‐Janvid; Paavo H. T. Leppänen; Daniel Brandeis; Milene L. Bonte; John Frederick Stein; Joel B. Talcott

doi:10.1038/s41398-019-0402-0

GenomicsTranslational PsychiatryFeb 11, 2019

Peer-reviewed journal article

Genome Wide Association Scan identifies new variants associated with a cognitive predictor of dyslexia.

Alessandro Gialluisi iD, Till F. M. Andlauer iD, Nazanin Mirza‐Schreiber iD, Kristina Moll iD, Jessica Becker iD, Per Hoffmann iD, Kerstin U. Ludwig iD, Darina Czamara iD, Beaté St Pourcain iD, William M. Brandler iD, Ferenc Honbolygó iD, Dénes Tóth iD, Valéria Csépe iD, Guillaume Huguet iD, Andrew P. Morris iD, Jacqueline Hulslander iD, Erik G. Willcutt iD, John C. DeFries, Richard K. Olson iD, Shelley D. Smith, Bruce F. Pennington iD, Anniek Vaessen iD, Urs Maurer iD, Heikki Lyytinen iD, Myriam Peyrard‐Janvid, , Gerd Schulte‐Körne iD

Abstract

Developmental dyslexia (DD) is one of the most prevalent learning disorders among children and is characterized by deficits in different cognitive skills, including reading, spelling, short term memory and others. To help unravel the genetic basis of these skills, we conducted a Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS), including nine cohorts of reading-impaired and typically developing children of European ancestry, recruited across different countries (N=2,562-3,468).\n\nWe observed a genome-wide significant effect (p<1x10-8) on rapid automatized naming of letters (RANlet) for variants on 18q12.2 within MIR924HG (micro-RNA 924 host gene; p = 4.73x10-9), and a suggestive association on 8q12.3 within NKAIN3 (encoding a cation transporter; p = 2.25 x10-8). RAN represents one of the best universal predictors of reading fluency across orthographies and linkage to RAN has been previously reported within CELF4 (18q12.2), a gene highly expressed in the fetal brain which is co-expressed with NKAIN3 and predicted to be a target of MIR924. These findings suggest new candidate DD susceptibility genes and provide insights into the genetics and neurobiology of dyslexia.

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