Interaction between risk SNPs of Developmental Dyslexia and Parental Education on Reading Ability: Evidence for Differential-Susceptibility Theory

While genetic and environmental factors have been shown as predictors of childrens reading ability, the interaction effects of identified genetic risk susceptibility and specified environmental for reading ability have rarely been investigated. The current study assessed potential gene-environmental (GxE) interactions on reading ability in 1477 school-aged children. The gene-environment interactions on character recognition were investigated by an exploration analysis between the risk single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) which were discovered by previous genome-wide association studies of developmental dyslexia (DD), and parental education (PE). The re-parameterized regression analysis suggested that this GxE interaction conformed to the strong differential-susceptibility model. Results showed that rs281238 exhibits a significant interaction with PE on character recognition. Children with "T" genotype profited from high PE, whereas they performed worse in low PE environment, but "CC" genotype children were not malleable in different PE environments. Research HighlightsO_LIWe calculated the Cumulative Genetic Score (CGS) of 9 SNPs related to developmental dyslexia, and found that the interaction between CGS and parental education on reading ability. The GxE comforted to the differential-susceptibility model that those individuals carrying more plasticity alleles were affected more than those carrying more fewer. C_LIO_LIThe interaction between rs281238 and parental education conformed to the strong differential-susceptibility model that children with "T" allele would have highest reading ability in positive environment and lowest reading ability in adversity environment, whereas children without "T" allele would not be affected by parental education. C_LI