title: Genome-wide association scan for five major dimensions of personality.
abstract: Personality traits are summarized by five broad dimensions with pervasive influences on major life outcomes, strong links to psychiatric disorders and clear heritable components. To identify genetic variants associated with each of the five dimensions of personality we performed a genome-wide association (GWA) scan of 3972 individuals from a genetically isolated population within Sardinia, Italy. On the basis of the analyses of 362 129 single-nucleotide polymorphisms we found several strong signals within or near genes previously implicated in psychiatric disorders. They include the association of neuroticism with SNAP25 (rs362584, P=5 x 10(-5)), extraversion with BDNF and two cadherin genes (CDH13 and CDH23; Ps<5 x 10(-5)), openness with CNTNAP2 (rs10251794, P=3 x 10(-5)), agreeableness with CLOCK (rs6832769, P=9 x 10(-6)) and conscientiousness with DYRK1A (rs2835731, P=3 x 10(-5)). Effect sizes were small (less than 1% of variance), and most failed to replicate in the follow-up independent samples (N up to 3903), though the association between agreeableness and CLOCK was supported in two of three replication samples (overall P=2 x 10(-5)). We infer that a large number of loci may influence personality traits and disorders, requiring larger sample sizes for the GWA approach to confidently identify associated genetic variants.
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. terraccianoa@mail.nih.gov
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Terracciano
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sanna
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uda
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Deiana
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Usala
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Busonero
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maschio
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scally
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Patriciu
authors.forename: W-M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Distel
authors.forename: E P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Slagboom
authors.forename: D I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Boomsma
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Villafuerte
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sliwerska
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burmeister
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Amin
authors.forename: A C J W
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Janssens
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: van Duijn
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schlessinger
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Abecasis
authors.forename: P T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Costa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality / Q000235:genetics*; D010552:Personality Assessment; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D015203:Reproducibility of Results