title: The serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region and brain-derived neurotrophic factor valine to methionine at position 66 polymorphisms and maternal history of depression: associations with cognitive vulnerability to depression in childhood.
abstract: Preliminary work indicates that cognitive vulnerability to depression may be associated with variants of the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) and the valine to methionine at position 66 (val66met) polymorphism of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene; however, existing reports come from small samples. The present study sought to replicate and extend this research in a sample of 375 community-dwelling children and their parents. Following a negative mood induction, children completed a self-referent encoding task tapping memory for positive and negative self-descriptive traits. Consistent with previous work, we found that children with at least one short variant of the 5-HTTLPR had enhanced memory for negative self-descriptive traits. The BDNF val66met polymorphism had no main effect but was moderated by maternal depression, such that children with a BDNF methionine allele had a heightened memory for negative self-descriptive traits when mothers had experienced depression during children's lifetimes; in contrast, children with a methionine allele had low recall of negative traits when mothers had no depression history. The findings provide further support for the notion that the 5-HTTLPR is associated with cognitive markers of depression vulnerability and that the BDNF methionine allele moderates children's sensitivity to contextual factors.
authors.affiliation: University of Western Ontario, Canada. ehayden@uwo.ca
authors.forename: Elizabeth P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Hayden
authors.forename: Thomas M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Olino
authors.forename: Sara J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Bufferd
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Lea R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Dougherty
authors.forename: Haroon I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Sheikh
authors.forename: Shiva M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Daniel N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Klein
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000235:genetics*; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D057566:Self Report; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins