title: No association between CTNNBL1 and episodic memory performance.
abstract: Polymorphisms in the gene encoding catenin-β-like 1 (CTNNBL1) were recently reported to be associated with verbal episodic memory performance--in particular, delayed verbal free recall assessed between 5 and 30 min after encoding--in a genome-wide association study on healthy young adults. To further examine the genetic effects of CTNNBL1, we tested for association between 455 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in or near CTNNBL1 and 14 measures of episodic memory performance from three different tasks in 1743 individuals. Probands were part of a population-based study of mentally healthy adult men and women, who were between 20 and 70 years old and were recruited as participants for the Berlin Aging Study II. Associations were assessed using linear regression analysis. Despite having sufficient power to detect the previously reported effect sizes, we found no evidence for statistically significant associations between the tested CTNNBL1 SNPs and any of the 14 measures of episodic memory. The previously reported effects of genetic polymorphisms in CTNNBL1 on episodic memory performance do not generalize to the broad range of tasks assessed in our cohort. If not altogether spurious, the effects may be limited to a very narrow phenotypic domain (that is, verbal delayed free recall between 5 and 30 min). More studies are needed to further clarify the role of CTNNBL1 in human memory.
authors.affiliation: 1] Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany [2] Department of Vertebrate Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: 1] Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany [2] Department of Psychology, Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: S-C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: 1] Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany [2] Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Papenberg
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Vertebrate Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany [2] Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schröder
authors.affiliation: Department of Vertebrate Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Roehr
authors.affiliation: Department of Vertebrate Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Nietfeld
authors.affiliation: Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Lindenberger
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Vertebrate Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany [2] School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bertram
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D008875:Middle Aged; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; C479429:CTNNBL1 protein, human; D009687:Nuclear Proteins