title: Aggressive behavior in humans: Genes and pathways identified through association studies.
abstract: Aggressive behavior has both genetic and environmental components. Many association studies have been performed to identify genetic factors underlying aggressive behaviors in humans. In this review we summarize the previous work performed in this field, considering both candidate gene (CGAS) and genome-wide association studies (GWAS), excluding those performed in samples where the primary diagnosis is a psychiatric or neurological disorder other than an aggression-related phenotype. Subsequently, we have studied the enrichment of pathways and functions in GWAS data. The results of our searches show that most CGAS have identified associations with genes involved in dopaminergic and serotonergic neurotransmission and in hormone regulation. On the other hand, GWAS have not yet identified genome-wide significant associations, but top nominal findings are related to several signaling pathways, such as axon guidance or estrogen receptor signaling, and also to neurodevelopmental processes and synaptic plasticity. Future studies should use larger samples, homogeneous phenotypes and standardized measurements to identify genes that underlie aggressive behaviors in humans. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Genètica, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.|Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Catalonia, Spain.|Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), Spain.
authors.forename: Noèlia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fernàndez-Castillo
authors.affiliation: Departament de Genètica, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.|Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Catalonia, Spain.|Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), Spain.
authors.forename: Bru
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cormand
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D056726:Genetic Association Studies / Q000379:methods; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: GWAS; aggression; association studies; candidate genes; genetics