Association, characterisation and meta-analysis of SNPs linked to general reading ability in a German dyslexia case-control cohort.
Dyslexia is a severe disorder in the acquisition of reading and writing. Several studies investigated the role of genetics for reading, writing and spelling ability in the general population. However, many of the identified SNPs were not analysed in case-control cohorts. Here, we investigated SNPs previously linked to reading or spelling ability in the general population in a German case-control cohort. Furthermore, we characterised these SNPs for functional relevance with in silico methods and meta-analysed them with previous studies. A total of 16 SNPs within five genes were included. The total number of risk alleles was higher in cases than in controls. Three SNPs were nominally associated with dyslexia: rs7765678 within DCDC2, and rs2038137 and rs6935076 within KIAA0319. The relevance of rs2038137 and rs6935076 was further supported by the meta-analysis. Functional profiling included analysis of tissue-specific expression, annotations for regulatory elements and effects on gene expression levels (eQTLs). Thereby, we found molecular mechanistical implications for 13 of all 16 included SNPs. SNPs associated in our cohort showed stronger gene-specific eQTL effects than non-associated SNPs. In summary, our results validate SNPs previously linked to reading and spelling in the general population in dyslexics and provide insights into their putative molecular pathomechanisms.
Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Leipzig, Germany.
Bent
B
Müller
Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Leipzig, Germany.|Translational Centre for Regenerative Medicine (TRM), Leipzig, Germany.
Arndt
A
Wilcke
Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Leipzig, Germany.
Ivonne
I
Czepezauer
Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.|LIFE-Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Peter
P
Ahnert
Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Leipzig, Germany.|Fraunhofer Research Institution for Marine Biotechnology, Department of Medical Cell Technology, Lübeck, Germany.|Institute for Medical and Marine Biotechnology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
Johannes
J
Boltze
Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Leipzig, Germany.|Translational Centre for Regenerative Medicine (TRM), Leipzig, Germany.|Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.|LIFE-Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Holger
H
Kirsten
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D011932:Reading
C510451:DCDC2 protein, human; C500377:KIAA0319 protein, human; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins