<p> Scientists have found a new genetic scoring technique that may predict a student's academic achievement from DNA alone and help identify children who are at risk of having learning difficulties.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The technique is the strongest prediction of behaviour from DNA to date, researchers said.<br /><br />The research shows that a genetic score comprising 20,000 DNA variants explains almost 10 per cent of the differences between children's educational attainment at the age of 16.<br /><br />The findings from King's College London mark a 'tipping point' in predicting academic achievement and may help identify children who are at greater risk of having learning difficulties.<br /><br />Twin studies can tell us the overall genetic influence on a trait in a population. Polygenic scores, however, estimate genetic influence from common variants only, which explains the discrepancy between these DNA-based studies and twin studies (10 per cent vs 60 per cent).<br /><br />As human traits are so complex and influenced by thousands of gene variants of very small effect, it is useful to consider the joint effects of all of these trait-associated variants - and this principle underlies the polygenic score method.<br /><br />Calculating an individual's polygenic score requires information from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) that finds specific genetic variants linked to particular traits, in this case academic achievement.<br /><br />Some of these genetic variants, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), are more strongly associated with the trait, and some are less strongly associated.<br /><br />In a polygenic score, the effects of these SNPs are weighed by the strength of association and then summed to a score, so that people with many SNPs related to academic achievement will have a higher polygenic score and higher academic achievement, whereas people with fewer associated SNPs will have a lower score and lower levels of academic achievement.<br /><br />The new research examined almost 10 million SNPs and identified 74 genetic variants that were significantly associated with years of completed education.<br /><br />'Years of education' was used as a proxy measure for education achievement and related traits.<br /><br />Researchers measured academic achievement in Mathematics and English at ages 7, 12 and 16, in a sample of 5,825 individuals from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS).<br /><br />Their findings show that what makes students achieve differently in their educational achievement is strongly affected by DNA differences.<br /><br />On average those with a higher polygenic score would obtain a grade between A and B, while those with lower score obtained an entire grade below at age 16.<br /><br />About 65 per cent of people in the higher polygenic group went on to do A-levels, whereas only 35 per cent from the lower group did so.<br />The findings appear in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.</p>
<p> Scientists have found a new genetic scoring technique that may predict a student's academic achievement from DNA alone and help identify children who are at risk of having learning difficulties.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The technique is the strongest prediction of behaviour from DNA to date, researchers said.<br /><br />The research shows that a genetic score comprising 20,000 DNA variants explains almost 10 per cent of the differences between children's educational attainment at the age of 16.<br /><br />The findings from King's College London mark a 'tipping point' in predicting academic achievement and may help identify children who are at greater risk of having learning difficulties.<br /><br />Twin studies can tell us the overall genetic influence on a trait in a population. Polygenic scores, however, estimate genetic influence from common variants only, which explains the discrepancy between these DNA-based studies and twin studies (10 per cent vs 60 per cent).<br /><br />As human traits are so complex and influenced by thousands of gene variants of very small effect, it is useful to consider the joint effects of all of these trait-associated variants - and this principle underlies the polygenic score method.<br /><br />Calculating an individual's polygenic score requires information from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) that finds specific genetic variants linked to particular traits, in this case academic achievement.<br /><br />Some of these genetic variants, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), are more strongly associated with the trait, and some are less strongly associated.<br /><br />In a polygenic score, the effects of these SNPs are weighed by the strength of association and then summed to a score, so that people with many SNPs related to academic achievement will have a higher polygenic score and higher academic achievement, whereas people with fewer associated SNPs will have a lower score and lower levels of academic achievement.<br /><br />The new research examined almost 10 million SNPs and identified 74 genetic variants that were significantly associated with years of completed education.<br /><br />'Years of education' was used as a proxy measure for education achievement and related traits.<br /><br />Researchers measured academic achievement in Mathematics and English at ages 7, 12 and 16, in a sample of 5,825 individuals from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS).<br /><br />Their findings show that what makes students achieve differently in their educational achievement is strongly affected by DNA differences.<br /><br />On average those with a higher polygenic score would obtain a grade between A and B, while those with lower score obtained an entire grade below at age 16.<br /><br />About 65 per cent of people in the higher polygenic group went on to do A-levels, whereas only 35 per cent from the lower group did so.<br />The findings appear in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.</p>