TY - JOUR
T1 - DNA methylation signatures of educational attainment
AU - van Dongen, Jenny
AU - Bonder, Marc Jan
AU - Dekkers, Koen F.
AU - Nivard, Michel G.
AU - van Iterson, Maarten
AU - Willemsen, Gonneke
AU - Beekman, Marian
AU - van der Spek, Ashley
AU - van Meurs, Joyce B.J.
AU - Franke, Lude
AU - Heijmans, Bastiaan T.
AU - van Duijn, Cornelia M.
AU - Slagboom, P. Eline
AU - Boomsma, Dorret I.
AU - ’t Hoen, Peter A.C.
AU - Isaacs, Aaron
AU - Jansen, Rick
AU - Pool, René
AU - Hottenga, Jouke J.
AU - van Greevenbroek, Marleen Mj
AU - Stehouwer, Coen D.A.
AU - van der Kallen, Carla J.H.
AU - Schalkwijk, Casper G.
AU - Wijmenga, Cisca
AU - Zhernakova, Sasha
AU - Tigchelaar, Ettje F.
AU - Deelen, Joris
AU - van Heemst, Diana
AU - Veldink, Jan H.
AU - van den Berg, Leonard H.
AU - Hofman, Bert A.
AU - Uitterlinden, André G.
AU - Jhamai, P. Mila
AU - Verbiest, Michael
AU - Suchiman, H. Eka D.
AU - Verkerk, Marijn
AU - van der Breggen, Ruud
AU - van Rooij, Jeroen
AU - Lakenberg, Nico
AU - Mei, Hailiang
AU - van Galen, Michiel
AU - Bot, Jan
AU - Zhernakova, Dasha V.
AU - van’t Hof, Peter
AU - BIOS Consortium
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by: BBRMI-NL-financed BIOS Consortium (NWO 184.021.007). JvD is supported by ACTION. ACTION receives funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no 602768. DIB gratefully acknowledges the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science Professor Award (PAH/6635).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The Author(s).
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - Educational attainment is a key behavioural measure in studies of cognitive and physical health, and socioeconomic status. We measured DNA methylation at 410,746 CpGs (N = 4152) and identified 58 CpGs associated with educational attainment at loci characterized by pleiotropic functions shared with neuronal, immune and developmental processes. Associations overlapped with those for smoking behaviour, but remained after accounting for smoking at many CpGs: Effect sizes were on average 28% smaller and genome-wide significant at 11 CpGs after adjusting for smoking and were 62% smaller in never smokers. We examined sources and biological implications of education-related methylation differences, demonstrating correlations with maternal prenatal folate, smoking and air pollution signatures, and associations with gene expression in cis, dynamic methylation in foetal brain, and correlations between blood and brain. Our findings show that the methylome of lower-educated people resembles that of smokers beyond effects of their own smoking behaviour and shows traces of various other exposures.
AB - Educational attainment is a key behavioural measure in studies of cognitive and physical health, and socioeconomic status. We measured DNA methylation at 410,746 CpGs (N = 4152) and identified 58 CpGs associated with educational attainment at loci characterized by pleiotropic functions shared with neuronal, immune and developmental processes. Associations overlapped with those for smoking behaviour, but remained after accounting for smoking at many CpGs: Effect sizes were on average 28% smaller and genome-wide significant at 11 CpGs after adjusting for smoking and were 62% smaller in never smokers. We examined sources and biological implications of education-related methylation differences, demonstrating correlations with maternal prenatal folate, smoking and air pollution signatures, and associations with gene expression in cis, dynamic methylation in foetal brain, and correlations between blood and brain. Our findings show that the methylome of lower-educated people resembles that of smokers beyond effects of their own smoking behaviour and shows traces of various other exposures.
U2 - 10.1038/s41539-018-0020-2
DO - 10.1038/s41539-018-0020-2
M3 - Article
SN - 2056-7936
VL - 3
JO - npj Science of Learning
JF - npj Science of Learning
IS - 1
M1 - 7
ER -