Personality can be thought of as a set of characteristics that
influence people's thoughts, feelings and behavior across a variety of
settings. Variation in personality is predictive of many outcomes in life,
including mental health. Here we report on a meta-analysis of genome-wide
association (GWA) data for personality in 10 discovery samples (17 375 adults) and five in silico replication samples (3294
adults). All participants were of European ancestry. Personality scores for
Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and
Conscientiousness were based on the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. Genotype data of
~2.4M single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; directly typed and imputed using
HapMap data) were available. In the discovery samples, classical association
analyses were performed under an additive model followed by meta-analysis using
the weighted inverse variance method. Results showed genome-wide significance
for Openness to Experience near the RASA1 gene on 5q14.3 (rs1477268 and rs2032794,
P=2.8 × 10−8 and 3.1 × 10−8) and
for Conscientiousness in the brain-expressed KATNAL2 gene on 18q21.1
(rs2576037, P=4.9 × 10−8). We further
conducted a gene-based test that confirmed the association of KATNAL2 to
Conscientiousness. In silico replication did not, however, show significant
associations of the top SNPs with Openness and Conscientiousness, although the
direction of effect of the KATNAL2 SNP on Conscientiousness was consistent in
all replication samples. Larger scale GWA studies and alternative approaches
are required for confirmation of KATNAL2 as a novel gene affecting
Conscientiousness.
The study indicates that we haven't found any genes for personality. We know that there are SNPs associated with physical traits like
height, weight, hair colour, eye colour, and the risk of various diseases. If
none of those SNPs are associated with personality, then none of those traits
are causally associated with personality.
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de Moor, M., et al. (2012). Meta-analysis of
genome-wide association studies for personality Molecular Psychiatry, 17
(3), 337-349. DOI: 10.1038/mp.2010.128
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