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Genetic contributions to two special factors of neuroticism are associated with affluence, higher intelligence, better health, and longer life.

W David Hill | Alexander Weiss | David C Liewald | Gail Davies | David J Porteous | Caroline Hayward | Andrew M McIntosh | Catharine R Gale | Ian J Deary
Molecular psychiatry | 2020

Higher scores on the personality trait of neuroticism, the tendency to experience negative emotions, are associated with worse mental and physical health. Studies examining links between neuroticism and health typically operationalize neuroticism by summing the items from a neuroticism scale. However, neuroticism is made up of multiple heterogeneous facets, each contributing to the effect of neuroticism as a whole. A recent study showed that a 12-item neuroticism scale described one broad trait of general neuroticism and two special factors, one characterizing the extent to which people worry and feel vulnerable, and the other characterizing the extent to which people are anxious and tense. This study also found that, although individuals who were higher on general neuroticism lived shorter lives, individuals whose neuroticism was characterized by worry and vulnerability lived longer lives. Here, we examine the genetic contributions to the two special factors of neuroticism-anxiety/tension and worry/vulnerability-and how they contrast with that of general neuroticism. First, we show that, whereas the polygenic load for neuroticism is associated with the genetic risk of coronary artery disease, lower intelligence, lower socioeconomic status (SES), and poorer self-rated health, the genetic variants associated with high levels of anxiety/tension, and high levels of worry/vulnerability are associated with genetic variants linked to higher SES, higher intelligence, better self-rated health, and longer life. Second, we identify genetic variants that are uniquely associated with these protective aspects of neuroticism. Finally, we show that different neurological pathways are linked to each of these neuroticism phenotypes.

Pubmed ID: 30867560

Associated grants

  • Agency: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, United Kingdom
  • Agency: Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom
  • Agency: Medical Research Council, United Kingdom
    Id: MR/K026992/1
  • Agency: Chief Scientist Office, United Kingdom
    Id: CZD/16/6
  • Agency: Medical Research Council, United Kingdom
    Id: MC_U147585819
  • Agency: Medical Research Council, United Kingdom
    Id: MC_UU_12011/2
  • Agency: Medical Research Council, United Kingdom
    Id: G0700704
  • Agency: Medical Research Council, United Kingdom
    Id: MC_UU_00007/10
  • Agency: Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom
    Id: 104036/Z/14/Z

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This is a list of tools and resources that we have found mentioned in this publication.


International HapMap Project (tool)

RRID:SCR_002846

THIS RESOURCE IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE, documented August 22, 2016. A multi-country collaboration among scientists and funding agencies to develop a public resource where genetic similarities and differences in human beings are identified and catalogued. Using this information, researchers will be able to find genes that affect health, disease, and individual responses to medications and environmental factors. All of the information generated by the Project will be released into the public domain. Their goal is to compare the genetic sequences of different individuals to identify chromosomal regions where genetic variants are shared. Public and private organizations in six countries are participating in the International HapMap Project. Data generated by the Project can be downloaded with minimal constraints. HapMap project related data, software, and documentation include: bulk data on genotypes, frequencies, LD data, phasing data, allocated SNPs, recombination rates and hotspots, SNP assays, Perlegen amplicons, raw data, inferred genotypes, and mitochondrial and chrY haplogroups; Generic Genome Browser software; protocols and information on assay design, genotyping and other protocols used in the project; and documentation of samples/individuals and the XML format used in the project.

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1000 Genomes: A Deep Catalog of Human Genetic Variation (tool)

RRID:SCR_006828

International collaboration producing an extensive public catalog of human genetic variation, including SNPs and structural variants, and their haplotype contexts, in an effort to provide a foundation for investigating the relationship between genotype and phenotype. The genomes of about 2500 unidentified people from about 25 populations around the world were sequenced using next-generation sequencing technologies. Redundant sequencing on various platforms and by different groups of scientists of the same samples can be compared. The results of the study are freely and publicly accessible to researchers worldwide. The consortium identified the following populations whose DNA will be sequenced: Yoruba in Ibadan, Nigeria; Japanese in Tokyo; Chinese in Beijing; Utah residents with ancestry from northern and western Europe; Luhya in Webuye, Kenya; Maasai in Kinyawa, Kenya; Toscani in Italy; Gujarati Indians in Houston; Chinese in metropolitan Denver; people of Mexican ancestry in Los Angeles; and people of African ancestry in the southwestern United States. The goal Project is to find most genetic variants that have frequencies of at least 1% in the populations studied. Sequencing is still too expensive to deeply sequence the many samples being studied for this project. However, any particular region of the genome generally contains a limited number of haplotypes. Data can be combined across many samples to allow efficient detection of most of the variants in a region. The Project currently plans to sequence each sample to about 4X coverage; at this depth sequencing cannot provide the complete genotype of each sample, but should allow the detection of most variants with frequencies as low as 1%. Combining the data from 2500 samples should allow highly accurate estimation (imputation) of the variants and genotypes for each sample that were not seen directly by the light sequencing. All samples from the 1000 genomes are available as lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) and LCL derived DNA from the Coriell Cell Repository as part of the NHGRI Catalog. The sequence and alignment data generated by the 1000genomes project is made available as quickly as possible via their mirrored ftp sites. ftp://ftp.1000genomes.ebi.ac.uk ftp://ftp-trace.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1000genomes

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KING (tool)

RRID:SCR_009251

Software toolset that makes use of high-throughput SNP data typically seen in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for applications such as family relationship inference and population structure identification (entry from Genetic Analysis Software)

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UK Biobank (tool)

RRID:SCR_012815

Biobank provides data collected at Assessment Center and via online questionnaires on participants aged 40-69 years recruited throughout United Kingdom and provides summary information to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of serious and life threatening illnesses.

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ANNOVAR (tool)

RRID:SCR_012821

An efficient software tool to utilize update-to-date information to functionally annotate genetic variants detected from diverse genomes (including human genome hg18, hg19, as well as mouse, worm, fly, yeast and many others). Given a list of variants with chromosome, start position, end position, reference nucleotide and observed nucleotides, ANNOVAR can perform: 1. gene-based annotation. 2. region-based annotation. 3. filter-based annotation. 4. other functionalities. (entry from Genetic Analysis Software)

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Functional Mapping and Annotation of Genome Wide Association Studies (tool)

RRID:SCR_017521

Platform that can be used to annotate, prioritize, visualize and interpret GWAS results. To submit your own GWAS, login is required for security reason. You can browse public results of FUMA from Browse Public Results without registration or login.

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