Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for extraversion: findings from the Genetics of Personality Consortium
Stephanie M van Den Berg, Marleen HM de Moor, […] Daniel E Adkins, […] Nicholas G Martin, Dorret I Boomsma (Genetics of Personality Consortium). (2016).
“Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for extraversion: findings from
the Genetics of Personality Consortium.” Behavior Genetics, 46 (2): 170-182.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-015-9735-5
Extraversion is a relatively stable and heritable personality trait associated with
numerous psychosocial, lifestyle and health outcomes. Despite its substantial heritability,
no genetic variants have been detected in previous genome-wide association (GWA) studies,
which may be due to relatively small sample sizes of those studies. Here, we report
on a large meta-analysis of GWA studies for extraversion in 63,030 subjects in 29
cohorts. Extraversion item data from multiple personality inventories were harmonized
across inventories and cohorts. No genome-wide significant associations were found
at the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) level but there was one significant hit
at the gene level for a long non-coding RNA site (LOC101928162). Genome-wide complex
trait analysis in two large cohorts showed that the additive variance explained by
common SNPs was not significantly different from zero, but polygenic risk scores,
weighted using linkage information, significantly predicted extraversion scores in
an independent cohort. These results show that extraversion is a highly polygenic
personality trait, with an architecture possibly different from other complex human
traits, including other personality traits. Future studies are required to further
determine which genetic variants, by what modes of gene action, constitute the heritable
nature of extraversion.