King's College London, MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, London, SE5 8AF, UK.
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 87131, NM, USA.
Sci Rep. 2018 Oct 18;8(1):14579. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-32621-w.
University success, which includes enrolment in and achievement at university, as well as quality of the university, have all been linked to later earnings, health and wellbeing. However, little is known about the causes and correlates of differences in university-level outcomes. Capitalizing on both quantitative and molecular genetic data, we perform the first genetically sensitive investigation of university success with a UK-representative sample of 3,000 genotyped individuals and 3,000 twin pairs. Twin analyses indicate substantial additive genetic influence on university entrance exam achievement (57%), university enrolment (51%), university quality (57%) and university achievement (46%). We find that environmental effects tend to be non-shared, although the shared environment is substantial for university enrolment. Furthermore, using multivariate twin analysis, we show moderate to high genetic correlations between university success variables (0.27-0.76). Analyses using DNA alone also support genetic influence on university success. Indeed, a genome-wide polygenic score, derived from a 2016 genome-wide association study of years of education, predicts up to 5% of the variance in each university success variable. These findings suggest young adults select and modify their educational experiences in part based on their genetic propensities and highlight the potential for DNA-based predictions of real-world outcomes, which will continue to increase in predictive power.
大学的成功，包括入学和大学学业成绩，以及大学的质量，都与以后的收入、健康和幸福有关。然而，人们对大学水平成绩差异的原因和相关因素知之甚少。本研究利用定量和分子遗传学数据，对英国代表性的 3000 名基因分型个体和 3000 对双胞胎进行了首次与遗传有关的大学成功研究。双胞胎分析表明，大学入学考试成绩（57%）、大学入学（51%）、大学质量（57%）和大学成绩（46%）都受到大量可遗传因素的影响。我们发现，环境影响往往是非共享的，尽管共享环境对大学入学的影响很大。此外，使用多变量双胞胎分析，我们发现大学成功变量之间存在中度到高度的遗传相关性（0.27-0.76）。仅使用 DNA 的分析也支持遗传对大学成功的影响。事实上，基于 2016 年教育年限全基因组关联研究的全基因组多基因评分，可预测每个大学成功变量 5%的方差。这些发现表明，年轻人在一定程度上根据自己的遗传倾向选择和改变自己的教育经历，并强调了基于 DNA 的对现实世界结果进行预测的潜力，这种预测能力将继续提高。
