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Verweij RM, Mills MC, Stulp G, Nolte IM, Barban N, Tropf FC, Carrell DT, Aston KI, Zondervan KT, Rahmioglu N, Dalgaard M, Skaarup C, Hayes MG, Dunaif A, Guo G, Snieder H. Using Polygenic Scores in Social Science Research: Unraveling Childlessness. Front Sociol 2019; 4:74. [PMID: 33869396 PMCID: PMC8022451 DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2019.00074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2019] [Accepted: 11/07/2019] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Biological, genetic, and socio-demographic factors are all important in explaining reproductive behavior, yet these factors are typically studied in isolation. In this study, we explore an innovative sociogenomic approach, which entails including key socio-demographic (marriage, education, occupation, religion, cohort) and genetic factors related to both behavioral [age at first birth (AFB), number of children ever born (NEB)] and biological fecundity-related outcomes (endometriosis, age at menopause and menarche, polycystic ovary syndrome, azoospermia, testicular dysgenesis syndrome) to explain childlessness. We examine the association of all sets of factors with childlessness as well as the interplay between them. We derive polygenic scores (PGS) from recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and apply these in the Health and Retirement Study (N = 10,686) and Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (N = 8,284). Both socio-demographic and genetic factors were associated with childlessness. Whilst socio-demographic factors explain 19-46% in childlessness, the current PGS explains <1% of the variance, and only PGSs from large GWASs are related to childlessness. Our findings also indicate that genetic and socio-demographic factors are not independent, with PGSs for AFB and NEB related to education and age at marriage. The explained variance by polygenic scores on childlessness is limited since it is largely a behavioral trait, with genetic explanations expected to increase somewhat in the future with better-powered GWASs. As genotyping of individuals in social science surveys becomes more prevalent, the method described in this study can be applied to other outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renske M. Verweij
- Department of Sociology and ICS, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
- Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands
| | - Melinda C. Mills
- Department of Sociology and Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Gert Stulp
- Department of Sociology and ICS, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Ilja M. Nolte
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Nicola Barban
- Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, Essex, United Kingdom
| | - Felix C. Tropf
- École Nationale de la Statistique et de L'administration Économique (ENSAE), Paris, France
- Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST), Paris, France
| | - Douglas T. Carrell
- Department of Surgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Kenneth I. Aston
- Department of Surgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Krina T. Zondervan
- Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Nilufer Rahmioglu
- Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Marlene Dalgaard
- Department of Bio and Health Informatics, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
- Department of Growth and Reproduction, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Carina Skaarup
- Department of Bio and Health Informatics, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - M. Geoffrey Hayes
- Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Molecular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States
- Center for Genetic Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States
- Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, United States
| | - Andrea Dunaif
- Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
| | - Guang Guo
- Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
| | - Harold Snieder
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
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Tropf FC, Lee SH, Verweij RM, Stulp G, van der Most PJ, de Vlaming R, Bakshi A, Briley DA, Rahal C, Hellpap R, Iliadou AN, Esko T, Metspalu A, Medland SE, Martin NG, Barban N, Snieder H, Robinson MR, Mills MC. Hidden heritability due to heterogeneity across seven populations. Nat Hum Behav 2017; 1:757-765. [PMID: 29051922 PMCID: PMC5642946 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-017-0195-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), which dominate genetic discovery are based on data from diverse historical time periods and populations. Genetic scores derived from GWAS explain only a fraction of the heritability estimates obtained from whole-genome studies on single populations, known as the ‘hidden heritability’ puzzle. Using seven sampling populations (N=35,062), we test whether hidden heritability is attributed to heterogeneity across sampling populations and time, showing that estimates are substantially smaller from across compared to within populations. We show that the hidden heritability varies substantially: from zero (height), to 20% for BMI, 37% for education, 40% for age at first birth and up to 75% for number of children. Simulations demonstrate that our results more likely reflect heterogeneity in phenotypic measurement or gene-environment interaction than genetic heterogeneity. These findings have substantial implications for genetic discovery, suggesting that large homogenous datasets are required for behavioural phenotypes and that gene-environment interaction may be a central challenge for genetic discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix C Tropf
- Department of Sociology/Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UQ, UK.
| | - S Hong Lee
- School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia
| | - Renske M Verweij
- Department of Sociology/Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology, University of Groningen, Groningen, 9712 TG, The Netherlands
| | - Gert Stulp
- Department of Sociology/Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology, University of Groningen, Groningen, 9712 TG, The Netherlands
| | - Peter J van der Most
- Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, 9700 RB, The Netherlands
| | - Ronald de Vlaming
- Erasmus University Rotterdam Institute for Behavior and Biology, Erasmus School of Economics, Rotterdam, 3062 PA, The Netherlands.,Department of Complex Trait Genetics, University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Andrew Bakshi
- Institute of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Daniel A Briley
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, 61820-9998, USA
| | - Charles Rahal
- Department of Sociology/Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UQ, UK
| | - Robert Hellpap
- Department of Sociology/Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UQ, UK
| | - Anastasia N Iliadou
- Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, PO Box 281, Stockholm, SE-171 77, Sweden
| | - Tõnu Esko
- Estonian Genome Center, University of Tartu, 51010, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Andres Metspalu
- Estonian Genome Center, University of Tartu, 51010, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Sarah E Medland
- Quantitative Genetics Laboratory, Queensland Institute of Medical Research Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD, 4029, Australia
| | - Nicholas G Martin
- Quantitative Genetics Laboratory, Queensland Institute of Medical Research Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD, 4029, Australia
| | - Nicola Barban
- Department of Sociology/Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UQ, UK
| | - Harold Snieder
- Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, 9700 RB, The Netherlands
| | - Matthew R Robinson
- Institute of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.,Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland
| | - Melinda C Mills
- Department of Sociology/Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UQ, UK
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Verweij RM, Mills MC, Tropf FC, Veenstra R, Nyman A, Snieder H. Sexual dimorphism in the genetic influence on human childlessness. Eur J Hum Genet 2017; 25:1067-1074. [PMID: 28794429 PMCID: PMC5555389 DOI: 10.1038/ejhg.2017.105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2016] [Revised: 05/11/2017] [Accepted: 05/30/2017] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous research has found a genetic component of human reproduction and childlessness. Others have argued that the heritability of reproduction is counterintuitive due to a frequent misinterpretation that additive genetic variance in reproductive fitness should be close to zero. Yet it is plausible that different genetic loci operate in male and female fertility in the form of sexual dimorphism and that these genes are passed on to the next generation. This study examines the extent to which genetic factors influence childlessness and provides an empirical test of genetic sexual dimorphism. Data from the Swedish Twin Register (N=9942) is used to estimate a classical twin model, a genomic-relatedness-matrix restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) model on twins and estimates polygenic scores of age at first birth on childlessness. Results show that the variation in individual differences in childlessness is explained by genetic differences for 47% in the twin model and 59% for women and 56% for men using the GREML model. Using a polygenic score (PGS) of age at first birth (AFB), the odds of remaining childless are around 1.25 higher for individuals with 1 SD higher score on the AFB PGS, but only for women. We find that different sets of genes influence childlessness in men and in women. These findings provide insight into why people remain childless and give evidence of genetic sexual dimorphism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renske M Verweij
- Department of Sociology and ICS, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Melinda C Mills
- Department of Sociology and Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Felix C Tropf
- Department of Sociology and Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - René Veenstra
- Department of Sociology and ICS, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Anastasia Nyman
- Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Harold Snieder
- Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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