Many genes play an important role in school results – 07/25/2018

In the largest genetic study ever published in a scientific journal, an international team of researchers on Monday identified more than 1,000 variants of human genes that influence the time people spend studying in schools. 19659002] Educational achievements have aroused much interest from researchers in recent years because they are related to many other aspects of people's lives, including their income in adulthood , their general health and even their health. life expectancy.

The newly discovered genetic variants account for only a fraction of the differences observed in education between different groups of people. Environmental influences, which may include family economic well-being or parenting education, together constitute a factor of greater impact.

. In any case, scientists have long known that genetic composition accounts for some of the differences in length of school attendance. Their hope is that the data can be used to better understand what educators should do to extend the learning trajectory of students.

With a better understanding of the influence of genes, scientists believe that they will be able to better evaluate what is happening when they try to improve the environment. learning of children.

The new study, published in the specialty publication Nature Genetics, detects that many of the genetic variants involved in education are related to how neurons communicate in the brain.

A surprising number is related to the transmission of signals from neurons and their transmission to neighboring neurons via connections called synapses.

The results of the study are based on the genetic sequencing of more than 1,100,000 people. But all the individuals were white of European origin. In order to maximize the chances of discovering genetic links, the researchers said that they needed a very large and homogeneous sample.

When the team tried to use these genetic variants to explain the differences in the permanence of schooling among African Americans, the predictions were wrong.

The researchers also found that genes do not have a uniform effect: gene influences vary from one country to another. Scientists could not identify the cause of these differences

But they calculate that if educators from one country focus on memory on problem solving in Mathematics clbades, for example, some gene variants may give greater benefits to some students than others.

A truly comprehensive understanding of these genetic influences will require such in-depth studies in people of other origins, according to the researchers.

The data can not be used to predict the academic results of a particular student. The researchers warned that genetic models are observed only in large groups; in every boy, genetics play only a small role in how much he will continue to study at school.

"This is not really significant in terms of individuals," said Aysu Okbay, a geneticist at the Free University of Amsterdam and co-author.

In 2011, Daniel J. Benjamin, behavioral economist at the University of Southern California, and his colleagues launched a large-scale expedition on human DNA. They formed the Consortium of Genetic and Social Science Associations to gather information on thousands of topics.

They used medical research for their research in education. When some people volunteered for a genetic study on, for example, blood pressure, they usually filled out forms on different aspects of their lives. By studying the DNA of these people, Benjamin and his team found a number of unusually common genetic variants among people who had completed a good deal of their studies and other studies. which were more common among individuals who had left school early.

Often scientists could not exclude chance as an explanation . But 1,271 variants were so closely related to education that they could not be excluded

Nevertheless, the badociation between each genetic variant and the I & # 39; education was very weak. When the researchers compared groups of people with or without a particular variant, the time spent at school differed only a few days

The researchers scanned the DNA surrounding these influential variants and found a disturbing model.

They are not just randomly scattered around the genome, "said James J. Lee, a geneticist at the University of Minnesota and co-author of the new study.

Variants are linked to active genes in the brain that help neurons make connections The key to educational attainment may not be the speed at which information is obtained, but the speed with which which information may be shared between several regions.

"Perhaps the speed of transmission of a signal does not depend on a cable," Lee said. "It's about the complexity of the links between points A and B." But the genetic links suggest another perhaps more strange possibility: some variants related to education do not work in the brain of the students, but in the people from whom they inherited these variants: their parents

influencing One way or another parents' behavior, these variants can change the environment in which children grow up, in order to promote or change the time they spend at home. ;school.

Based on their findings, Benjamin and his colleagues saw how to calculate a genetic "score" of education level. The more variants are related to staying longer in school, the higher the individual score.

The researchers calculated the score of a group of 4,775 Americans, dividing them into five groups. They found that 12% of people in the lowest fifth completed high school. Of the highest fifth, high school finished 57%.

A similar result occurred when scientists looked at how many people in each group had to repeat a year at school. In the bottom fifth, he repeated 29 percent, while in the top fifth, he only repeated 8 percent.

But when Benjamin and his colleagues calculated the scores of African Americans, they could not predict how well they had done in school. One possible reason is that genetic markers are not reliable guides in how genes influence different populations.

The researchers hope to extend their study to 2 million people and hope to find thousands more genes related to education.