A Genome-Wide Association Study of Chinese and English Language Phenotypes in Hong Kong Chinese Children

Autor/inn/en	Yu-Ping Lin; Yujia Shi; Ruoyu Zhang; Xiao Xue; Shitao Rao; Liangying Yin; Kelvin Fai Hong Lui; Dora Jue Pan; Urs Maurer; Kwong-Wai Choy; Silvia Paracchini; Catherine McBride; Hon-Cheong So
Titel	A Genome-Wide Association Study of Chinese and English Language Phenotypes in Hong Kong Chinese Children
Quelle	In: npj Science of Learning, 9 (2024), Artikel 26 PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Yu-Ping Lin) ORCID (Ruoyu Zhang) ORCID (Dora Jue Pan) ORCID (Urs Maurer) ORCID (Silvia Paracchini) ORCID (Hon-Cheong So)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
DOI	10.1038/s41539-024-00229-7
Schlagwörter	Forschungsbericht; Genetics; Phenomenology; Chinese; Foreign Countries; Children; Dyslexia; Language Impairments; English Language Learners; English (Second Language); Bilingualism; Correlation; Biological Influences; Reading Skills; Neuropsychology; Hong Kong + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Humangenetik; Phenomenological psychology; Phänomenologie; Psychologie; China; Chinesen; Ausland; Child; Kind; Kinder; Dyslexics; Legasthenie; Lese-Rechtschreib-Schwäche; Speech disorder; Speech disorders; Speech disabilities; Speech disability; Speech handicap; Speech handicaps; Speech impairment; Speech impairments; Language handicaps; Sprachbehinderung; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Bilingualismus; Korrelation; Biologischer Faktor; Reading skill; Lesefertigkeit; Neuropsychologie; Hongkong
Abstract	Dyslexia and developmental language disorders are important learning difficulties. However, their genetic basis remains poorly understood, and most genetic studies were performed on Europeans. There is a lack of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on literacy phenotypes of Chinese as a native language and English as a second language (ESL) in a Chinese population. In this study, we conducted GWAS on 34 reading/language-related phenotypes in Hong Kong Chinese bilingual children (including both twins and singletons; total N = 1046). We performed association tests at the single-variant, gene, and pathway levels. In addition, we tested genetic overlap of these phenotypes with other neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as cognitive performance (CP) and educational attainment (EA) using polygenic risk score (PRS) analysis. Totally 5 independent loci (LD-clumped at r[superscript 2] = 0.01; MAF > 0.05) reached genome-wide significance (p < 5e-08; filtered by imputation quality metric Rsq>0.3 and having at least 2 correlated SNPs (r[superscript 2] > 0.5) with p < 1e-3). The loci were associated with a range of language/literacy traits such as Chinese vocabulary, character and word reading, and rapid digit naming, as well as English lexical decision. Several SNPs from these loci mapped to genes that were reported to be associated with EA and other neuropsychiatric phenotypes, such as "MANEA" and "PLXNC1." In PRS analysis, EA and CP showed the most consistent and significant polygenic overlap with a variety of language traits, especially English literacy skills. To summarize, this study revealed the genetic basis of Chinese and English abilities in a group of Chinese bilingual children. Further studies are warranted to replicate the findings. (As Provided).
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Begutachtung	Peer reviewed
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2025/2/04