TY - JOUR
T1 - An Extended Twin-Pedigree Study of Neuroticism in the Netherlands Twin Register
AU - Boomsma, Dorret I.
AU - Helmer, Quinta
AU - Nieuwboer, Harold A.
AU - Hottenga, Jouke-Jan
AU - Moor, Marleen H.M.
AU - van Den Berg, Stéphanie M.
AU - Davies, Gareth E.
AU - Vink, Jacqueline M.
AU - Schouten, Maarten J.
AU - Dolan, Conor V.
AU - Willemsen, Gonneke
AU - Bartels, Meike
AU - van Beijsterveldt, Toos C.E.M.
AU - Ligthart, Lannie
AU - de Geus, Eco J.C.
PY - 2018/1/1
Y1 - 2018/1/1
N2 - For the participants in the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) we constructed the extended pedigrees which specify all relations among nuclear and larger twin families in the register. A total of 253,015 subjects from 58,645 families were linked to each other, to the degree that we had information on the relations among participants. We describe the algorithm that was applied to construct the pedigrees. For > 30,000 adolescent and adult NTR participants data were available on harmonized neuroticism scores. We analyzed these data in the Mendel software package (Lange et al., Bioinformatics 29(12):1568–1570, 2013) to estimate the contributions of additive and non-additive genetic factors. In contrast to much of the earlier work based on twin data rather than on extended pedigrees, we could also estimate the contribution of shared household effects in the presence of non-additive genetic factors. The estimated broad-sense heritability of neuroticism was 47%, with almost equal contributions of additive and non-additive (dominance) genetic factors. A shared household effect explained 13% and unique environmental factors explained the remaining 40% of the variance in neuroticism.
AB - For the participants in the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) we constructed the extended pedigrees which specify all relations among nuclear and larger twin families in the register. A total of 253,015 subjects from 58,645 families were linked to each other, to the degree that we had information on the relations among participants. We describe the algorithm that was applied to construct the pedigrees. For > 30,000 adolescent and adult NTR participants data were available on harmonized neuroticism scores. We analyzed these data in the Mendel software package (Lange et al., Bioinformatics 29(12):1568–1570, 2013) to estimate the contributions of additive and non-additive genetic factors. In contrast to much of the earlier work based on twin data rather than on extended pedigrees, we could also estimate the contribution of shared household effects in the presence of non-additive genetic factors. The estimated broad-sense heritability of neuroticism was 47%, with almost equal contributions of additive and non-additive (dominance) genetic factors. A shared household effect explained 13% and unique environmental factors explained the remaining 40% of the variance in neuroticism.
KW - Extended twin-family design
KW - Genetic non-additivity
KW - Heritability
KW - Netherlands Twin Register
KW - Neuroticism
KW - Pedigree analysis
KW - Shared household effect
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85031500905&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10519-017-9872-0
DO - 10.1007/s10519-017-9872-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85031500905
VL - 48
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - Behavior genetics
JF - Behavior genetics
SN - 0001-8244
IS - 1
ER -