DNA methylation signatures of educational attainment

Jenny van Dongen*, Michel G. Nivard, Gonneke Willemsen, Dorret I. Boomsma, René Pool, Jouke J. Hottenga, Rick Jansen, BIOS Consortium

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Educational attainment is a key behavioural measure in studies of cognitive and physical health, and socioeconomic status. We measured DNA methylation at 410,746 CpGs (N = 4152) and identified 58 CpGs associated with educational attainment at loci characterized by pleiotropic functions shared with neuronal, immune and developmental processes. Associations overlapped with those for smoking behaviour, but remained after accounting for smoking at many CpGs: Effect sizes were on average 28% smaller and genome-wide significant at 11 CpGs after adjusting for smoking and were 62% smaller in never smokers. We examined sources and biological implications of education-related methylation differences, demonstrating correlations with maternal prenatal folate, smoking and air pollution signatures, and associations with gene expression in cis, dynamic methylation in foetal brain, and correlations between blood and brain. Our findings show that the methylome of lower-educated people resembles that of smokers beyond effects of their own smoking behaviour and shows traces of various other exposures.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7
Pages (from-to)1-14
Number of pages14
JournalNPJ Science of learning
Volume3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 23 Mar 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was funded by: BBRMI-NL-financed BIOS Consortium (NWO 184.021.007). JvD is supported by ACTION. ACTION receives funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no 602768. DIB gratefully acknowledges the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science Professor Award (PAH/6635).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The Author(s).

Funding

This study was funded by: BBRMI-NL-financed BIOS Consortium (NWO 184.021.007). JvD is supported by ACTION. ACTION receives funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no 602768. DIB gratefully acknowledges the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science Professor Award (PAH/6635).

FundersFunder number
ACTION
Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van WetenschappenPAH/6635
Seventh Framework Programme602768
Seventh Framework Programme
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek184.021.007
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Seventh Framework Programme

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