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van der Loos, M.J.* ; Rietveld, C.A.* ; Eklund, N.* ; Koellinger, P.D.* ; Rivadeneira, F.* ; Abecasis, G.R.* ; Ankra-Badu, G.A.* ; Baumeister, S.E.* ; Benjamin, D.J.* ; Biffar, R.* ; Blankenberg, S.* ; Boomsma, D.I.* ; Cesarini, D.* ; Cucca, F.* ; de Geus, E.J.* ; Dedoussis, G.* ; Deloukas, P.* ; Dimitriou, M.* ; Eiriksdottir, G.* ; Eriksson, J.* ; Gieger, C. ; Gudnason, V.* ; Höhne, B. ; Holle, R. ; Hottenga, J.J.* ; Isaacs, A.* ; Jarvelin, M.R.* ; Johannesson, M.* ; Kaakinen, M.* ; Kähönen, M.* ; Kanoni, S.* ; Laaksonen, M.A.* ; Lahti, J.* ; Launer, L.J.* ; Lehtimäki, T.* ; Loitfelder, M.* ; Magnusson, P.K.* ; Naitza, S.* ; Oostra, B.A.* ; Perola, M.* ; Petrovic, K.* ; Quaye, L.* ; Raitakari, O.* ; Ripatti, S.* ; Scheet, P.* ; Schlessinger, D.* ; Schmidt, C.O.* ; Schmidt, H.* ; Schmidt, R.* ; Senft, A.* ; Smith, A.V.* ; Spector, T.D.* ; Surakka, I.* ; Svento, R.* ; Terracciano, A.* ; Tikkanen, E.* ; van Duijn, C.M.* ; Viikari, J.* ; Völzke, H.* ; Wichmann, H.-E. ; Wild, P.S.* ; Willems, S.M.* ; Willemsen, G.* ; van Rooij, F.J.* ; Groenen, P.J.* ; Uitterlinden, A.G.* ; Hofman, A.* ; Thurik, A.R.*

The molecular genetic architecture of self-employment.

PLoS ONE 8:e60542 (2013)
Publ. Version/Full Text Volltext DOI PMC
Open Access Gold
Creative Commons Lizenzvertrag
Economic variables such as income, education, and occupation are known to affect mortality and morbidity, such as cardiovascular disease, and have also been shown to be partly heritable. However, very little is known about which genes influence economic variables, although these genes may have both a direct and an indirect effect on health. We report results from the first large-scale collaboration that studies the molecular genetic architecture of an economic variable-entrepreneurship-that was operationalized using self-employment, a widely-available proxy. Our results suggest that common SNPs when considered jointly explain about half of the narrow-sense heritability of self-employment estimated in twin data (σg (2)/σP (2) = 25%, h (2) = 55%). However, a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies across sixteen studies comprising 50,627 participants did not identify genome-wide significant SNPs. 58 SNPs with p<10(-5) were tested in a replication sample (n = 3,271), but none replicated. Furthermore, a gene-based test shows that none of the genes that were previously suggested in the literature to influence entrepreneurship reveal significant associations. Finally, SNP-based genetic scores that use results from the meta-analysis capture less than 0.2% of the variance in self-employment in an independent sample (p≥0.039). Our results are consistent with a highly polygenic molecular genetic architecture of self-employment, with many genetic variants of small effect. Although self-employment is a multi-faceted, heavily environmentally influenced, and biologically distal trait, our results are similar to those for other genetically complex and biologically more proximate outcomes, such as height, intelligence, personality, and several diseases.
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Publication type Article: Journal article
Document type Scientific Article
Corresponding Author
Keywords Genome-wide Association ; Coronary Heart-disease ; Common Snps Explain ; Cardiovascular-disease ; Socioeconomic-status ; Educational-attainment ; Missing Heritability ; Large Proportion ; Risk-factors ; Human Height
ISSN (print) / ISBN 1932-6203
Journal PLoS ONE
Quellenangaben Volume: 8, Issue: 4, Pages: , Article Number: e60542 Supplement: ,
Publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Publishing Place Lawrence, Kan.
Non-patent literature Publications
Reviewing status Peer reviewed
Institute(s) Institute of Genetic Epidemiology (IGE)
Institute of Health Economics and Health Care Management (IGM)
Institute of Epidemiology (EPI)