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. 2016 Jun;48(6):624-33.
doi: 10.1038/ng.3552. Epub 2016 Apr 18.

Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses

Aysu Okbay  1   2   3 Bart M L Baselmans  4   5 Jan-Emmanuel De Neve  6 Patrick Turley  7 Michel G Nivard  4 Mark Alan Fontana  8 S Fleur W Meddens  3   9   10 Richard Karlsson Linnér  3   9   10 Cornelius A Rietveld  1   2   3 Jaime Derringer  11 Jacob Gratten  12 James J Lee  13 Jimmy Z Liu  14 Ronald de Vlaming  1   2   3 Tarunveer S Ahluwalia  15   16   17 Jadwiga Buchwald  18 Alana Cavadino  19   20 Alexis C Frazier-Wood  21 Nicholas A Furlotte  22 Victoria Garfield  23 Marie Henrike Geisel  24 Juan R Gonzalez  25   26   27 Saskia Haitjema  28 Robert Karlsson  29 Sander W van der Laan  28 Karl-Heinz Ladwig  30 Jari Lahti  31   32   33 Sven J van der Lee  2 Penelope A Lind  34 Tian Liu  35   36 Lindsay Matteson  13 Evelin Mihailov  37 Michael B Miller  13 Camelia C Minica  4 Ilja M Nolte  38 Dennis Mook-Kanamori  39   40   41 Peter J van der Most  38 Christopher Oldmeadow  42   43 Yong Qian  44 Olli Raitakari  45   46 Rajesh Rawal  47 Anu Realo  48   49 Rico Rueedi  50   51 Börge Schmidt  24 Albert V Smith  52   53 Evie Stergiakouli  54 Toshiko Tanaka  55 Kent Taylor  56 Gudmar ThorleifssonJuho Wedenoja  18 Juergen Wellmann  57 Harm-Jan Westra  58   59 Sara M Willems  2 Wei Zhao  60 LifeLines Cohort StudyNajaf Amin  2 Andrew Bakshi  12 Sven BergmannGyda BjornsdottirPatricia A Boyle  61 Samantha Cherney  62 Simon R Cox  63   64 Gail Davies  63   64 Oliver S P Davis  54 Jun Ding  44 Nese Direk  2 Peter Eibich  65   66 Rebecca T Emeny  67   68 Ghazaleh Fatemifar  69 Jessica D Faul  70 Luigi Ferrucci  55 Andreas J Forstner  71   72 Christian Gieger  47 Richa Gupta  18 Tamara B Harris  73 Juliette M Harris  74 Elizabeth G Holliday  42   43 Jouke-Jan Hottenga  4   5 Philip L De Jager  75   76   77 Marika A Kaakinen  78   79 Eero Kajantie  80   81 Ville Karhunen  79 Ivana Kolcic  82 Meena Kumari  83 Lenore J Launer  84 Lude Franke  85 Ruifang Li-Gao  39 David C LiewaldMarisa Koini  86 Anu Loukola  18 Pedro Marques-Vidal  87 Grant W Montgomery  88 Miriam A Mosing  89 Lavinia Paternoster  54 Alison Pattie  64 Katja E Petrovic  86 Laura Pulkki-Råback  31   33 Lydia Quaye  74 Katri Räikkönen  31 Igor Rudan  90 Rodney J Scott  43   91 Jennifer A Smith  60 Angelina R Sutin  55   92 Maciej Trzaskowski  12   82 Anna E Vinkhuyzen  12 Lei Yu  93 Delilah Zabaneh  82 John R Attia  42   43 David A Bennett  93 Klaus Berger  57 Lars Bertram  94   95 Dorret I Boomsma  4   5   96 Harold Snieder  38 Shun-Chiao Chang  97 Francesco Cucca  98 Ian J Deary  63   64 Cornelia M van Duijn  2 Johan G Eriksson  99   100   101 Ute Bültmann  102 Eco J C de Geus  4   5   96 Patrick J F Groenen  3   103 Vilmundur Gudnason  52   53 Torben Hansen  16 Catharine A Hartman  104 Claire M A Haworth  54 Caroline Hayward  105 Andrew C Heath  106 David A Hinds  22 Elina Hyppönen  20   107   108 William G Iacono  13 Marjo-Riitta Järvelin  78   109   110   111 Karl-Heinz Jöckel  24 Jaakko Kaprio  18   112   113 Sharon L R Kardia  60 Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen  31 Peter Kraft  114 Laura D Kubzansky  115 Terho Lehtimäki  116   117 Patrik K E Magnusson  29 Nicholas G Martin  118 Matt McGue  13 Andres Metspalu  37   119 Melinda Mills  120 Renée de Mutsert  39 Albertine J Oldehinkel  103 Gerard Pasterkamp  28   121 Nancy L Pedersen  29 Robert Plomin  122 Ozren Polasek  82 Christine Power  20   108 Stephen S Rich  123 Frits R Rosendaal  39 Hester M den Ruijter  28 David Schlessinger  44 Helena Schmidt  86   124 Rauli Svento  125 Reinhold Schmidt  86 Behrooz Z Alizadeh  38   126 Thorkild I A Sørensen  16   54   127 Tim D Spector  74 John M StarrKari StefanssonAndrew Steptoe  23 Antonio Terracciano  55   92 Unnur ThorsteinsdottirA Roy Thurik  1   3   128   129 Nicholas J Timpson  54 Henning Tiemeier  2   130   131 André G Uitterlinden  2   3   132 Peter Vollenweider  87 Gert G Wagner  35   65   133 David R Weir  70 Jian Yang  12   134 Dalton C Conley  135 George Davey Smith  54 Albert Hofman  2   136 Magnus Johannesson  137 David I Laibson  7 Sarah E Medland  34 Michelle N Meyer  138   139 Joseph K Pickrell  14   140 Tõnu Esko  37 Robert F Krueger  13 Jonathan P Beauchamp  7 Philipp D Koellinger  3   9   10 Daniel J Benjamin  8 Meike Bartels  4   5   96 David Cesarini  141   142
Affiliations

Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses

Aysu Okbay et al. Nat Genet. 2016 Jun.

Erratum in

  • Corrigendum: Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses.
    Okbay A, Baselmans BM, Neve JE, Turley P, Nivard MG, Fontana MA, Meddens SF, Linnér RK, Rietveld CA, Derringer J, Gratten J, Lee JJ, Liu JZ, de Vlaming R, Ahluwalia TS, Buchwald J, Cavadino A, Frazier-Wood AC, Furlotte NA, Garfield V, Geisel MH, Gonzalez JR, Haitjema S, Karlsson R, van der Laan SW, Ladwig KH, Lahti J, van der Lee SJ, Lind PA, Liu T, Matteson L, Mihailov E, Miller MB, Minica CC, Nolte IM, Mook-Kanamori D, van der Most PJ, Oldmeadow C, Qian Y, Raitakari O, Rawal R, Realo A, Rueedi R, Schmidt B, Smith AV, Stergiakouli E, Tanaka T, Taylor K, Thorleifsson G, Wedenoja J, Wellmann J, Westra HJ, Willems SM, Zhao W; LifeLines Cohort Study; Amin N, Bakshi A, Bergmann S, Bjornsdottir G, Boyle PA, Cherney S, Cox SR, Davies G, Davis OS, Ding J, Direk N, Eibich P, Emeny RT, Fatemifar G, Faul JD, Ferrucci L, Forstner AJ, Gieger C, Gupta R, Harris TB, Harris JM, Holliday EG, Hottenga JJ, Jager PL, Kaakinen MA, Kajantie E, Karhunen V, Kolcic I, Kumari M, Launer LJ, Franke L, Li-Gao R, Liewald DC, Koini M, Loukola A, Marques-Vidal P, Montgomery GW, Mosing MA, Paternoster L, Pattie A, Petrovic KE, Pulkki-Råback L, Quaye L, Räikkönen K, Rudan I, Scott RJ, Smith JA, Sutin AR, Trzaskow… See abstract for full author list ➔ Okbay A, et al. Nat Genet. 2016 Jul 27;48(8):970. doi: 10.1038/ng0816-970c. Nat Genet. 2016. PMID: 27463399 No abstract available.
  • Corrigendum: Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses.
    Okbay A, Baselmans BM, De Neve JE, Turley P, Nivard MG, Fontana MA, Meddens SF, Linnér RK, Rietveld CA, Derringer J, Gratten J, Lee JJ, Liu JZ, de Vlaming R, Ahluwalia TS, Buchwald J, Cavadino A, Frazier-Wood AC, Furlotte NA, Garfield V, Geisel MH, Gonzalez JR, Haitjema S, Karlsson R, van der Laan SW, Ladwig KH, Lahti J, van der Lee SJ, Lind PA, Liu T, Matteson L, Mihailov E, Miller MB, Minica CC, Nolte IM, Mook-Kanamori D, van der Most PJ, Oldmeadow C, Qian Y, Raitakari O, Rawal R, Realo A, Rueedi R, Schmidt B, Smith AV, Stergiakouli E, Tanaka T, Taylor K, Thorleifsson G, Wedenoja J, Wellmann J, Westra HJ, Willems SM, Zhao W; LifeLines Cohort Study; Amin N, Bakshi A, Bergmann S, Bjornsdottir G, Boyle PA, Cherney S, Cox SR, Davies G, Davis OS, Ding J, Direk N, Eibich P, Emeny RT, Fatemifar G, Faul JD, Ferrucci L, Forstner AJ, Gieger C, Gupta R, Harris TB, Harris JM, Holliday EG, Hottenga JJ, De Jager PL, Kaakinen MA, Kajantie E, Karhunen V, Kolcic I, Kumari M, Launer LJ, Franke L, Li-Gao R, Liewald DC, Koini M, Loukola A, Marques-Vidal P, Montgomery GW, Mosing MA, Paternoster L, Pattie A, Petrovic KE, Pulkki-Råback L, Quaye L, Räikkönen K, Rudan I, Scott RJ, Smith JA, Sutin AR, Tr… See abstract for full author list ➔ Okbay A, et al. Nat Genet. 2016 Nov 29;48(12):1591. doi: 10.1038/ng1216-1587b. Nat Genet. 2016. PMID: 27898078 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Abstract

Very few genetic variants have been associated with depression and neuroticism, likely because of limitations on sample size in previous studies. Subjective well-being, a phenotype that is genetically correlated with both of these traits, has not yet been studied with genome-wide data. We conducted genome-wide association studies of three phenotypes: subjective well-being (n = 298,420), depressive symptoms (n = 161,460), and neuroticism (n = 170,911). We identify 3 variants associated with subjective well-being, 2 variants associated with depressive symptoms, and 11 variants associated with neuroticism, including 2 inversion polymorphisms. The two loci associated with depressive symptoms replicate in an independent depression sample. Joint analyses that exploit the high genetic correlations between the phenotypes (|ρ^| ≈ 0.8) strengthen the overall credibility of the findings and allow us to identify additional variants. Across our phenotypes, loci regulating expression in central nervous system and adrenal or pancreas tissues are strongly enriched for association.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Financial Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Manhattan plots of GWAS results
(a) Subjective well-being (N = 298,420), (b) Depressive symptoms (N = 180,866), (c) Neuroticism (N = 170,911). The x-axis is chromosomal position, and the y-axis is the significance on a −log10 scale. The upper dashed line marks the threshold for genome-wide significance (p = 5×10 ); the lower line marks the threshold for nominal significance (p = 10 ). Each approximately independent genome-wide significant association (“lead SNP”) is marked by ×. Each lead SNP is the lowest p-value SNP within the locus, as defined by our clumping algorithm (Supplementary Note).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Genetic correlations with bars representing 95% confidence intervals
The correlations are estimated using bivariate LD Score (LDSC) regression. (a) Genetic correlations between subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism (“our three phenotypes”), as well as between our three phenotypes and height. (b) Genetic correlations between our three phenotypes and selected neuropsychiatric phenotypes. (c) Genetic correlations between our three phenotypes and selected physical health phenotypes. In (b) and (c), we report the negative of the estimated correlation with depressive symptoms and neuroticism (but not subjective well-being).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Quasi-replication and lookup of lead SNPs
In quasi-replication analyses, we examined whether (a) lead SNPs identified in the subjective well-being meta-analyses are associated with depressive symptoms or neuroticism, (b) lead SNPs identified in the analyses of depressive symptoms are associated with subjective well-being, and (c) lead SNPs identified in the analyses of neuroticism are associated with subjective well-being. The quasi-replication sample is always restricted to non-overlapping cohorts. In a separate lookup exercise, we examined whether lead SNPs for depressive symptoms and neuroticism are associated with depression in an independent sample of 23andMe customers (N = 368,890). The results from this lookup are depicted as green crosses in (b) and (c). Bars represent 95% CIs (not adjusted for multiple testing). For interpretational ease, we choose the reference allele so that positive coefficients imply that the estimated effect is in the predicted direction. Listed below each lead SNP is the nearest gene.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. Results from selected biological analyses
(a) Estimates of the expected increase in the phenotypic variance accounted for by a SNP due to the SNP’s being in a given category (τc), divided by the LD Score heritability of the phenotype (h2). Each estimate of τc comes from a separate stratified LD Score regression, controlling for the 52 functional annotation categories in the “baseline model.” The bars represent 95% CIs (not adjusted for multiple testing). To benchmark the estimates, we compare them to those obtained from a recent study of height. (b) Inversion polymorphism on chromosome 8 and the 7 genes for which the inversion is a significant cis-eQTL at FDR < 0.05. The upper half of the figure shows the Manhattan plot for neuroticism for the inversion and surrounding regions. The bottom half shows the squared correlation between the SNPs and the principal component that captures the inversion. The inlay plots the relationship, for each SNP in the inversion region, between the SNP’s significance and its squared correlation with the principal component that captures the inversion.

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