Gene-Environment Interplay in Physical, Psychological, and Cognitive Domains in Mid to Late Adulthood: Is APOE a Variability Gene?

Reynolds CA, Gatz M, Christensen K, Christiansen L, Dahl Aslan AK, Kaprio J, Korhonen T, Kremen WS, Krueger R, McGue M, Neiderhiser JM, Pedersen NL, Interplay of Genes and Environment across Multiple Studies (IGEMS) consortium

Behav. Genet. 46 (1) 4-19 [2016-01-00; online 2015-11-06]

Despite emerging interest in gene-environment interaction (GxE) effects, there is a dearth of studies evaluating its potential relevance apart from specific hypothesized environments and biometrical variance trends. Using a monozygotic within-pair approach, we evaluated evidence of G×E for body mass index (BMI), depressive symptoms, and cognition (verbal, spatial, attention, working memory, perceptual speed) in twin studies from four countries. We also evaluated whether APOE is a 'variability gene' across these measures and whether it partly represents the 'G' in G×E effects. In all three domains, G×E effects were pervasive across country and gender, with small-to-moderate effects. Age-cohort trends were generally stable for BMI and depressive symptoms; however, they were variable-with both increasing and decreasing age-cohort trends-for different cognitive measures. Results also suggested that APOE may represent a 'variability gene' for depressive symptoms and spatial reasoning, but not for BMI or other cognitive measures. Hence, additional genes are salient beyond APOE.

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NGI Uppsala (SNP&SEQ Technology Platform) [Service]

National Genomics Infrastructure [Service]

PubMed 26538244

DOI 10.1007/s10519-015-9761-3

Crossref 10.1007/s10519-015-9761-3

pii: 10.1007/s10519-015-9761-3
pmc: PMC4858319
mid: NIHMS777421