Although common sense suggests that environmental influences increasingly account for individual differences in behavior as experiences accumulate during the course of life, this hypothesis has not ...previously been tested, in part because of the large sample sizes needed for an adequately powered analysis. Here we show for general cognitive ability that, to the contrary, genetic influence increases with age. The heritability of general cognitive ability increases significantly and linearly from 41% in childhood (9 years) to 55% in adolescence (12 years) and to 66% in young adulthood (17 years) in a sample of 11 000 pairs of twins from four countries, a larger sample than all previous studies combined. In addition to its far-reaching implications for neuroscience and molecular genetics, this finding suggests new ways of thinking about the interface between nature and nurture during the school years. Why, despite life's 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune', do genetically driven differences increasingly account for differences in general cognitive ability? We suggest that the answer lies with genotype-environment correlation: as children grow up, they increasingly select, modify and even create their own experiences in part based on their genetic propensities.
Developmental dyslexia, a specific impairment of reading ability despite adequate intelligence and educational opportunity, is one of the most frequent childhood disorders. Since the first documented ...cases at the beginning of the last century, it has become increasingly apparent that the reading problems of people with dyslexia form part of a heritable neurobiological syndrome. As for most cognitive and behavioural traits, phenotypic definition is fraught with difficulties and the genetic basis is complex, making the isolation of genetic risk factors a formidable challenge. Against such a background, it is notable that several recent studies have reported the localization of genes that influence dyslexia and other language-related traits. These investigations exploit novel research approaches that are relevant to many areas of human neurogenetics.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Several quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that influence developmental dyslexia (reading disability RD) have been mapped to chromosome regions by linkage analysis. The most consistently replicated area ...of linkage is on chromosome 6p23-21.3. We used association analysis in 223 siblings from the United Kingdom to identify an underlying QTL on 6p22.2. Our association study implicates a 77-kb region spanning the gene
TTRAP and the first four exons of the neighboring uncharacterized gene
KIAA0319. The region of association is also directly upstream of a third gene,
THEM2. We found evidence of these associations in a second sample of siblings from the United Kingdom, as well as in an independent sample of twin-based sibships from Colorado. One main RD risk haplotype that has a frequency of ∼12% was found in both the U.K. and U.S. samples. The haplotype is not distinguished by any protein-coding polymorphisms, and, therefore, the functional variation may relate to gene expression. The QTL influences a broad range of reading-related cognitive abilities but has no significant impact on general cognitive performance in these samples. In addition, the QTL effect may be largely limited to the severe range of reading disability.
The Vegetative Cover Conversion (VCC) product is designed to serve as a global alarm for land cover change caused by anthropogenic activities and extreme natural events. MODIS 250 m surface ...reflectance data availability was limited both spatially and temporally in the first year after launch due to processing system constraints. To address this situation, the VCC algorithms were applied to available MODIS 250 m Level 1B radiance data to test the VCC change detection algorithms presented in this paper. Five data sets of MODIS Level 1B 250 m data were collected for the year 2000, representing: (1) Idaho–Montana wildfires; (2) the Cerro Grande prescribed fire in New Mexico; (3) flood in Cambodia; (4) Thailand–Laos flood retreat; and (5) deforestation in southern Brazil. Decision trees are developed for each of the VCC change detection methods for each of these six cases. These decision trees are to be used for updating the look-up tables required by the VCC production code. For these change detection cases, the VCC change detection methods worked reasonably well. In the Idaho–Montana wildfire case, a fire perimeter polygon data set compiled by the USDA Forest Service was used to validate the output of the VCC change detection methods. Although the VCC output identified only 32% of the burned pixels within the ground observed Idaho–Montana fire perimeter polygons, the detection accuracy of the VCC output did reach 99% when the VCC product is considered as an alarm system identifying the occurrence of the change in an area. For other cases, the detection accuracy in per-pixel terms of the VCC output ranges from 55% to 90% against reference change bitmaps that were created by image interpretation. Look-up tables created with AVHRR and Landsat Thematic Mapper data require modifications for the MODIS data due to differences in radiometric response between MODIS and the heritage instruments. The applications presented in this paper also evaluate the relative performance of each of the five change detection methods used as VCC algorithms. Conclusions reached in this paper will be used for future refinement of the VCC product.
In a test battery consisting of an open-field arena, a light-dark box, a mirror-chamber box, an elevated plus maze, and an elevated square maze, 1,671 mice were tested, generating over 100 putative ...measures of anxiety in rodents. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis was carried out on all measures, plus composite measures and phenotypic factor scores. Significant LOD scores were found for QTL on 17 chromosomes, with large and consistent QTL behavioral effects on chromosomes 1, 4, 7, 8, 14, 15, l8, and X. QTL on chromosomes 4 and 8 largely influence locomotor activity in both home cages and novel environments, whereas QTL on chromosomes 1, 15, and 18 influence anxiety-related behaviors. Five genetically separable, cross-test dimensions of anxiety could be identified: (i) the suppression of locomotor activity in low to moderately anxiogenic regions of the tests; (ii) a shift toward proportionally less time and activity spent in high-anxiogenic test areas; (iii) the suppression of rearing behavior; (iv) increased latency to enter novel areas; (v) increased autonomic responses, as assessed by defecation and urination. Patterns of QTL influence on cross-test composite scores were distinctive. For example, the QTL on chromosome 1 strongly influenced safe-area locomotor activity (LOD = 35) and autonomic responses (LOD = 16), whereas the QTL on chromosome 15 influenced the proportion of activity in high-anxiogenic areas (LOD = 16), latency to enter novel areas (LOD = 36) and rearing behavior (LOD = 57). Phenotypic factor analysis identified factors heavily loaded on single tests, rather than cross-test factors. The use of factor analysis or within-test principal components for data reduction before genetic analysis was less satisfactory than using genetic dissection methods on the original measures and logically derived composites.
Reading and language abilities are heritable traits that are likely to share some genetic influences with each other. To identify pleiotropic genetic variants affecting these traits, we first ...performed a genome‐wide association scan (GWAS) meta‐analysis using three richly characterized datasets comprising individuals with histories of reading or language problems, and their siblings. GWAS was performed in a total of 1862 participants using the first principal component computed from several quantitative measures of reading‐ and language‐related abilities, both before and after adjustment for performance IQ. We identified novel suggestive associations at the SNPs rs59197085 and rs5995177 (uncorrected P ≈ 10–7 for each SNP), located respectively at the CCDC136/FLNC and RBFOX2 genes. Each of these SNPs then showed evidence for effects across multiple reading and language traits in univariate association testing against the individual traits. FLNC encodes a structural protein involved in cytoskeleton remodelling, while RBFOX2 is an important regulator of alternative splicing in neurons. The CCDC136/FLNC locus showed association with a comparable reading/language measure in an independent sample of 6434 participants from the general population, although involving distinct alleles of the associated SNP. Our datasets will form an important part of on‐going international efforts to identify genes contributing to reading and language skills.
Genome‐wide association scan meta‐analysis for reading and language ability.
Global Consequences of Land Use Foley, Jonathan A; DeFries, Ruth; Asner, Gregory P ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
07/2005, Letnik:
309, Številka:
5734
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Land use has generally been considered a local environmental issue, but it is becoming a force of global importance. Worldwide changes to forests, farmlands, waterways, and air are being driven by ...the need to provide food, fiber, water, and shelter to more than six billion people. Global croplands, pastures, plantations, and urban areas have expanded in recent decades, accompanied by large increases in energy, water, and fertilizer consumption, along with considerable losses of biodiversity. Such changes in land use have enabled humans to appropriate an increasing share of the planet's resources, but they also potentially undermine the capacity of ecosystems to sustain food production, maintain freshwater and forest resources, regulate climate and air quality, and ameliorate infectious diseases. We face the challenge of managing trade-offs between immediate human needs and maintaining the capacity of the biosphere to provide goods and services in the long term.
We use data from two satellites and a terrestrial carbon model to quantify the impact of urbanization on the carbon cycle and food production in the US as a result of reduced net primary productivity ...(NPP). Our results show that urbanization is taking place on the most fertile lands and hence has a disproportionately large overall negative impact on NPP. Urban land transformation in the US has reduced the amount of carbon fixed through photosynthesis by 0.04 pg per year or 1.6% of the pre-urban input. The reduction is enough to offset the 1.8% gain made by the conversion of land to agricultural use, even though urbanization covers an area less than 3% of the land surface in the US and agricultural lands approach 29% of the total land area. At local and regional scales, urbanization increases NPP in resource-limited regions and through localized warming “urban heat” contributes to the extension of the growing season in cold regions. In terms of biologically available energy, the loss of NPP due to urbanization of agricultural lands alone is equivalent to the caloric requirement of 16.5 million people, or about 6% of the US population.
Accumulating evidence suggests that executive functions (EFs) are related to intelligence, despite neuro- psychological results initially considered evidence of no such relation. However, findings ...that EFs are not unitary raise the issue of how intelligence relates to different EFs. This study examined the relations of fluid and crystallized intelligence and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale IQ to three separable EFs--inhibiting prepotent responses (inhibiting), shifting mental sets (shifting), and updating working memory (updating)--in young adults. Updating was highly correlated with the intelligence measures, but inhibiting and shifting were not. Furthermore, in structural equation models controlling for the inter-EF correlations, updating remained strongly related to intelligence, but the relations of inhibiting and shifting to intelligence were small and not significant. The results indicate that intelligence measures differentially relate to these three EFs, suggesting that current intelligence measures do not equally assess a wide range of executive control abilities likely required for many "intelligent" behaviors.
Background: There is a growing interest in the study of the genetic origins of comorbidity, a direct consequence of the recent findings of genetic loci that are seemingly linked to more than one ...disorder. There are several potential causes for these shared regions of linkage, but one possibility is that these loci may harbor genes with manifold effects. The established genetic correlation between reading disability (RD) and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) suggests that their comorbidity is due at least in part to genes that have an impact on several phenotypes, a phenomenon known as pleiotropy.
Methods: We employ a bivariate linkage test for selected samples that could help identify these pleiotropic loci. This linkage method was employed to carry out the first bivariate genome‐wide analysis for RD and ADHD, in a selected sample of 182 sibling pairs.
Results: We found evidence for a novel locus at chromosome 14q32 (multipoint LOD = 2.5; singlepoint LOD = 3.9) with a pleiotropic effect on RD and ADHD. Another locus at 13q32, which had been implicated in previous univariate scans of RD and ADHD, seems to have a pleiotropic effect on both disorders. 20q11 is also suggested as a pleiotropic locus. Other loci previously implicated in RD or ADHD did not exhibit bivariate linkage.
Conclusions: Some loci are suggested as having pleiotropic effects on RD and ADHD, while others might have unique effects. These results highlight the utility of this bivariate linkage method to study pleiotropy.
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