GWA meta-analysis of personality in Korean cohorts

Personality is a determinant of behavior and lifestyle that is associated with health and human diseases. Despite the heritability of personality traits is well established, the understanding of the genetic contribution to personality trait variation is extremely limited. To identify genetic variants associated with each of the five dimensions of personality, we performed a genome-wide association (GWA) meta-analysis of three cohorts, followed by comparison of a family cohort. Personality traits were measured with the Revised NEO Personality Inventory for the five-factor model (FFM) of personality. We investigated the top five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for each trait, and revealed the most highly association with neuroticism and TACC2 (rs1010657, P=8.79 × 10−7), extraversion and PTPN12 (rs12537271, P=1.47 × 10−7), openness and IMPAD1 (rs16921695, P=5 × 10−8), agreeableness and RPS29 (rs8015351, P=1.27 × 10−6) and conscientiousness and LMO4 (rs912765, P=2.91 × 10−6). It had no SNP reached the GWA study threshold (P<5 × 10−8). When expanded the SNPs up to top 100, the correlation of PTPRD (rs1029089) and agreeableness was confirmed in Healthy Twin cohort with other 13 SNPs. This GWA meta-analysis on FFM personality traits is meaningful as it was the first on a non-Caucasian population targeted to FFM of personality traits.