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Otten K, Mandemakers JJ. Partners in Health: Investigating Social Genetic Effects Among Married and Cohabiting Couples. Behav Genet 2023; 53:348-358. [PMID: 37284978 PMCID: PMC10276063 DOI: 10.1007/s10519-023-10147-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2022] [Accepted: 05/30/2023] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Partners resemble each other in health behaviors and outcomes such as alcohol use, smoking, physical activity, and obesity. While this is consistent with social contagion theory suggesting partner influence, it is notoriously difficult to establish causality because of assortative mating and contextual confounding. We offer a novel approach to studying social contagion in health in long-term partnerships by combining genetic data of both partners in married/cohabiting couples with longitudinal data on their health behaviors and outcomes. We examine the influence of the partner's genetic predisposition for three health outcomes and behaviors (BMI, smoking, and drinking) among married/cohabiting couples. We use longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing with data on health outcomes and genotypes for both partners. Results show that changes over time in BMI, smoking, and drinking depend on the partner's genetic predispositions to these traits. These findings underline the importance of people's social surroundings for their health and highlight the potential of targeting health interventions at couples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kasper Otten
- Department of Sociology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 14, 3584 CH Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Jornt J Mandemakers
- Department of Sociology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 14, 3584 CH Utrecht, the Netherlands
- Atlas Research, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Baud A, Casale FP, Barkley-Levenson AM, Farhadi N, Montillot C, Yalcin B, Nicod J, Palmer AA, Stegle O. Dissecting indirect genetic effects from peers in laboratory mice. Genome Biol 2021; 22:216. [PMID: 34311762 PMCID: PMC8311926 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-021-02415-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2021] [Accepted: 06/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The phenotype of an individual can be affected not only by the individual's own genotypes, known as direct genetic effects (DGE), but also by genotypes of interacting partners, indirect genetic effects (IGE). IGE have been detected using polygenic models in multiple species, including laboratory mice and humans. However, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Genome-wide association studies of IGE (igeGWAS) can point to IGE genes, but have not yet been applied to non-familial IGE arising from "peers" and affecting biomedical phenotypes. In addition, the extent to which igeGWAS will identify loci not identified by dgeGWAS remains an open question. Finally, findings from igeGWAS have not been confirmed by experimental manipulation. RESULTS We leverage a dataset of 170 behavioral, physiological, and morphological phenotypes measured in 1812 genetically heterogeneous laboratory mice to study IGE arising between same-sex, adult, unrelated mice housed in the same cage. We develop and apply methods for igeGWAS in this context and identify 24 significant IGE loci for 17 phenotypes (FDR < 10%). We observe no overlap between IGE loci and DGE loci for the same phenotype, which is consistent with the moderate genetic correlations between DGE and IGE for the same phenotype estimated using polygenic models. Finally, we fine-map seven significant IGE loci to individual genes and find supportive evidence in an experiment with a knockout model that Epha4 gives rise to IGE on stress-coping strategy and wound healing. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrate the potential for igeGWAS to identify IGE genes and shed light into the mechanisms of peer influence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amelie Baud
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, CB10 1SD Hinxton, Cambridge, UK
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA
- Current Address: Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Francesco Paolo Casale
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, CB10 1SD Hinxton, Cambridge, UK
- Microsoft Research New England, Cambridge, MA USA
| | | | - Nilgoun Farhadi
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA
| | - Charlotte Montillot
- INSERM U1231 GAD Laboratory, University Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 21070 Dijon, France
| | - Binnaz Yalcin
- INSERM U1231 GAD Laboratory, University Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 21070 Dijon, France
| | - Jerome Nicod
- Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Current Address: The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
| | - Abraham A. Palmer
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA
- Institute for Genomic Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA
| | - Oliver Stegle
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, CB10 1SD Hinxton, Cambridge, UK
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
- Division of Computational Genomics and Systems Genetics, German Cancer Research Center, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, CB10 1SD Hinxton, Cambridge, UK
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