Journal
JOURNAL OF MEDICAL GENETICS
Volume 49, Issue 12, Pages 747-752Publisher
BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2012-101209
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology [2003-2001558]
- US National Institutes of Health [HG004221]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background Musical abilities such as recognising music and singing performance serve as means for communication and are instruments in sexual selection. Specific regions of the brain have been found to be activated by musical stimuli, but these have rarely been extended to the discovery of genes and molecules associated with musical ability. Methods A total of 1008 individuals from 73 families were enrolled and a pitch-production accuracy test was applied to determine musical ability. To identify genetic loci and variants that contribute to musical ability, we conducted family-based linkage and association analyses, and incorporated the results with data from exome sequencing and array comparative genomic hybridisation analyses. Results We found significant evidence of linkage at 4q23 with the nearest marker D4S2986 (LOD=3.1), whose supporting interval overlaps a previous study in Finnish families, and identified an intergenic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (rs1251078, p=8.4x10(-17)) near UGT8, a gene highly expressed in the central nervous system and known to act in brain organisation. In addition, a non-synonymous SNP in UGT8 was revealed to be highly associated with musical ability (rs4148254, p=8.0x10(-17)), and a 6.2 kb copy number loss near UGT8 showed a plausible association with musical ability (p=2.9x10(-6)). Conclusions This study provides new insight into the genetics of musical ability, exemplifying a methodology to assign functional significance to synonymous and non-coding alleles by integrating multiple experimental methods.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available