Educational-attainment methylation sites overlap strongly with cigarette-smoke signatures, and associations remain after adjusting for smoking at 11 genome-wide significant CpGs¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? All 58 education-associated CpGs are also associated with individual smoking and 29 (50%) with maternal prenatal smoking; after adjusting for smoking status, 11 CpGs remain genome-wide significant with effect sizes on average 28% smaller. → Jenny van Dongen et al 2018

Evidence¶

Jenny van Dongen et al 2018¶

Jenny van Dongen et al. (2018). DNA methylation signatures of educational attainment. npj Science of Learning 3:7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-018-0020-2

q2 · i? · associational · r3

Overlap analysis of the 58 education-associated sites against published EWAS meta-analyses of individual smoking (18,760 sites) and prenatal maternal smoking (6073 sites). Mediation analysis showed smoking mediated 7–47% (average 28%) of the education–methylation effect; 11 CpGs were genome-wide significant after adjusting for smoking.

"all educational attainment associated sites are also associated with individual smoking and 29 (50%) are currently known to be associated with maternal prenatal smoking"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Methylation at 33 of 58 education-associated CpGs (57%) is associated with expression of nearby transcripts in blood — related
• Education methylation signatures correlate with maternal smoking signatures and show small positive correlations with maternal folate and air pollution signatures, but not alcohol — related
• Education-associated methylation differences persist in never smokers, indicating sources beyond a person's own smoking behaviour — related
• Within twin pairs, education–methylation associations persist but are attenuated, implicating shared environmental or genetic factors — related
• A meta-analysis of four Dutch cohorts identifies 58 CpG sites whose blood DNA methylation is associated with educational attainment, mostly with higher methylation at higher education — related