Scanning the genome for personality in young twins
The number (726) and type (microsatellite) of the markers isn't great, but you do what you can do:We report the first genome-wide scan of adolescent personality. We conducted a genome-wide scan to detect linkage for measures of adolescent Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Lie from the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Data are based on 1,280 genotyped Australian adolescent twins and their siblings. The highest linkage peaks were found on chromosomes 16 and 19 for Neuroticism, on chromosomes 1, 7, 10, 13 m, and 18 for Psychoticism, and on chromosomes 2 and 3 for Extraversion.
Marker density is a real problem because a lot of genes lie within a 5 cM region (these are outbred people, not F2 crosses, after all). I would have preferred to see scores from the NEO, since we've seen quite a few genes reliably related to novelty seeking, and I'm curious to see what else associates with Openness.
Gillespie et al. (2008) A genome-wide scan for Eysenckian Personality Dimensions in adolescent twin sibships: Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Lie. J Pers 76 (6) doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00527.x
