Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Using Cholesky Decomposition to Explore Individual Differences in Longitudinal Relations between Reading Skills
Published on: September 17, 2019
The genetics of reading disability
Tracey L Petryshen1, David L Pauls
1Psychiatric and Neurodevelopment Genetics Unit, Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Abstract:
Genetic factors contribute substantially to the development of reading disability (RD). Family linkage studies have implicated many chromosomal regions containing RD susceptibility genes, of which putative loci at 1p34-p36 (DYX8), 2p (DYX3), 6p21.3 (DYX2), and 15q21 (DYX1) have been frequently replicated, whereas those at 3p12-q12 (DYX5), 6q13-q16 (DYX4), 11p15 (DYX7), 18p11 (DYX6), and Xq27 (DYX9) have less evidence. Association studies of positional candidate genes have implicated DCDC2 and KIAA0319 in DYX2, as well as C2ORF3 and MRPL19 (DYX3), whereas DYX1C1/EKN1 (DYX1) and ROBO1 (DYX5) were found to be disrupted by rare translocation breakpoints in reading-disabled individuals. Four of the candidate genes (DYX1C1, KIAA0319, DCDC2, and ROBO1) appear to function in neuronal migration and guidance, suggesting the importance of early neurodevelopmental processes in RD. Future studies to help us understand the function of these and other RD candidate genes promise to yield enormous insight into the neurobiologic mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of this disorder.
Related Concept Videos
Genetic Lingo
Learning Disabilities
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a...
Incomplete Dominance
Language and Cognition
Pedigree Analysis
Genomic Imprinting and Inheritance
The expression of some genes depends on which parent passed the gene to the offspring, through a phenomenon known as...

