Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 16, 2026

Assessing Dyslexia at Six Year of Age
Published on: May 1, 2020
An assessment of gene-by-environment interactions in developmental dyslexia-related phenotypes
S Mascheretti1, A Bureau, M Battaglia
1The Academic Centre for the study of Behavioural Plasticity, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan 20132, Italy.
Abstract:
While the genetic and environmental contributions to developmental dyslexia (DD) have been studied extensively, the effects of identified genetic risk susceptibility and of specified environmental hazardous factors have usually been investigated separately. We assessed potential gene-by-environment (GxE) interactions on DD-related reading, spelling and memory phenotypes. The presence of GxE effects were investigated for the DYX1C1, DCDC2, KIAA0319 and ROBO1 genes, and for seven specified environmental moderators in 165 nuclear families in which at least one member had DD, by implementing a general test for GxE interaction in sib-pair-based association analysis of quantitative traits. Our results support a diathesis-stress model for both reading and memory composites: GxE effects were found between some specified environmental moderators (i.e. maternal smoke during pregnancy, birth weight and socio-economic status) and the DYX1C1-1259C/G marker. We have provided initial evidence that the joint analysis of identified genetic risk susceptibility and measured putative risk factors can be exploited in the study of the etiology of DD and reading-related neuropsychological phenotypes, and may assist in identifying/preventing the occurrence of DD.
Related Concept Videos
Gene-Environment Interactions
Background and Environment Affect Phenotype
An example of how genetic background affects phenotype can be seen in horses. The Extension gene in horses is responsible for their coat color. A wild-type gene (EE) produces black pigment in the coat, while a mutant gene (ee) produces red pigment. A...
Environmental Influences on Intelligence
Language and Cognition
Epistasis Analysis
Behavioral Genetics and Its Designs
The primary methodologies used in behavior genetics include family studies, twin studies, and adoption studies, each providing unique...

