“The Genetic Architecture of Dog Ownership: Large-Scale Genome-Wide Association Study in 97,552 European-Ancestry Individuals”, 2024-05-31 (; similar):
Dog ownership has been associated with several complex traits, and there is evidence of genetic influence.
We performed a genome-wide association study of dog ownership through a meta-analysis of 31,566 Swedish twins in 5 discovery cohorts and an additional 65,986 European-ancestry individuals in 3 replication cohorts from Sweden, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Association tests with >7.4 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms were meta-analyzed using a fixed effect model after controlling for population structure and relatedness.
We identified 2 suggestive loci using discovery cohorts, which did not reach genome-wide statistical-significance after meta-analysis with replication cohorts.
Single-nucleotide polymorphism-based heritability of dog ownership using linkage disequilibrium score regression [LDSC] was estimated at 0.123 (CI 0.038–0.207) using the discovery cohorts and 0.018 (CI −0.002–0.039) when adding in replication cohorts. [so dilution from heterogeneous genetic architecture, possibly era/country-specific, like fertility?]
Negative genetic correlation with complex traits including type 2 diabetes, depression, neuroticism, and asthma was only found using discovery summary data.
Furthermore, we did not identify any genes/gene-sets reaching even a suggestive level of statistical-significance.
This genome-wide association study does not, by itself, provide clear evidence on common genetic variants that influence dog ownership among European-ancestry individuals.
[Keywords: GWAS, dog ownership, replication, European ancestry, heritability]