Real-life helping behaviours in North America: A genome-wide association approach

In humans, prosocial behaviour is essential for social functioning. Twin studies suggest this distinct human trait to be partly hardwired. In the last decade research on the genetics of prosocial behaviour focused on neurotransmitters and neuropeptides, such as oxytocin, dopamine, and their respective pathways. Recent trends towards large scale medical studies targeting the genetic basis of complex diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia pave the way for new directions also in behavioural genetics.Based on data from 10,713 participants of the American Health and Retirement Study we estimated heritability of helping behaviour–its total variance explained by 1.2 million single nucleotide polymorphisms–to be 11%. Both, fixed models and mixed linear models identified rs11697300, an intergene variant on chromosome 20, as a candidate variant moderating this particular helping behaviour. We assume that this so far undescribed area is worth further investigation in association with human prosocial behaviour.在人类社会中，亲社会行为（prosocial behaviour）是维系社会正常运转的核心要素。双生子研究显示，这一独特的人类特质在一定程度上是先天固有的。近十年来，亲社会行为的遗传学研究主要聚焦于神经递质与神经肽类物质（如催产素、多巴胺）及其对应的信号通路。近期针对阿尔茨海默病（Alzheimer’s disease）、精神分裂症（schizophrenia）等复杂疾病遗传基础的大规模医学研究热潮，也为行为遗传学领域开辟了全新的研究方向。本研究依托美国健康与退休研究（American Health and Retirement Study）中10713名参与者的数据，对助人行为的遗传力进行了估算：由120万个单核苷酸多态性（single nucleotide polymorphisms）所解释的总变异贡献率为11%。无论是固定效应模型还是混合线性模型，均将20号染色体上的基因间变异体rs11697300鉴定为调控该特定助人行为的候选变异位点。我们认为，这一迄今尚未被深入探索的领域值得围绕人类亲社会行为开展进一步研究。