The promise and pitfalls of molecular genetics.
The promise and pitfalls of molecular genetics.
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分子遗传学的希望和陷阱。
DOI：
10.1126/science.1631543
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发表时间：
1992
期刊：
影响因子：
56.9
通讯作者：
P. Aldhous
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
P. Aldhous
影响智力的个别基因。然而，这类研究固有的风险是，可能会发现虚假的联系。最明显的错误来源是分层--被研究的种群可能包含不同的亚群，这些亚群往往相互交配。如果无论出于何种原因，这些人群在智商测试中的得分往往不同，普洛明的研究可能会得出某些等位基因之间的关联，这些等位基因碰巧在特定的亚群中很常见，但与智商关系不大。耶鲁大学的精神病学遗传学家大卫·保尔斯说：“考虑到他们正在进行的测试次数，他们几乎肯定会找到关联。但谁知道这意味着什么呢？”普洛明的团队仍然持乐观态度。加的夫威尔士大学的精神病学遗传学家彼得·麦古芬是普洛明研究的合作研究员，他认为分层不会是一个大问题。通过将研究限制在样本Ofu上。他说：“我们选择的样本至少在表面上是同质的。”普洛明还表示，在公布结果之前，他将使用第二个样本重复这项研究。
individual genes affecting intelligence. The risk inherent in such studies, however, is that spurious associations may be picked up. The most obvious source of error is stratification-the possibility that the population being studied contains a mix ofdifferent subgroups, which tend to mate among themselves. If, for whatever reason, these groups tend to score differently when tested for IQ, Plomin's study could throw up associations for alleles that just happen to be common in a particular subgroup but have little to do with IQ." Given the number of tests they're doing, they're almost bound to find associations," says psychiatric geneticist David Pauls of Yale University." But who knows what that means?" Plomin's group remains optimistic. Peter McGuffin, a psychiatric geneticist from the University of Wales in Cardiff, who is a coinvestigator in Plomin's study, thinks that stratification won't be a major problem. By restricting the study to a sample ofU. S. Caucasians," we're selecting a sample which, at least on the face of it, is homogeneous," he says. Plomin also says he will replicate the study using a second sample before publishing the results.