GENES, ADOLESCENT ADJUSTMENT, AND FAMILY PROCESSES

近年来，数量遗传学和分子遗传学取得了重大进展。 在数量遗传学中已经得出的压倒性结论是，遗传因素对大多数调整措施都很重要。 更令人惊讶的是，遗传因素也有很大的影响家庭过程的措施。 基因分型、候选基因的鉴定以及关联策略在分子遗传学中的应用等方面的进展，使得人们能够研究基因与连续分布特征（如适应）之间的关联。 这项为期三年的计划旨在将这些进展联合收割机用于候选基因关联研究青少年适应。 此外，本研究将扩展这一策略，探讨家庭过程在调节和介导青春期基因表达中的作用。遗传物质（脸颊刮片）将从两个兄弟姐妹（年龄10至18岁，在时间1）和父母双方的样本720个家庭谁参加了非共享环境的青少年发展项目（NEAD）收集。 NEAD是NIMH赞助的项目（MH-43373和MH-48825），评估两次，间隔三年，重点是了解青少年的适应和遗传因素和家庭过程在塑造适应中的作用。 这是唯一一项密集测量家庭过程的定量遗传研究，包括观察评估。 从该样本中收集遗传物质将能够检查（1）候选基因与青少年适应的关联，（2）候选基因与适应的纵向关联，（3）作为基因表达调节因子的家族过程（基因型-环境相互作用），以及（4）作为基因表达介导因子的家族过程（基因型-环境相关性）。纳入兄弟姐妹和父母将允许使用不受人口分层影响的对照组策略。 例如，候选基因关联将针对同胞对的一个成员进行，然后将另一个同胞用于复制。 由于NEAD是一种定量遗传样本，因此可以计算遗传力以确定与候选基因（即，具有最大遗传力的那些测量是最好的起点）。 此外，NEAD通过使用多测量、多试剂评估，对表型进行了仔细测量。 这一建议，利用最新的进展，在数量遗传学和最新的进展，在分子遗传学有很大的潜力，为通知的问题，基因如何影响发展。

In recent years there have been major advances in quantitative and molecular genetics. The overwhelming conclusion that has been reached in quantitative genetics is that genetic factors are important for most measures of adjustment. More surprisingly, genetic factors also have substantial influence on measures of family processes. Advances in genotyping, the identification of candidate genes, and the use of association strategies in molecular genetics have allowed for the investigation of associations between genes and continuously distributed characteristics, like adjustment. The proposed three-year project seeks to combine these advances to use candidate gene association to examine adolescent adjustment. In addition, this research will extend this strategy to explore the role of family processes in both moderating and mediating gene expression during adolescence. Genetic material (cheek scrapings) will be collected from two siblings (ages 10 to 18 at time 1) and both parents from the sample of 720 families who participated in the Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development Project (NEAD). NEAD is a NIMH-sponsored project (MH-43373 and MH-48825), assessed twice, three years apart, focused on understanding adolescent adjustment and the role of genetic factors and family processes in shaping adjustment. This is the only quantitative genetic study that has intensively measured family processes, including observational assessments. The collection of genetic material from this sample will enable the examination of (1) candidate gene associations with adolescent adjustment, (2) longitudinal associations of candidate genes and adjustment, (3) family processes as moderators of gene expression (genotype-environment interactions), and (4) family processes as mediators of gene expression (genotype-environment correlations). The inclusion of siblings and parents will allow the use of control group strategies that are not affected by population stratification. For example, candidate gene associations will be conducted for one member of the sibling pair and the other sibling is then used for replication. Because the NEAD is a quantitative genetic sample, heritabilities can be computed to identify the most likely possibilities for association with candidate genes (i.e., those measures with the largest heritabilities are the best starting points). In addition, NEAD employed careful measurement of phenotypes, through the use of multi-measure, multi-agent assessment. This proposal, using the most recent advances in quantitative genetics and the most recent advances in molecular genetics has great potential for informing the question of how genes influence development.