Verification of self-report of zygosity determined via DNA testing in a subset of the NAS-NRC twin registry 40 years later.
Published
Journal Article
The National Academy of Sciences -- National Research Council (NAS-NRC) twin panel, created nearly 50 years ago, had twin zygosity determined primarily via a similarity questionnaire that has been estimated to correctly classify at least 95% of twins. In the course of a study on the genetics of healthy ageing in the NAS-NRC twins, DNA was collected for genome-wide scanning and zygosity confirmation was examined in 343 participating pairs. The sample was supplemented from two other studies using NAS-NRC twins where one or both co-twins were suspected to have Alzheimer disease or another dementia, or Parkinson's disease. Overall 578 twin pairs with DNA were analyzed. Zygosity assignment for 96.8% (519/536) was confirmed via questionnaire. Among 42 pairs whose questionnaire responses were inconclusive for assigning zygosity, 50% were found to be monozygous (MZ) and 50% were dizygous (DZ). There was some evidence for greater misclassification of presumed DZ pairs in the healthy ageing study where participation favored pairs who were similar in having a favorable health history and willingness to volunteer without any element of perceived risk for a specific disease influencing participation.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Reed, T; Plassman, BL; Tanner, CM; Dick, DM; Rinehart, SA; Nichols, WC
Published Date
- August 2005
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 8 / 4
Start / End Page
- 362 - 367
PubMed ID
- 16176721
Pubmed Central ID
- 16176721
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 1832-4274
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1375/1832427054936763
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- England