Treasure trove of 269 genes associated with depression identified

In the largest study of its kind, a team of international collaborators led by the University of Edinburgh (UK) have discovered hundreds of genes that have been newly linked to depression. Within the study, which has been published in Nature Neuroscience, researchers meta-analyzed data on 807,553 individuals from the three largest genome-wide association studies of depression. They identified 102 independent variables, 269 genes and 15 genesets associated with depression, including both genes and gene pathways association with synaptic structure and neurotransmission. Additionally, the team used an innovative statistical method – known as Mendelian randomization – to identify sections of DNA...