The future of genomics for developmentalists.

摘要

The momentum of genomic science will carry it far into the future and into theheart of research on typical and atypical behavioral development. The purpose of this paper is to focus on a few implications and applications of these advancesfor understanding behavioral development. Quantitative genetics is genomic andwill chart the course for molecular genomic research now that these two worlds ofgenetics are merging in the search for many genes of small effect. Althoughcurrent attempts to identify specific genes have had limited success, known asthe missing heritability problem, whole-genome sequencing will improve thissituation by identifying all DNA sequence variations, including rare variants.Because the heritability of complex traits is caused by many DNA variants ofsmall effect in the population, polygenic scores that are composites of hundreds or thousands of DNA variants will be used by developmentalists to predictchildren's genetic risk and resilience. The most far-reaching advance will be thewidespread availability of whole-genome sequence for children, which means thatdevelopmentalists would no longer need to obtain DNA or to genotype children inorder to use genomic information in research or in the clinic.