An association between polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene linked promoter region (5HTT-LPR) and the human personality trait of neuroticism has been reported. One potentially important factor moderating the genetic effect of this polymorphism on neuroticism is sex.
We sought to address the question of whether sex moderates the association between the 5HTT-LPR polymorphism and anxiety-related personality traits in humans by means of meta-analytic techniques.
Transformed personality trait scores were entered into a 2 × 3 ANOVA with sex (male, female) and genotype (ss, sl, ll) as between-subject factors. This indicated a main effect of sex (p=0.04) and genotype (p=0.01) on personality. The interaction was not significant (p=0.65).
The results of this meta-analysis do not offer any support for a moderating effect of sex on the association of the short allele of the 5HTT gene with neuroticism
A recent meta-analysis of genetic association studies and human personality reported a significant association between polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene (5HTT-LPR) and the personality trait neuroticism (Munafò et al., 2003). One potentially important factor that may moderate the genetic effect of the 5HTT-LPR on neuroticism is sex. Higher mean neuroticism scores have been consistently reported in women, but, with one exception (Viken, Rose, Kaprio, & Koskenvuo, 1994), studies report no difference in heritability between males and females. Three studies find evidence of sex-specific genetic factors (Eaves, Heath, Neale, Hewitt, & Martin, 1998; Fanous, Gardner, Prescott, Cancro, & Kendler, 2002; Martin et al., 2000), though one did not (Lake, Eaves, Maes, Heath, & Martin, 2000). It is not known whether individual loci show sex-specific effects, although this has been suggested (Fullerton et al., 2003; Du, Bakish, & Hrdina, 2000).
We sought to address the question of whether sex moderates the association between the 5HTT-LPR polymorphism and anxiety-related personality traits in humans by contacting the authors of eligible association studies to request the release of data grouped separately for men and women.
