Open AccessAssociation of COMT Polymorphism and Academic Achievement among Female Undergraduate Students
Author(s) -
Norsuhaila Rosmimi Rosli,
Tengku Shahrul Anuar engku Ahmad Basri,
Mohd Ilham Adenan,
Roziah Mohd Janor,
Rohaya Ahmad,
Lay Kek Teh,
Mohd Zaki Salleh,
Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar,
Richard Johari James
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
science letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1675-7785
DOI - 10.24191/sl.v15i2.13831
Subject(s) - rs4680 , catechol o methyl transferase , genotype , psychology , polymorphism (computer science) , academic achievement , cognition , clinical psychology , genetics , medicine , developmental psychology , biology , psychiatry , gene
Academic achievement may be influenced by catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) polymorphism. A common functional polymorphism of COMT, the rs4680 is consistently being involved in the modulation of dopaminergic pathway and prefrontal cortex function which may predominantly affect cognitive functions. A total of 197 female participants were recruited in this study. The score of student’s grade point average (GPA) from the latest previous semester was used as the measurement of academic achievement. The COMT polymorphism was genotyped using tetra primer allele specific polymerase chain reaction. The findings indicated that there were 8 (4.1 %), 72 (36.5 %), and 117 (59.4 %) participants harbouring Met/Met, Met/Val, and Val/Val genotype for COMT polymorphism respectively. All the genotype distributions of COMT polymorphism were consistent with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (χ2 = 0.495, p > 0.05). The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) result demonstrated that participants bearing Met/Met genotype had a better achievement in GPA as compared to the other COMT genotypes (p = 0.001). These findings support evidence that the affective role of COMT polymorphism might overwhelm cognitive abilities in measures of academic achievement like GPA.