New paper on the Swedish Twin Registry as a research infrastructure
Twin Research and Human Genetics has just published an overview article of the Swedish Twin Registry (STR). The registry has developed into an infrastructure of broad utility, aiming to provide a resource for epidemiological and molecular studies of twins.
The STR functions as a research infrastructure containing information on 216,258 twins born between 1886 and 2015, of whom 86,199 pairs have zygosity determined by DNA, an intrapair similarity algorithm, or being of opposite sex. Practically all Swedish twins alive and currently 9 years or older have been invited for participation and donation of DNA on which genomewide single nucleotide polymorphisms array genotyping has been performed. Content, management and alternatives for future improvements are discussed.
The last overview article about the STR was published in 2013 and in this update, the authors provide a summary of the major, so-called base-data collections, structured according to the source of data: (1) Self- or parental responses to questionnaires/interviews, (2) biobanking, (3) genotyping, (4) biomarkers, (5) health check-ups and (6) national register linkages.
For six decades, the STR has been an important resource for the study of genetic and environmental aspects of a broad spectrum of traits, phenotypes and disorders. The core functions of the register is to function as a basic machinery to enable researchers to initiate projects aiming to answer a multitude of research questions. With this update, it is easy to get an overview of what data are available and what is feasible for future research.