Review of research progresses in genetics related to myopia

Abstract

Myopia is an extremely common state of refractive error, and the incidence of myopia is increasing year by year and the age of onset is usually earlier. It has grown up to be a major public health problem that endangers people's visual health. Studies have demonstrated that myopia is a multi-factor complex disease which affected by genetic factors, environmental factors and gene-environment interaction. Genetics includes classical genetics and epigenetics. The emergence of epigenetic research has opened a new perspective of basic research on myopia. In recent years, the researchers have proposed that the occurrence of myopia may be related to epigenetics, and more and more experimental studies have also proved this view. The genetic study of myopia has identified several myopia genes and candidate genes for high myopia and myopia by using linkage and genome-wide association methods, which greatly deepened the understanding of the genetic basis of myopia. This article reviews the research on classical genetics and epigenetics of myopia in recent years.

Keywords

• myopia
• classical genetics
• epigenetics