Association of COMT Polymorphism and Academic Achievement among Female Undergraduate Students
Authors:   Intergrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPROMISE), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Selangor Branch, Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Rosli Norsuhaila Rosmimi ,   Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, engku Ahmad Basri Tengku Shahrul Anuar ,   Centre of Medical Laboratory Technology, faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Selangor Branch, Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Adenan Mohd Ilham ,   Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Mohd Janor Roziah ,   Intergrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPROMISE), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Selangor Branch, Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia,   Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia, Ahmad Rohana ,   Intergrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPROMISE), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Selangor Branch, Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia,   Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Selangor Branch, Sungai Buloh Campus, 47000 Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia, Teh Lay Kek ,   Intergrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPROMISE), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Selangor Branch, Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia,   Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Selangor Branch, Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Salleh Mohd Zaki ,   Intergrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPROMISE), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Selangor Branch, Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia,   Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Selangor Branch, Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Abu Bakar Sahol Hamid ,   Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, James Richard Johari ,   Intergrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPROMISE), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Selangor Branch, Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia,   Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Selangor Branch, Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
Published: June 2021

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.