@article {1345, title = {A phenomics-based strategy identifies loci on APOC1, BRAP, and PLCG1 associated with metabolic syndrome phenotype domains.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Oct}, pages = {e1002322}, abstract = {

Despite evidence of the clustering of metabolic syndrome components, current approaches for identifying unifying genetic mechanisms typically evaluate clinical categories that do not provide adequate etiological information. Here, we used data from 19,486 European American and 6,287 African American Candidate Gene Association Resource Consortium participants to identify loci associated with the clustering of metabolic phenotypes. Six phenotype domains (atherogenic dyslipidemia, vascular dysfunction, vascular inflammation, pro-thrombotic state, central obesity, and elevated plasma glucose) encompassing 19 quantitative traits were examined. Principal components analysis was used to reduce the dimension of each domain such that >55\% of the trait variance was represented within each domain. We then applied a statistically efficient and computational feasible multivariate approach that related eight principal components from the six domains to 250,000 imputed SNPs using an additive genetic model and including demographic covariates. In European Americans, we identified 606 genome-wide significant SNPs representing 19 loci. Many of these loci were associated with only one trait domain, were consistent with results in African Americans, and overlapped with published findings, for instance central obesity and FTO. However, our approach, which is applicable to any set of interval scale traits that is heritable and exhibits evidence of phenotypic clustering, identified three new loci in or near APOC1, BRAP, and PLCG1, which were associated with multiple phenotype domains. These pleiotropic loci may help characterize metabolic dysregulation and identify targets for intervention.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Apolipoprotein C-I, Blood Glucose, Dyslipidemias, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Humans, Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity, Abdominal, Phenotype, Phospholipase C gamma, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait, Heritable, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases, Vascular Diseases}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002322}, author = {Avery, Christy L and He, Qianchuan and North, Kari E and Ambite, Jos{\'e} L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Fornage, Myriam and Hindorff, Lucia A and Kooperberg, Charles and Meigs, James B and Pankow, James S and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Psaty, Bruce M and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Wilkens, Lynne R and Heiss, Gerardo and Lin, Dan Yu} } @article {6634, title = {Evaluation of the metabochip genotyping array in African Americans and implications for fine mapping of GWAS-identified loci: the PAGE study.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {7}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e35651}, abstract = {

The Metabochip is a custom genotyping array designed for replication and fine mapping of metabolic, cardiovascular, and anthropometric trait loci and includes low frequency variation content identified from the 1000 Genomes Project. It has 196,725 SNPs concentrated in 257 genomic regions. We evaluated the Metabochip in 5,863 African Americans; 89\% of all SNPs passed rigorous quality control with a call rate of 99.9\%. Two examples illustrate the value of fine mapping with the Metabochip in African-ancestry populations. At CELSR2/PSRC1/SORT1, we found the strongest associated SNP for LDL-C to be rs12740374 (p = 3.5 {\texttimes} 10(-11)), a SNP indistinguishable from multiple SNPs in European ancestry samples due to high correlation. Its distinct signal supports functional studies elsewhere suggesting a causal role in LDL-C. At CETP we found rs17231520, with risk allele frequency 0.07 in African Americans, to be associated with HDL-C (p = 7.2 {\texttimes} 10(-36)). This variant is very rare in Europeans and not tagged in common GWAS arrays, but was identified as associated with HDL-C in African Americans in a single-gene study. Our results, one narrowing the risk interval and the other revealing an associated variant not found in Europeans, demonstrate the advantages of high-density genotyping of common and rare variation for fine mapping of trait loci in African American samples.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cholesterol Ester Transfer Proteins, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Chromosomes, Human, Cohort Studies, Gene Frequency, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Metabolic Diseases, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0035651}, author = {Buyske, Steven and Wu, Ying and Carty, Cara L and Cheng, Iona and Assimes, Themistocles L and Dumitrescu, Logan and Hindorff, Lucia A and Mitchell, Sabrina and Ambite, Jose Luis and Boerwinkle, Eric and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Carlson, Chris S and Cochran, Barbara and Duggan, David and Eaton, Charles B and Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Franceschini, Nora and Haessler, Jeffrey and Jenny, Nancy and Kang, Hyun Min and Kooperberg, Charles and Lin, Yi and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Matise, Tara C and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rodriguez, Carlos and Schumacher, Fredrick R and Voight, Benjamin F and Young, Alicia and Manolio, Teri A and Mohlke, Karen L and Haiman, Christopher A and Peters, Ulrike and Crawford, Dana C and North, Kari E} } @article {6083, title = {Fine-mapping and initial characterization of QT interval loci in African Americans.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e1002870}, abstract = {

The QT interval (QT) is heritable and its prolongation is a risk factor for ventricular tachyarrhythmias and sudden death. Most genetic studies of QT have examined European ancestral populations; however, the increased genetic diversity in African Americans provides opportunities to narrow association signals and identify population-specific variants. We therefore evaluated 6,670 SNPs spanning eleven previously identified QT loci in 8,644 African American participants from two Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) studies: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study and Women{\textquoteright}s Health Initiative Clinical Trial. Of the fifteen known independent QT variants at the eleven previously identified loci, six were significantly associated with QT in African American populations (P<=1.20{\texttimes}10(-4)): ATP1B1, PLN1, KCNQ1, NDRG4, and two NOS1AP independent signals. We also identified three population-specific signals significantly associated with QT in African Americans (P<=1.37{\texttimes}10(-5)): one at NOS1AP and two at ATP1B1. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns in African Americans assisted in narrowing the region likely to contain the functional variants for several loci. For example, African American LD patterns showed that 0 SNPs were in LD with NOS1AP signal rs12143842, compared with European LD patterns that indicated 87 SNPs, which spanned 114.2 Kb, were in LD with rs12143842. Finally, bioinformatic-based characterization of the nine African American signals pointed to functional candidates located exclusively within non-coding regions, including predicted binding sites for transcription factors such as TBX5, which has been implicated in cardiac structure and conductance. In this detailed evaluation of QT loci, we identified several African Americans SNPs that better define the association with QT and successfully narrowed intervals surrounding established loci. These results demonstrate that the same loci influence variation in QT across multiple populations, that novel signals exist in African Americans, and that the SNPs identified as strong candidates for functional evaluation implicate gene regulatory dysfunction in QT prolongation.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Computational Biology, Electrocardiography, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Metagenomics, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Quantitative Trait, Heritable, Risk Factors, Tachycardia, United States}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002870}, author = {Avery, Christy L and Sethupathy, Praveen and Buyske, Steven and He, Qianchuan and Lin, Dan-Yu and Arking, Dan E and Carty, Cara L and Duggan, David and Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Hindorff, Lucia A and Jeff, Janina M and Klein, Liviu and Patton, Kristen K and Peters, Ulrike and Shohet, Ralph V and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Young, Alicia M and Kooperberg, Charles and Haiman, Christopher A and Mohlke, Karen L and Whitsel, Eric A and North, Kari E} } @article {6626, title = {Fine Mapping and Identification of BMI Loci in African Americans.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {93}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Oct 3}, pages = {661-71}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) primarily performed in European-ancestry (EA) populations have identified numerous loci associated with body mass index (BMI). However, it is still unclear whether these GWAS loci can be generalized to other ethnic groups, such as African Americans (AAs). Furthermore, the putative functional variant or variants in these loci mostly remain under investigation. The overall lower linkage disequilibrium in AA compared to EA populations provides the opportunity to narrow in or fine-map these BMI-related loci. Therefore, we used the Metabochip to densely genotype and evaluate 21 BMI GWAS loci identified in EA studies in 29,151 AAs from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study. Eight of the 21 loci (SEC16B, TMEM18, ETV5, GNPDA2, TFAP2B, BDNF, FTO, and MC4R) were found to be associated with BMI in AAs at 5.8~{\texttimes} 10(-5). Within seven out of these eight loci, we found that, on average, a substantially smaller number of variants was correlated (r(2) > 0.5) with the most significant SNP in AA than in EA populations (16 versus 55). Conditional analyses revealed GNPDA2 harboring a potential additional independent signal. Moreover, Metabochip-wide discovery analyses revealed two BMI-related loci, BRE (rs116612809, p = 3.6~{\texttimes} 10(-8)) and DHX34 (rs4802349, p = 1.2~{\texttimes} 10(-7)), which were significant when adjustment was made for the total number of SNPs tested across the chip. These results demonstrate that fine mapping in AAs is a powerful approach for both narrowing in on the underlying causal variants in known loci and discovering BMI-related loci.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Young Adult}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2013.08.012}, author = {Gong, Jian and Schumacher, Fredrick and Lim, Unhee and Hindorff, Lucia A and Haessler, Jeff and Buyske, Steven and Carlson, Christopher S and Rosse, Stephanie and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Fornage, Myriam and Gross, Myron and Pankratz, Nathan and Pankow, James S and Schreiner, Pamela J and Cooper, Richard and Ehret, Georg and Gu, C Charles and Houston, Denise and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jackson, Rebecca and Kuller, Lew and Henderson, Brian and Cheng, Iona and Wilkens, Lynne and Leppert, Mark and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Rongling and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung H and Goodloe, Robert and Farber-Eger, Eric and Boston, Jonathan and Dilks, Holli H and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Fowke, Jay and Pooler, Loreall and Graff, Misa and Fernandez-Rhodes, Lindsay and Cochrane, Barbara and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kooperberg, Charles and Matise, Tara C and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Crawford, Dana C and Haiman, Christopher A and North, Kari E and Peters, Ulrike} } @article {6078, title = {A meta-analysis identifies new loci associated with body mass index in individuals of African ancestry.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jun}, pages = {690-6}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 36 loci associated with body mass index (BMI), predominantly in populations of European ancestry. We conducted a meta-analysis to examine the association of >3.2 million SNPs with BMI in 39,144 men and women of African ancestry and followed up the most significant associations in an additional 32,268 individuals of African ancestry. We identified one new locus at 5q33 (GALNT10, rs7708584, P = 3.4 {\texttimes} 10(-11)) and another at 7p15 when we included data from the GIANT consortium (MIR148A-NFE2L3, rs10261878, P = 1.2 {\texttimes} 10(-10)). We also found suggestive evidence of an association at a third locus at 6q16 in the African-ancestry sample (KLHL32, rs974417, P = 6.9 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Thirty-two of the 36 previously established BMI variants showed directionally consistent effect estimates in our GWAS (binomial P = 9.7 {\texttimes} 10(-7)), five of which reached genome-wide significance. These findings provide strong support for shared BMI loci across populations, as well as for the utility of studying ancestrally diverse populations.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Body Mass Index, Case-Control Studies, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2608}, author = {Monda, Keri L and Chen, Gary K and Taylor, Kira C and Palmer, Cameron and Edwards, Todd L and Lange, Leslie A and Ng, Maggie C Y and Adeyemo, Adebowale A and Allison, Matthew A and Bielak, Lawrence F and Chen, Guanjie and Graff, Mariaelisa and Irvin, Marguerite R and Rhie, Suhn K and Li, Guo and Liu, Yongmei and Liu, Youfang and Lu, Yingchang and Nalls, Michael A and Sun, Yan V and Wojczynski, Mary K and Yanek, Lisa R and Aldrich, Melinda C and Ademola, Adeyinka and Amos, Christopher I and Bandera, Elisa V and Bock, Cathryn H and Britton, Angela and Broeckel, Ulrich and Cai, Quiyin and Caporaso, Neil E and Carlson, Chris S and Carpten, John and Casey, Graham and Chen, Wei-Min and Chen, Fang and Chen, Yii-der I and Chiang, Charleston W K and Coetzee, Gerhard A and Demerath, Ellen and Deming-Halverson, Sandra L and Driver, Ryan W and Dubbert, Patricia and Feitosa, Mary F and Feng, Ye and Freedman, Barry I and Gillanders, Elizabeth M and Gottesman, Omri and Guo, Xiuqing and Haritunians, Talin and Harris, Tamara and Harris, Curtis C and Hennis, Anselm J M and Hernandez, Dena G and McNeill, Lorna H and Howard, Timothy D and Howard, Barbara V and Howard, Virginia J and Johnson, Karen C and Kang, Sun J and Keating, Brendan J and Kolb, Suzanne and Kuller, Lewis H and Kutlar, Abdullah and Langefeld, Carl D and Lettre, Guillaume and Lohman, Kurt and Lotay, Vaneet and Lyon, Helen and Manson, JoAnn E and Maixner, William and Meng, Yan A and Monroe, Kristine R and Morhason-Bello, Imran and Murphy, Adam B and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Nadukuru, Rajiv and Nathanson, Katherine L and Nayak, Uma and N{\textquoteright}diaye, Amidou and Nemesure, Barbara and Wu, Suh-Yuh and Leske, M Cristina and Neslund-Dudas, Christine and Neuhouser, Marian and Nyante, Sarah and Ochs-Balcom, Heather and Ogunniyi, Adesola and Ogundiran, Temidayo O and Ojengbede, Oladosu and Olopade, Olufunmilayo I and Palmer, Julie R and Ruiz-Narvaez, Edward A and Palmer, Nicholette D and Press, Michael F and Rampersaud, Evandine and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Rodriguez-Gil, Jorge L and Salako, Babatunde and Schadt, Eric E and Schwartz, Ann G and Shriner, Daniel A and Siscovick, David and Smith, Shad B and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Spitz, Margaret R and Sucheston, Lara and Taylor, Herman and Tayo, Bamidele O and Tucker, Margaret A and Van Den Berg, David J and Edwards, Digna R Velez and Wang, Zhaoming and Wiencke, John K and Winkler, Thomas W and Witte, John S and Wrensch, Margaret and Wu, Xifeng and Yang, James J and Levin, Albert M and Young, Taylor R and Zakai, Neil A and Cushman, Mary and Zanetti, Krista A and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zhao, Wei and Zheng, Yonglan and Zhou, Jie and Ziegler, Regina G and Zmuda, Joseph M and Fernandes, Jyotika K and Gilkeson, Gary S and Kamen, Diane L and Hunt, Kelly J and Spruill, Ida J and Ambrosone, Christine B and Ambs, Stefan and Arnett, Donna K and Atwood, Larry and Becker, Diane M and Berndt, Sonja I and Bernstein, Leslie and Blot, William J and Borecki, Ingrid B and Bottinger, Erwin P and Bowden, Donald W and Burke, Gregory and Chanock, Stephen J and Cooper, Richard S and Ding, Jingzhong and Duggan, David and Evans, Michele K and Fox, Caroline and Garvey, W Timothy and Bradfield, Jonathan P and Hakonarson, Hakon and Grant, Struan F A and Hsing, Ann and Chu, Lisa and Hu, Jennifer J and Huo, Dezheng and Ingles, Sue A and John, Esther M and Jordan, Joanne M and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kittles, Rick A and Goodman, Phyllis J and Klein, Eric A and Kolonel, Laurence N and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Liu, Simin and McKnight, Barbara and Millikan, Robert C and Mosley, Thomas H and Padhukasahasram, Badri and Williams, L Keoki and Patel, Sanjay R and Peters, Ulrike and Pettaway, Curtis A and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Redline, Susan and Rotimi, Charles N and Rybicki, Benjamin A and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Schreiner, Pamela J and Signorello, Lisa B and Singleton, Andrew B and Stanford, Janet L and Strom, Sara S and Thun, Michael J and Vitolins, Mara and Zheng, Wei and Moore, Jason H and Williams, Scott M and Ketkar, Shamika and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Zonderman, Alan B and Kooperberg, Charles and Papanicolaou, George J and Henderson, Brian E and Reiner, Alex P and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Loos, Ruth J F and North, Kari E and Haiman, Christopher A} } @article {6628, title = {A systematic mapping approach of 16q12.2/FTO and BMI in more than 20,000 African Americans narrows in on the underlying functional variation: results from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e1003171}, abstract = {

Genetic variants in intron 1 of the fat mass- and obesity-associated (FTO) gene have been consistently associated with body mass index (BMI) in Europeans. However, follow-up studies in African Americans (AA) have shown no support for some of the most consistently BMI-associated FTO index single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). This is most likely explained by different race-specific linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns and lower correlation overall in AA, which provides the opportunity to fine-map this region and narrow in on the functional variant. To comprehensively explore the 16q12.2/FTO locus and to search for second independent signals in the broader region, we fine-mapped a 646-kb region, encompassing the large FTO gene and the flanking gene RPGRIP1L by investigating a total of 3,756 variants (1,529 genotyped and 2,227 imputed variants) in 20,488 AAs across five studies. We observed associations between BMI and variants in the known FTO intron 1 locus: the SNP with the most significant p-value, rs56137030 (8.3 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) had not been highlighted in previous studies. While rs56137030was correlated at r(2)>0.5 with 103 SNPs in Europeans (including the GWAS index SNPs), this number was reduced to 28 SNPs in AA. Among rs56137030 and the 28 correlated SNPs, six were located within candidate intronic regulatory elements, including rs1421085, for which we predicted allele-specific binding affinity for the transcription factor CUX1, which has recently been implicated in the regulation of FTO. We did not find strong evidence for a second independent signal in the broader region. In summary, this large fine-mapping study in AA has substantially reduced the number of common alleles that are likely to be functional candidates of the known FTO locus. Importantly our study demonstrated that comprehensive fine-mapping in AA provides a powerful approach to narrow in on the functional candidate(s) underlying the initial GWAS findings in European populations.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Adult, African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alleles, Body Mass Index, Chromosome Mapping, Continental Population Groups, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Metagenomics, Middle Aged, Obesity, Proteins}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003171}, author = {Peters, Ulrike and North, Kari E and Sethupathy, Praveen and Buyske, Steve and Haessler, Jeff and Jiao, Shuo and Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kuller, Lew H and Rajkovic, Aleksandar and Lim, Unhee and Cheng, Iona and Schumacher, Fred and Wilkens, Lynne and Li, Rongling and Monda, Keri and Ehret, Georg and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung H and Cooper, Richard and Lewis, Cora E and Leppert, Mark and Irvin, Marguerite R and Gu, C Charles and Houston, Denise and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Ritchie, Marylyn and Matise, Tara C and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Hindorff, Lucia A and Crawford, Dana C and Haiman, Christopher A and Kooperberg, Charles} } @article {6629, title = {Trans-ethnic fine-mapping of lipid loci identifies population-specific signals and allelic heterogeneity that increases the trait variance explained.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Mar}, pages = {e1003379}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified ~100 loci associated with blood lipid levels, but much of the trait heritability remains unexplained, and at most loci the identities of the trait-influencing variants remain unknown. We conducted a trans-ethnic fine-mapping study at 18, 22, and 18 GWAS loci on the Metabochip for their association with triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), respectively, in individuals of African American (n = 6,832), East Asian (n = 9,449), and European (n = 10,829) ancestry. We aimed to identify the variants with strongest association at each locus, identify additional and population-specific signals, refine association signals, and assess the relative significance of previously described functional variants. Among the 58 loci, 33 exhibited evidence of association at P<1 {\texttimes} 10(-4) in at least one ancestry group. Sequential conditional analyses revealed that ten, nine, and four loci in African Americans, Europeans, and East Asians, respectively, exhibited two or more signals. At these loci, accounting for all signals led to a 1.3- to 1.8-fold increase in the explained phenotypic variance compared to the strongest signals. Distinct signals across ancestry groups were identified at PCSK9 and APOA5. Trans-ethnic analyses narrowed the signals to smaller sets of variants at GCKR, PPP1R3B, ABO, LCAT, and ABCA1. Of 27 variants reported previously to have functional effects, 74\% exhibited the strongest association at the respective signal. In conclusion, trans-ethnic high-density genotyping and analysis confirm the presence of allelic heterogeneity, allow the identification of population-specific variants, and limit the number of candidate SNPs for functional studies.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Apolipoproteins A, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipoproteins, HDL, Lipoproteins, LDL, Proprotein Convertases, Serine Endopeptidases, Triglycerides}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003379}, author = {Wu, Ying and Waite, Lindsay L and Jackson, Anne U and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Buyske, Steven and Absher, Devin and Arnett, Donna K and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Carty, Cara L and Cheng, Iona and Cochran, Barbara and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Dumitrescu, Logan and Eaton, Charles B and Franceschini, Nora and Guo, Xiuqing and Henderson, Brian E and Hindorff, Lucia A and Kim, Eric and Kinnunen, Leena and Komulainen, Pirjo and Lee, Wen-Jane and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Lin, Yi and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Lingaas-Holmen, Oddgeir and Mitchell, Sabrina L and Narisu, Narisu and Robinson, Jennifer G and Schumacher, Fred and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Sundvall, Jouko and Sung, Yun-Ju and Swift, Amy J and Wang, Wen-Chang and Wilkens, Lynne and Wilsgaard, Tom and Young, Alicia M and Adair, Linda S and Ballantyne, Christie M and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Collins, Francis S and Duggan, David and Feranil, Alan B and Ho, Low-Tone and Hung, Yi-Jen and Hunt, Steven C and Hveem, Kristian and Juang, Jyh-Ming J and Kes{\"a}niemi, Antero Y and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lee, I-Te and Leppert, Mark F and Matise, Tara C and Moilanen, Leena and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Peters, Ulrike and Quertermous, Thomas and Rauramaa, Rainer and Rotter, Jerome I and Saramies, Jouko and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uusitupa, Matti and Wang, Tzung-Dau and Boehnke, Michael and Haiman, Christopher A and Chen, Yii-der I and Kooperberg, Charles and Assimes, Themistocles L and Crawford, Dana C and Hsiung, Chao A and North, Kari E and Mohlke, Karen L} } @article {6552, title = {Meta-analysis of loci associated with age at natural menopause in African-American women.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun 15}, pages = {3327-42}, abstract = {

Age at menopause marks the end of a woman{\textquoteright}s reproductive life and its timing associates with risks for cancer, cardiovascular and bone disorders. GWAS and candidate gene studies conducted in women of European ancestry have identified 27 loci associated with age at menopause. The relevance of these loci to women of African ancestry has not been previously studied. We therefore sought to uncover additional menopause loci and investigate the relevance of European menopause loci by performing a GWAS meta-analysis in 6510 women with African ancestry derived from 11 studies across the USA. We did not identify any additional loci significantly associated with age at menopause in African Americans. We replicated the associations between six loci and age at menopause (P-value < 0.05): AMHR2, RHBLD2, PRIM1, HK3/UMC1, BRSK1/TMEM150B and MCM8. In addition, associations of 14 loci are directionally consistent with previous reports. We provide evidence that genetic variants influencing reproductive traits identified in European populations are also important in women of African ancestry residing in USA.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Age Factors, Chromosomes, Human, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Menopause, United States}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddu041}, author = {Chen, Christina T L and Liu, Ching-Ti and Chen, Gary K and Andrews, Jeanette S and Arnold, Alice M and Dreyfus, Jill and Franceschini, Nora and Garcia, Melissa E and Kerr, Kathleen F and Li, Guo and Lohman, Kurt K and Musani, Solomon K and Nalls, Michael A and Raffel, Leslie J and Smith, Jennifer and Ambrosone, Christine B and Bandera, Elisa V and Bernstein, Leslie and Britton, Angela and Brzyski, Robert G and Cappola, Anne and Carlson, Christopher S and Couper, David and Deming, Sandra L and Goodarzi, Mark O and Heiss, Gerardo and John, Esther M and Lu, Xiaoning and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Marciante, Kristin and McKnight, Barbara and Millikan, Robert and Nock, Nora L and Olshan, Andrew F and Press, Michael F and Vaiyda, Dhananjay and Woods, Nancy F and Taylor, Herman A and Zhao, Wei and Zheng, Wei and Evans, Michele K and Harris, Tamara B and Henderson, Brian E and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kooperberg, Charles and Liu, Yongmei and Mosley, Thomas H and Psaty, Bruce and Wellons, Melissa and Windham, Beverly G and Zonderman, Alan B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Demerath, Ellen W and Haiman, Christopher and Murabito, Joanne M and Rajkovic, Aleksandar} } @article {6573, title = {Trans-ethnic meta-analysis of white blood cell phenotypes.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Dec 20}, pages = {6944-60}, abstract = {

White blood cell (WBC) count is a common clinical measure used as a predictor of certain aspects of human health, including immunity and infection status. WBC count is also a complex trait that varies among individuals and ancestry groups. Differences in linkage disequilibrium structure and heterogeneity in allelic effects are expected to play a role in the associations observed between populations. Prior genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses have identified genomic loci associated with WBC and its subtypes, but much of the heritability of these phenotypes remains unexplained. Using GWAS summary statistics for over 50 000 individuals from three diverse populations (Japanese, African-American and European ancestry), a Bayesian model methodology was employed to account for heterogeneity between ancestry groups. This approach was used to perform a trans-ethnic meta-analysis of total WBC, neutrophil and monocyte counts. Ten previously known associations were replicated and six new loci were identified, including several regions harboring genes related to inflammation and immune cell function. Ninety-five percent credible interval regions were calculated to narrow the association signals and fine-map the putatively causal variants within loci. Finally, a conditional analysis was performed on the most significant SNPs identified by the trans-ethnic meta-analysis (MA), and nine secondary signals within loci previously associated with WBC or its subtypes were identified. This work illustrates the potential of trans-ethnic analysis and ascribes a critical role to multi-ethnic cohorts and consortia in exploring complex phenotypes with respect to variants that lie outside the European-biased GWAS pool.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Bayes Theorem, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Leukocyte Count, Leukocytes, Linkage Disequilibrium, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddu401}, author = {Keller, Margaux F and Reiner, Alexander P and Okada, Yukinori and van Rooij, Frank J A and Johnson, Andrew D and Chen, Ming-Huei and Smith, Albert V and Morris, Andrew P and Tanaka, Toshiko and Ferrucci, Luigi and Zonderman, Alan B and Lettre, Guillaume and Harris, Tamara and Garcia, Melissa and Bandinelli, Stefania and Qayyum, Rehan and Yanek, Lisa R and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Kooperberg, Charles and Keating, Brendan and Reis, Jared and Tang, Hua and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Matsuda, Koichi and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Nakamura, Yusuke and Kubo, Michiaki and Liu, Simin and Dehghan, Abbas and Felix, Janine F and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Franco, Oscar H and Longo, Dan L and Singleton, Andrew B and Psaty, Bruce M and Evans, Michelle K and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rotter, Jerome I and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Takahashi, Atsushi and Wilson, James G and Ganesh, Santhi K and Nalls, Mike A} } @article {6597, title = {Association of exome sequences with plasma C-reactive protein levels in >9000 participants.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {24}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan 15}, pages = {559-71}, abstract = {

C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration is a heritable systemic marker of inflammation that is associated with cardiovascular disease risk. Genome-wide association studies have identified CRP-associated common variants associated in \~{}25 genes. Our aims were to apply exome sequencing to (1) assess whether the candidate loci contain rare coding variants associated with CRP levels and (2) perform an exome-wide search for rare variants in novel genes associated with CRP levels. We exome-sequenced 6050 European-Americans (EAs) and 3109 African-Americans (AAs) from the NHLBI-ESP and the CHARGE consortia, and performed association tests of sequence data with measured CRP levels. In single-variant tests across candidate loci, a novel rare (minor allele frequency = 0.16\%) CRP-coding variant (rs77832441-A; p.Thr59Met) was associated with 53\% lower mean CRP levels (P = 2.9 {\texttimes} 10(-6)). We replicated the association of rs77832441 in an exome array analysis of 11 414 EAs (P = 3.0 {\texttimes} 10(-15)). Despite a strong effect on CRP levels, rs77832441 was not associated with inflammation-related phenotypes including coronary heart disease. We also found evidence for an AA-specific association of APOE-ε2 rs7214 with higher CRP levels. At the exome-wide significance level (P < 5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-8)), we confirmed associations for reported common variants of HNF1A, CRP, IL6R and TOMM40-APOE. In gene-based tests, a burden of rare/lower frequency variation in CRP in EAs (P <= 6.8 {\texttimes} 10(-4)) and in retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor α (RORA) in AAs (P = 1.7 {\texttimes} 10(-3)) were associated with CRP levels at the candidate gene level (P < 2.0 {\texttimes} 10(-3)). This inquiry did not elucidate novel genes, but instead demonstrated that variants distributed across the allele frequency spectrum within candidate genes contribute to CRP levels.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 1-alpha, Humans, Male, Plasma, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Interleukin-6, Risk Factors}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddu450}, author = {Schick, Ursula M and Auer, Paul L and Bis, Joshua C and Lin, Honghuang and Wei, Peng and Pankratz, Nathan and Lange, Leslie A and Brody, Jennifer and Stitziel, Nathan O and Kim, Daniel S and Carlson, Christopher S and Fornage, Myriam and Haessler, Jeffery and Hsu, Li and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kooperberg, Charles and Leal, Suzanne M and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Tracy, Russell and Ardissino, Diego and Shah, Svati and Willer, Cristen and Loos, Ruth and Melander, Olle and McPherson, Ruth and Hovingh, Kees and Reilly, Muredach and Watkins, Hugh and Girelli, Domenico and Fontanillas, Pierre and Chasman, Daniel I and Gabriel, Stacey B and Gibbs, Richard and Nickerson, Deborah A and Kathiresan, Sekar and Peters, Ulrike and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and Morrison, Alanna C and Benjamin, Emelia J and Gross, Myron D and Reiner, Alex P} } @article {6812, title = {Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies Identifies Genetic Risk Factors for Stroke in African Americans.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {46}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Aug}, pages = {2063-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The majority of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of stroke have focused on European-ancestry populations; however, none has been conducted in African Americans, despite the disproportionately high burden of stroke in this population. The Consortium of Minority Population Genome-Wide Association Studies of Stroke (COMPASS) was established to identify stroke susceptibility loci in minority populations.

METHODS: Using METAL, we conducted meta-analyses of GWAS in 14 746 African Americans (1365 ischemic and 1592 total stroke cases) from COMPASS, and tested genetic variants with P<10(-6) for validation in METASTROKE, a consortium of ischemic stroke genetic studies in European-ancestry populations. We also evaluated stroke loci previously identified in European-ancestry populations.

RESULTS: The 15q21.3 locus linked with lipid levels and hypertension was associated with total stroke (rs4471613; P=3.9{\texttimes}10(-8)) in African Americans. Nominal associations (P<10(-6)) for total or ischemic stroke were observed for 18 variants in or near genes implicated in cell cycle/mRNA presplicing (PTPRG, CDC5L), platelet function (HPS4), blood-brain barrier permeability (CLDN17), immune response (ELTD1, WDFY4, and IL1F10-IL1RN), and histone modification (HDAC9). Two of these loci achieved nominal significance in METASTROKE: 5q35.2 (P=0.03), and 1p31.1 (P=0.018). Four of 7 previously reported ischemic stroke loci (PITX2, HDAC9, CDKN2A/CDKN2B, and ZFHX3) were nominally associated (P<0.05) with stroke in COMPASS.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified a novel genetic variant associated with total stroke in African Americans and found that ischemic stroke loci identified in European-ancestry populations may also be relevant for African Americans. Our findings support investigation of diverse populations to identify and characterize genetic risk factors, and the importance of shared genetic risk across populations.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.115.009044}, author = {Carty, Cara L and Keene, Keith L and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Meschia, James F and Chen, Wei-Min and Nalls, Mike and Bis, Joshua C and Kittner, Steven J and Rich, Stephen S and Tajuddin, Salman and Zonderman, Alan B and Evans, Michele K and Langefeld, Carl D and Gottesman, Rebecca and Mosley, Thomas H and Shahar, Eyal and Woo, Daniel and Yaffe, Kristine and Liu, Yongmei and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Dichgans, Martin and Malik, Rainer and Longstreth, W T and Mitchell, Braxton D and Psaty, Bruce M and Kooperberg, Charles and Reiner, Alexander and Worrall, Bradford B and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {7572, title = {Single-trait and multi-trait genome-wide association analyses identify novel loci for blood pressure in African-ancestry populations.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {13}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May}, pages = {e1006728}, abstract = {

Hypertension is a leading cause of global disease, mortality, and disability. While individuals of African descent suffer a disproportionate burden of hypertension and its complications, they have been underrepresented in genetic studies. To identify novel susceptibility loci for blood pressure and hypertension in people of African ancestry, we performed both single and multiple-trait genome-wide association analyses. We analyzed 21 genome-wide association studies comprised of 31,968 individuals of African ancestry, and validated our results with additional 54,395 individuals from multi-ethnic studies. These analyses identified nine loci with eleven independent variants which reached genome-wide significance (P < 1.25{\texttimes}10-8) for either systolic and diastolic blood pressure, hypertension, or for combined traits. Single-trait analyses identified two loci (TARID/TCF21 and LLPH/TMBIM4) and multiple-trait analyses identified one novel locus (FRMD3) for blood pressure. At these three loci, as well as at GRP20/CDH17, associated variants had alleles common only in African-ancestry populations. Functional annotation showed enrichment for genes expressed in immune and kidney cells, as well as in heart and vascular cells/tissues. Experiments driven by these findings and using angiotensin-II induced hypertension in mice showed altered kidney mRNA expression of six genes, suggesting their potential role in hypertension. Our study provides new evidence for genes related to hypertension susceptibility, and the need to study African-ancestry populations in order to identify biologic factors contributing to hypertension.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Animals, Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors, Blood Pressure, Cadherins, Case-Control Studies, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Membrane Proteins, Mice, Multifactorial Inheritance, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1006728}, author = {Liang, Jingjing and Le, Thu H and Edwards, Digna R Velez and Tayo, Bamidele O and Gaulton, Kyle J and Smith, Jennifer A and Lu, Yingchang and Jensen, Richard A and Chen, Guanjie and Yanek, Lisa R and Schwander, Karen and Tajuddin, Salman M and Sofer, Tamar and Kim, Wonji and Kayima, James and McKenzie, Colin A and Fox, Ervin and Nalls, Michael A and Young, J Hunter and Sun, Yan V and Lane, Jacqueline M and Cechova, Sylvia and Zhou, Jie and Tang, Hua and Fornage, Myriam and Musani, Solomon K and Wang, Heming and Lee, Juyoung and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Dreisbach, Albert W and Forrester, Terrence and Chu, Pei-Lun and Cappola, Anne and Evans, Michele K and Morrison, Alanna C and Martin, Lisa W and Wiggins, Kerri L and Hui, Qin and Zhao, Wei and Jackson, Rebecca D and Ware, Erin B and Faul, Jessica D and Reiner, Alex P and Bray, Michael and Denny, Joshua C and Mosley, Thomas H and Palmas, Walter and Guo, Xiuqing and Papanicolaou, George J and Penman, Alan D and Polak, Joseph F and Rice, Kenneth and Taylor, Ken D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Liu, Kiang and Risch, Neil and Hunt, Steven C and Kooperberg, Charles and Zonderman, Alan B and Laurie, Cathy C and Becker, Diane M and Cai, Jianwen and Loos, Ruth J F and Psaty, Bruce M and Weir, David R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Arnett, Donna K and Won, Sungho and Edwards, Todd L and Redline, Susan and Cooper, Richard S and Rao, D C and Rotter, Jerome I and Rotimi, Charles and Levy, Daniel and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Franceschini, Nora} }