@article {1179, title = {A meta-analysis of four genome-wide association studies of survival to age 90 years or older: the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {65}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May}, pages = {478-87}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) may yield insights into longevity.

METHODS: We performed a meta-analysis of GWAS in Caucasians from four prospective cohort studies: the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Framingham Heart Study, and the Rotterdam Study participating in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. Longevity was defined as survival to age 90 years or older (n = 1,836); the comparison group comprised cohort members who died between the ages of 55 and 80 years (n = 1,955). In a second discovery stage, additional genotyping was conducted in the Leiden Longevity Study cohort and the Danish 1905 cohort.

RESULTS: There were 273 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations with p < .0001, but none reached the prespecified significance level of 5 x 10(-8). Of the most significant SNPs, 24 were independent signals, and 16 of these SNPs were successfully genotyped in the second discovery stage, with one association for rs9664222, reaching 6.77 x 10(-7) for the combined meta-analysis of CHARGE and the stage 2 cohorts. The SNP lies in a region near MINPP1 (chromosome 10), a well-conserved gene involved in regulation of cellular proliferation. The minor allele was associated with lower odds of survival past age 90 (odds ratio = 0.82). Associations of interest in a homologue of the longevity assurance gene (LASS3) and PAPPA2 were not strengthened in the second stage.

CONCLUSION: Survival studies of larger size or more extreme or specific phenotypes may support or refine these initial findings.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alleles, Cohort Studies, Confidence Intervals, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Longevity, Male, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glq028}, author = {Newman, Anne B and Walter, Stefan and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Garcia, Melissa E and Slagboom, P Eline and Christensen, Kaare and Arnold, Alice M and Aspelund, Thor and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Benjamin, Emelia J and Christiansen, Lene and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, Ralph B and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Franceschini, Nora and Glazer, Nicole L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hofman, Albert and Kaplan, Robert and Karasik, David and Kelly-Hayes, Margaret and Kiel, Douglas P and Launer, Lenore J and Marciante, Kristin D and Massaro, Joseph M and Miljkovic, Iva and Nalls, Michael A and Hernandez, Dena and Psaty, Bruce M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome and Seshadri, Sudha and Smith, Albert V and Taylor, Kent D and Tiemeier, Henning and Uh, Hae-Won and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaupel, James W and Walston, Jeremy and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Harris, Tamara B and Lumley, Thomas and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Murabito, Joanne M} } @article {1307, title = {A genome-wide association study of aging.}, journal = {Neurobiol Aging}, volume = {32}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Nov}, pages = {2109.e15-28}, abstract = {

Human longevity and healthy aging show moderate heritability (20\%-50\%). We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from 9 studies from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium for 2 outcomes: (1) all-cause mortality, and (2) survival free of major disease or death. No single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was a genome-wide significant predictor of either outcome (p < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). We found 14 independent SNPs that predicted risk of death, and 8 SNPs that predicted event-free survival (p < 10(-5)). These SNPs are in or near genes that are highly expressed in the brain (HECW2, HIP1, BIN2, GRIA1), genes involved in neural development and function (KCNQ4, LMO4, GRIA1, NETO1) and autophagy (ATG4C), and genes that are associated with risk of various diseases including cancer and Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease. In addition to considerable overlap between the traits, pathway and network analysis corroborated these findings. These findings indicate that variation in genes involved in neurological processes may be an important factor in regulating aging free of major disease and achieving longevity.

}, keywords = {Aging, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Longevity}, issn = {1558-1497}, doi = {10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2011.05.026}, author = {Walter, Stefan and Atzmon, Gil and Demerath, Ellen W and Garcia, Melissa E and Kaplan, Robert C and Kumari, Meena and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Milaneschi, Yuri and Tanaka, Toshiko and Tranah, Gregory J and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Yu, Lei and Arnold, Alice and Benjamin, Emelia J and Biffar, Reiner and Buchman, Aron S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Couper, David and De Jager, Philip L and Evans, Denis A and Harris, Tamara B and Hoffmann, Wolfgang and Hofman, Albert and Karasik, David and Kiel, Douglas P and Kocher, Thomas and Kuningas, Maris and Launer, Lenore J and Lohman, Kurt K and Lutsey, Pamela L and Mackenbach, Johan and Marciante, Kristin and Psaty, Bruce M and Reiman, Eric M and Rotter, Jerome I and Seshadri, Sudha and Shardell, Michelle D and Smith, Albert V and van Duijn, Cornelia and Walston, Jeremy and Zillikens, M Carola and Bandinelli, Stefania and Baumeister, Sebastian E and Bennett, David A and Ferrucci, Luigi and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Kivimaki, Mika and Liu, Yongmei and Murabito, Joanne M and Newman, Anne B and Tiemeier, Henning and Franceschini, Nora} } @article {1359, title = {Association between chromosome 9p21 variants and the ankle-brachial index identified by a meta-analysis of 21 genome-wide association studies.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {5}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Feb 01}, pages = {100-12}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genetic determinants of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) remain largely unknown. To identify genetic variants associated with the ankle-brachial index (ABI), a noninvasive measure of PAD, we conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association study data from 21 population-based cohorts.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Continuous ABI and PAD (ABI <=0.9) phenotypes adjusted for age and sex were examined. Each study conducted genotyping and imputed data to the ≈2.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in HapMap. Linear and logistic regression models were used to test each SNP for association with ABI and PAD using additive genetic models. Study-specific data were combined using fixed effects inverse variance weighted meta-analyses. There were a total of 41 692 participants of European ancestry (≈60\% women, mean ABI 1.02 to 1.19), including 3409 participants with PAD and with genome-wide association study data available. In the discovery meta-analysis, rs10757269 on chromosome 9 near CDKN2B had the strongest association with ABI (β=-0.006, P=2.46{\texttimes}10(-8)). We sought replication of the 6 strongest SNP associations in 5 population-based studies and 3 clinical samples (n=16 717). The association for rs10757269 strengthened in the combined discovery and replication analysis (P=2.65{\texttimes}10(-9)). No other SNP associations for ABI or PAD achieved genome-wide significance. However, 2 previously reported candidate genes for PAD and 1 SNP associated with coronary artery disease were associated with ABI: DAB21P (rs13290547, P=3.6{\texttimes}10(-5)), CYBA (rs3794624, P=6.3{\texttimes}10(-5)), and rs1122608 (LDLR, P=0.0026).

CONCLUSIONS: Genome-wide association studies in more than 40 000 individuals identified 1 genome wide significant association on chromosome 9p21 with ABI. Two candidate genes for PAD and 1 SNP for coronary artery disease are associated with ABI.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alleles, Ankle Brachial Index, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 9, Cohort Studies, Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p15, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, HapMap Project, Humans, Logistic Models, Male, Middle Aged, Peripheral Vascular Diseases, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Sex Factors}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.111.961292}, author = {Murabito, Joanne M and White, Charles C and Kavousi, Maryam and Sun, Yan V and Feitosa, Mary F and Nambi, Vijay and Lamina, Claudia and Schillert, Arne and Coassin, Stefan and Bis, Joshua C and Broer, Linda and Crawford, Dana C and Franceschini, Nora and Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth and Haun, Margot and Holewijn, Suzanne and Huffman, Jennifer E and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Kiechl, Stefan and Kollerits, Barbara and Montasser, May E and Nolte, Ilja M and Rudock, Megan E and Senft, Andrea and Teumer, Alexander and van der Harst, Pim and Vitart, Veronique and Waite, Lindsay L and Wood, Andrew R and Wassel, Christina L and Absher, Devin M and Allison, Matthew A and Amin, Najaf and Arnold, Alice and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Aulchenko, Yurii and Bandinelli, Stefania and Barbalic, Maja and Boban, Mladen and Brown-Gentry, Kristin and Couper, David J and Criqui, Michael H and Dehghan, Abbas and den Heijer, Martin and Dieplinger, Benjamin and Ding, Jingzhong and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Espinola-Klein, Christine and Felix, Stephan B and Ferrucci, Luigi and Folsom, Aaron R and Fraedrich, Gustav and Gibson, Quince and Goodloe, Robert and Gunjaca, Grgo and Haltmayer, Meinhard and Heiss, Gerardo and Hofman, Albert and Kieback, Arne and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Kolcic, Ivana and Kullo, Iftikhar J and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Lackner, Karl J and Li, Xiaohui and Lieb, Wolfgang and Lohman, Kurt and Meisinger, Christa and Melzer, David and Mohler, Emile R and Mudnic, Ivana and Mueller, Thomas and Navis, Gerjan and Oberhollenzer, Friedrich and Olin, Jeffrey W and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Palmas, Walter and Penninx, Brenda W and Petersmann, Astrid and Polasek, Ozren and Psaty, Bruce M and Rantner, Barbara and Rice, Ken and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Seldenrijk, Adrie and Stadler, Marietta and Summerer, Monika and Tanaka, Toshiko and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Gilst, Wiek H and Vermeulen, Sita H and Wild, Sarah H and Wild, Philipp S and Willeit, Johann and Zeller, Tanja and Zemunik, Tatijana and Zgaga, Lina and Assimes, Themistocles L and Blankenberg, Stefan and Boerwinkle, Eric and Campbell, Harry and Cooke, John P and de Graaf, Jacqueline and Herrington, David and Kardia, Sharon L R and Mitchell, Braxton D and Murray, Anna and M{\"u}nzel, Thomas and Newman, Anne B and Oostra, Ben A and Rudan, Igor and Shuldiner, Alan R and Snieder, Harold and van Duijn, Cornelia M and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wright, Alan F and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wilson, James F and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Liu, Yongmei and Hayward, Caroline and Borecki, Ingrid B and Ziegler, Andreas and North, Kari E and Cupples, L Adrienne and Kronenberg, Florian} } @article {5864, title = {Genetic determinants of the ankle-brachial index: a meta-analysis of a cardiovascular candidate gene 50K SNP panel in the candidate gene association resource (CARe) consortium.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {222}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 May}, pages = {138-47}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Candidate gene association studies for peripheral artery disease (PAD), including subclinical disease assessed with the ankle-brachial index (ABI), have been limited by the modest number of genes examined. We conducted a two stage meta-analysis of \~{}50,000 SNPs across \~{}2100 candidate genes to identify genetic variants for ABI.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied subjects of European ancestry from 8 studies (n=21,547, 55\% women, mean age 44-73 years) and African American ancestry from 5 studies (n=7267, 60\% women, mean age 41-73 years) involved in the candidate gene association resource (CARe) consortium. In each ethnic group, additive genetic models were used (with each additional copy of the minor allele corresponding to the given beta) to test each SNP for association with continuous ABI (excluding ABI>1.40) and PAD (defined as ABI<0.90) using linear or logistic regression with adjustment for known PAD risk factors and population stratification. We then conducted a fixed-effects inverse-variance weighted meta-analyses considering a p<2{\texttimes}10(-6) to denote statistical significance.

RESULTS: In the European ancestry discovery meta-analyses, rs2171209 in SYTL3 (β=-0.007, p=6.02{\texttimes}10(-7)) and rs290481 in TCF7L2 (β=-0.008, p=7.01{\texttimes}10(-7)) were significantly associated with ABI. None of the SNP associations for PAD were significant, though a SNP in CYP2B6 (p=4.99{\texttimes}10(-5)) was among the strongest associations. These 3 genes are linked to key PAD risk factors (lipoprotein(a), type 2 diabetes, and smoking behavior, respectively). We sought replication in 6 population-based and 3 clinical samples (n=15,440) for rs290481 and rs2171209. However, in the replication stage (rs2171209, p=0.75; rs290481, p=0.19) and in the combined discovery and replication analysis the SNP-ABI associations were no longer significant (rs2171209, p=1.14{\texttimes}10(-3); rs290481, p=8.88{\texttimes}10(-5)). In African Americans, none of the SNP associations for ABI or PAD achieved an experiment-wide level of significance.

CONCLUSIONS: Genetic determinants of ABI and PAD remain elusive. Follow-up of these preliminary findings may uncover important biology given the known gene-risk factor associations. New and more powerful approaches to PAD gene discovery are warranted.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Ankle Brachial Index, Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases, Cytochrome P-450 CYP2B6, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Oxidoreductases, N-Demethylating, Peripheral Arterial Disease, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 Protein}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2012.01.039}, author = {Wassel, Christina L and Lamina, Claudia and Nambi, Vijay and Coassin, Stefan and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Ganesh, Santhi K and Jacobs, David R and Franceschini, Nora and Papanicolaou, George J and Gibson, Quince and Yanek, Lisa R and van der Harst, Pim and Ferguson, Jane F and Crawford, Dana C and Waite, Lindsay L and Allison, Matthew A and Criqui, Michael H and McDermott, Mary M and Mehra, Reena and Cupples, L Adrienne and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Redline, Susan and Kaplan, Robert C and Heiss, Gerardo and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and Taylor, Herman A and Eraso, Luis H and Haun, Margot and Li, Mingyao and Meisinger, Christa and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Shuldiner, Alan R and Tybj{\ae}rg-Hansen, Anne and Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth and Kollerits, Barbara and Rantner, Barbara and Dieplinger, Benjamin and Stadler, Marietta and Mueller, Thomas and Haltmayer, Meinhard and Klein-Weigel, Peter and Summerer, Monika and Wichmann, H-Erich and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Navis, Gerjan and Mateo Leach, Irene and Brown-Gentry, Kristin and Goodloe, Robert and Assimes, Themistocles L and Becker, Diane M and Cooke, John P and Absher, Devin M and Olin, Jeffrey W and Mitchell, Braxton D and Reilly, Muredach P and Mohler, Emile R and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alexander P and Kronenberg, Florian and Murabito, Joanne M} } @article {1360, title = {Meta-analyses identify 13 loci associated with age at menopause and highlight DNA repair and immune pathways.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {44}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Jan 22}, pages = {260-8}, abstract = {

To newly identify loci for age at natural menopause, we carried out a meta-analysis of 22 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in 38,968 women of European descent, with replication in up to 14,435 women. In addition to four known loci, we identified 13 loci newly associated with age at natural menopause (at P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Candidate genes located at these newly associated loci include genes implicated in DNA repair (EXO1, HELQ, UIMC1, FAM175A, FANCI, TLK1, POLG and PRIM1) and immune function (IL11, NLRP11 and PRRC2A (also known as BAT2)). Gene-set enrichment pathway analyses using the full GWAS data set identified exoDNase, NF-κB signaling and mitochondrial dysfunction as biological processes related to timing of menopause.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, DNA Helicases, DNA Polymerase gamma, DNA Primase, DNA Repair, DNA Repair Enzymes, DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exodeoxyribonucleases, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Immunity, Menopause, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.1051}, author = {Stolk, Lisette and Perry, John R B and Chasman, Daniel I and He, Chunyan and Mangino, Massimo and Sulem, Patrick and Barbalic, Maja and Broer, Linda and Byrne, Enda M and Ernst, Florian and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Franceschini, Nora and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Kraft, Peter and McArdle, Patrick F and Porcu, Eleonora and Shin, So-Youn and Smith, Albert V and van Wingerden, Sophie and Zhai, Guangju and Zhuang, Wei V and Albrecht, Eva and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Aspelund, Thor and Bandinelli, Stefania and Lauc, Lovorka Barac and Beckmann, Jacques S and Boban, Mladen and Boerwinkle, Eric and Broekmans, Frank J and Burri, Andrea and Campbell, Harry and Chanock, Stephen J and Chen, Constance and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Corre, Tanguy and Coviello, Andrea D and D{\textquoteright}Adamo, Pio and Davies, Gail and de Faire, Ulf and de Geus, Eco J C and Deary, Ian J and Dedoussis, George V Z and Deloukas, Panagiotis and Ebrahim, Shah and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Emilsson, Valur and Eriksson, Johan G and Fauser, Bart C J M and Ferreli, Liana and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fischer, Krista and Folsom, Aaron R and Garcia, Melissa E and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Glazer, Nicole and Grobbee, Diederick E and Hall, Per and Haller, Toomas and Hankinson, Susan E and Hass, Merli and Hayward, Caroline and Heath, Andrew C and Hofman, Albert and Ingelsson, Erik and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Johnson, Andrew D and Karasik, David and Kardia, Sharon L R and Keyzer, Jules and Kiel, Douglas P and Kolcic, Ivana and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lahti, Jari and Lai, Sandra and Laisk, Triin and Laven, Joop S E and Lawlor, Debbie A and Liu, Jianjun and Lopez, Lorna M and Louwers, Yvonne V and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Marongiu, Mara and Martin, Nicholas G and Klaric, Irena Martinovic and Masciullo, Corrado and McKnight, Barbara and Medland, Sarah E and Melzer, David and Mooser, Vincent and Navarro, Pau and Newman, Anne B and Nyholt, Dale R and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Palotie, Aarno and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peeters, Petra H M and Pistis, Giorgio and Plump, Andrew S and Polasek, Ozren and Pop, Victor J M and Psaty, Bruce M and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Rehnberg, Emil and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Sala, Cinzia and Salumets, Andres and Scuteri, Angelo and Singleton, Andrew and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Soranzo, Nicole and Stacey, Simon N and Starr, John M and Stathopoulou, Maria G and Stirrups, Kathleen and Stolk, Ronald P and Styrkarsdottir, Unnur and Sun, Yan V and Tenesa, Albert and Thorand, Barbara and Toniolo, Daniela and Tryggvadottir, Laufey and Tsui, Kim and Ulivi, Sheila and van Dam, Rob M and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and van Gils, Carla H and van Nierop, Peter and Vink, Jacqueline M and Visscher, Peter M and Voorhuis, Marlies and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wallaschofski, Henri and Wichmann, H Erich and Widen, Elisabeth and Wijnands-van Gent, Colette J M and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, James F and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Wright, Alan F and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Zemunik, Tatijana and Zgaga, Lina and Zillikens, M Carola and Zygmunt, Marek and Arnold, Alice M and Boomsma, Dorret I and Buring, Julie E and Crisponi, Laura and Demerath, Ellen W and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Hu, Frank B and Hunter, David J and Launer, Lenore J and Metspalu, Andres and Montgomery, Grant W and Oostra, Ben A and Ridker, Paul M and Sanna, Serena and Schlessinger, David and Spector, Tim D and Stefansson, Kari and Streeten, Elizabeth A and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Uda, Manuela and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Murray, Anna and Murabito, Joanne M and Visser, Jenny A and Lunetta, Kathryn L} } @article {1544, title = {Ultraconserved elements in the human genome: association and transmission analyses of highly constrained single-nucleotide polymorphisms.}, journal = {Genetics}, volume = {192}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Sep}, pages = {253-66}, abstract = {

Ultraconserved elements in the human genome likely harbor important biological functions as they are dosage sensitive and are able to direct tissue-specific expression. Because they are under purifying selection, variants in these elements may have a lower frequency in the population but a higher likelihood of association with complex traits. We tested a set of highly constrained SNPs (hcSNPs) distributed genome-wide among ultraconserved and nearly ultraconserved elements for association with seven traits related to reproductive (age at natural menopause, number of children, age at first child, and age at last child) and overall [longevity, body mass index (BMI), and height] fitness. Using up to 24,047 European-American samples from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe), we observed an excess of associations with BMI and height. In an independent replication panel the most strongly associated SNPs showed an 8.4-fold enrichment of associations at the nominal level, including three variants in previously identified loci and one in a locus (DENND1A) previously shown to be associated with polycystic ovary syndrome. Finally, using 1430 family trios, we showed that the transmissions from heterozygous parents to offspring of the derived alleles of rare (frequency <= 0.5\%) hcSNPs are not biased, particularly after adjusting for the rates of genotype missingness and error in the data. The lack of transmission bias ruled out an immediately and strongly deleterious effect due to the rare derived alleles, consistent with the observation that mice homozygous for the deletion of ultraconserved elements showed no overt phenotype. Our study also illustrated the importance of carefully modeling potential technical confounders when analyzing genotype data of rare variants.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Animals, Body Height, Body Mass Index, Child, Conserved Sequence, Dogs, Evolution, Molecular, Female, Genetic Fitness, Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Genotype, Humans, Inheritance Patterns, Male, Mice, Pedigree, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Rats, Reproduction, Young Adult}, issn = {1943-2631}, doi = {10.1534/genetics.112.141945}, author = {Chiang, Charleston W K and Liu, Ching-Ti and Lettre, Guillaume and Lange, Leslie A and Jorgensen, Neal W and Keating, Brendan J and Vedantam, Sailaja and Nock, Nora L and Franceschini, Nora and Reiner, Alex P and Demerath, Ellen W and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and North, Kari E and Papanicolaou, George J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Murabito, Joanne M and Hirschhorn, Joel N} } @article {6153, title = {A genome-wide association study of early menopause and the combined impact of identified variants.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {22}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Apr 01}, pages = {1465-72}, abstract = {

Early menopause (EM) affects up to 10\% of the female population, reducing reproductive lifespan considerably. Currently, it constitutes the leading cause of infertility in the western world, affecting mainly those women who postpone their first pregnancy beyond the age of 30 years. The genetic aetiology of EM is largely unknown in the majority of cases. We have undertaken a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in 3493 EM cases and 13 598 controls from 10 independent studies. No novel genetic variants were discovered, but the 17 variants previously associated with normal age at natural menopause as a quantitative trait (QT) were also associated with EM and primary ovarian insufficiency (POI). Thus, EM has a genetic aetiology which overlaps variation in normal age at menopause and is at least partly explained by the additive effects of the same polygenic variants. The combined effect of the common variants captured by the single nucleotide polymorphism arrays was estimated to account for \~{}30\% of the variance in EM. The association between the combined 17 variants and the risk of EM was greater than the best validated non-genetic risk factor, smoking.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Female, Gene Frequency, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Menopause, Premature, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Primary Ovarian Insufficiency, Quantitative Trait Loci, Risk}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/dds551}, author = {Perry, John R B and Corre, Tanguy and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Chasman, Daniel I and Fischer, Krista and Franceschini, Nora and He, Chunyan and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Mangino, Massimo and Rose, Lynda M and Vernon Smith, Albert and Stolk, Lisette and Sulem, Patrick and Weedon, Michael N and Zhuang, Wei V and Arnold, Alice and Ashworth, Alan and Bergmann, Sven and Buring, Julie E and Burri, Andrea and Chen, Constance and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Couper, David J and Goodarzi, Mark O and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara and Hofman, Albert and Jones, Michael and Kraft, Peter and Launer, Lenore and Laven, Joop S E and Li, Guo and McKnight, Barbara and Masciullo, Corrado and Milani, Lili and Orr, Nicholas and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sala, Cinzia and Salumets, Andres and Schoemaker, Minouk and Traglia, Michela and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Chanock, Stephen J and Demerath, Ellen W and Garcia, Melissa and Hankinson, Susan E and Hu, Frank B and Hunter, David J and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Metspalu, Andres and Montgomery, Grant W and Murabito, Joanne M and Newman, Anne B and Ong, Ken K and Spector, Tim D and Stefansson, Kari and Swerdlow, Anthony J and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and van Dam, Rob M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Visser, Jenny A and Vollenweider, Peter and Toniolo, Daniela and Murray, Anna} } @article {6690, title = {Genetic diversity is a predictor of mortality in humans.}, journal = {BMC Genet}, volume = {15}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {159}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: It has been well-established, both by population genetics theory and direct observation in many organisms, that increased genetic diversity provides a survival advantage. However, given the limitations of both sample size and genome-wide metrics, this hypothesis has not been comprehensively tested in human populations. Moreover, the presence of numerous segregating small effect alleles that influence traits that directly impact health directly raises the question as to whether global measures of genomic variation are themselves associated with human health and disease.

RESULTS: We performed a meta-analysis of 17 cohorts followed prospectively, with a combined sample size of 46,716 individuals, including a total of 15,234 deaths. We find a significant association between increased heterozygosity and survival (P = 0.03). We estimate that within a single population, every standard deviation of heterozygosity an individual has over the mean decreases that person{\textquoteright}s risk of death by 1.57\%.

CONCLUSIONS: This effect was consistent between European and African ancestry cohorts, men and women, and major causes of death (cancer and cardiovascular disease), demonstrating the broad positive impact of genomic diversity on human survival.

}, keywords = {Genome-Wide Association Study, Heterozygote, Humans, Mortality, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models}, issn = {1471-2156}, doi = {10.1186/s12863-014-0159-7}, author = {Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Brody, Jennifer A and Smith, Albert Vernon and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Nalls, Mike and Smith, Jennifer A and Tanaka, Toshiko and Davies, Gail and Yu, Lei and Mirza, Saira Saeed and Teumer, Alexander and Coresh, Josef and Pankow, James S and Franceschini, Nora and Scaria, Anish and Oshima, Junko and Psaty, Bruce M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Li, Hanyue and Karasik, David and Kiel, Douglas P and Garcia, Melissa and Liu, Yongmei and Faul, Jessica D and Kardia, Sharon Lr and Zhao, Wei and Ferrucci, Luigi and Allerhand, Michael and Liewald, David C and Redmond, Paul and Starr, John M and De Jager, Philip L and Evans, Denis A and Direk, Nese and Ikram, Mohammed Arfan and Uitterlinden, Andre and Homuth, Georg and Lorbeer, Roberto and Grabe, Hans J and Launer, Lenore and Murabito, Joanne M and Singleton, Andrew B and Weir, David R and Bandinelli, Stefania and Deary, Ian J and Bennett, David A and Tiemeier, Henning and Kocher, Thomas and Lumley, Thomas and Arking, Dan E} } @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 {6820, title = {Novel genetic markers associate with atrial fibrillation risk in Europeans and Japanese.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {63}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Apr 1}, pages = {1200-10}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to identify nonredundant atrial fibrillation (AF) genetic susceptibility signals and examine their cumulative relations with AF risk.

BACKGROUND: AF-associated loci span broad genomic regions that may contain multiple susceptibility signals. Whether multiple signals exist at AF loci has not been systematically explored.

METHODS: We performed association testing conditioned on the most significant, independently associated genetic markers at 9 established AF loci using 2 complementary techniques in 64,683 individuals of European ancestry (3,869 incident and 3,302 prevalent AF cases). Genetic risk scores were created and tested for association with AF in Europeans and an independent sample of 11,309 individuals of Japanese ancestry (7,916 prevalent AF cases).

RESULTS: We observed at least 4 distinct AF susceptibility signals on chromosome 4q25 upstream of PITX2, but not at the remaining 8 AF loci. A multilocus score comprised 12 genetic markers demonstrated an estimated 5-fold gradient in AF risk. We observed a similar spectrum of risk associated with these markers in Japanese. Regions containing AF signals on chromosome 4q25 displayed a greater degree of evolutionary conservation than the remainder of the locus, suggesting that they may tag regulatory elements.

CONCLUSIONS: The chromosome 4q25 AF locus is architecturally complex and harbors at least 4 AF susceptibility signals in individuals of European ancestry. Similar polygenic AF susceptibility exists between Europeans and Japanese. Future work is necessary to identify causal variants, determine mechanisms by which associated loci predispose to AF, and explore whether AF susceptibility signals classify individuals at risk for AF and related morbidity.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Atrial Fibrillation, Chromosome Mapping, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Markers, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Homeodomain Proteins, Humans, Japan, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Transcription Factors}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2013.12.015}, author = {Lubitz, Steven A and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Lin, Honghuang and Arking, Dan E and Trompet, Stella and Li, Guo and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Chasman, Daniel I and Barnard, John and Kleber, Marcus E and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Ozaki, Kouichi and Smith, Albert V and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Walter, Stefan and Agarwal, Sunil K and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Lin Y and Everett, Brendan M and Ford, Ian and Franco, Oscar H and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Mahida, Saagar and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kubo, Michiaki and Launer, Lenore J and Macfarlane, Peter W and Magnani, Jared W and McKnight, Barbara and McManus, David D and Peters, Annette and Psaty, Bruce M and Rose, Lynda M and Rotter, Jerome I and Silbernagel, Guenther and Smith, Jonathan D and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stott, David J and Taylor, Kent D and Tomaschitz, Andreas and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Van Wagoner, David R and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Murabito, Joanne M and Sinner, Moritz F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Felix, Stephan B and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Chung, Mina and Albert, Christine M and Stricker, Bruno H and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Heckbert, Susan R and Jukema, J Wouter and Alonso, Alvaro and Benjamin, Emelia J and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {6703, title = {Genome-Wide Association Study and Linkage Analysis of the Healthy Aging Index.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {70}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Aug}, pages = {1003-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The Healthy Aging Index (HAI) is a tool for measuring the extent of health and disease across multiple systems.

METHODS: We conducted a genome-wide association study and a genome-wide linkage analysis to map quantitative trait loci associated with the HAI and a modified HAI weighted for mortality risk in 3,140 individuals selected for familial longevity from the Long Life Family Study. The genome-wide association study used the Long Life Family Study as the discovery cohort and individuals from the Cardiovascular Health Study and the Framingham Heart Study as replication cohorts.

RESULTS: There were no genome-wide significant findings from the genome-wide association study; however, several single-nucleotide polymorphisms near ZNF704 on chromosome 8q21.13 were suggestively associated with the HAI in the Long Life Family Study (p < 10(-) (6)) and nominally replicated in the Cardiovascular Health Study and Framingham Heart Study. Linkage results revealed significant evidence (log-odds score = 3.36) for a quantitative trait locus for mortality-optimized HAI in women on chromosome 9p24-p23. However, results of fine-mapping studies did not implicate any specific candidate genes within this region of interest.

CONCLUSIONS: ZNF704 may be a potential candidate gene for studies of the genetic underpinnings of longevity.

}, keywords = {Aging, Apolipoproteins E, Forkhead Transcription Factors, Genetic Linkage, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Longevity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glv006}, author = {Minster, Ryan L and Sanders, Jason L and Singh, Jatinder and Kammerer, Candace M and Barmada, M Michael and Matteini, Amy M and Zhang, Qunyuan and Wojczynski, Mary K and Daw, E Warwick and Brody, Jennifer A and Arnold, Alice M and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Murabito, Joanne M and Christensen, Kaare and Perls, Thomas T and Province, Michael A and Newman, Anne B} } @article {6550, title = {GWAS of longevity in CHARGE consortium confirms APOE and FOXO3 candidacy.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {70}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan}, pages = {110-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The genetic contribution to longevity in humans has been estimated to range from 15\% to 25\%. Only two genes, APOE and FOXO3, have shown association with longevity in multiple independent studies.

METHODS: We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies including 6,036 longevity cases, age >=90 years, and 3,757 controls that died between ages 55 and 80 years. We additionally attempted to replicate earlier identified single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations with longevity.

RESULTS: In our meta-analysis, we found suggestive evidence for the association of SNPs near CADM2 (odds ratio [OR] = 0.81; p value = 9.66 {\texttimes} 10(-7)) and GRIK2 (odds ratio = 1.24; p value = 5.09 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with longevity. When attempting to replicate findings earlier identified in genome-wide association studies, only the APOE locus consistently replicated. In an additional look-up of the candidate gene FOXO3, we found that an earlier identified variant shows a highly significant association with longevity when including published data with our meta-analysis (odds ratio = 1.17; p value = 1.85{\texttimes}10(-10)).

CONCLUSIONS: We did not identify new genome-wide significant associations with longevity and did not replicate earlier findings except for APOE and FOXO3. Our inability to find new associations with survival to ages >=90 years because longevity represents multiple complex traits with heterogeneous genetic underpinnings, or alternatively, that longevity may be regulated by rare variants that are not captured by standard genome-wide genotyping and imputation of common variants.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Apolipoproteins E, Cell Adhesion Molecules, Cohort Studies, Female, Forkhead Box Protein O3, Forkhead Transcription Factors, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Longevity, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Kainic Acid}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glu166}, author = {Broer, Linda and Buchman, Aron S and Deelen, Joris and Evans, Daniel S and Faul, Jessica D and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Sebastiani, Paola and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Albert V and Tanaka, Toshiko and Yu, Lei and Arnold, Alice M and Aspelund, Thor and Benjamin, Emelia J and De Jager, Philip L and Eirkisdottir, Gudny and Evans, Denis A and Garcia, Melissa E and Hofman, Albert and Kaplan, Robert C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kiel, Douglas P and Oostra, Ben A and Orwoll, Eric S and Parimi, Neeta and Psaty, Bruce M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Seshadri, Sudha and Singleton, Andrew and Tiemeier, Henning and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Zhao, Wei and Bandinelli, Stefania and Bennett, David A and Ferrucci, Luigi and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Karasik, David and Launer, Lenore J and Perls, Thomas T and Slagboom, P Eline and Tranah, Gregory J and Weir, David R and Newman, Anne B and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Murabito, Joanne M} } @article {7349, title = {DNA methylation signatures of chronic low-grade inflammation are associated with complex diseases.}, journal = {Genome Biol}, volume = {17}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Dec 12}, pages = {255}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Chronic low-grade inflammation reflects a subclinical immune response implicated in the pathogenesis of complex diseases. Identifying genetic loci where DNA methylation is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation may reveal novel pathways or therapeutic targets for inflammation.

RESULTS: We performed a meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) of serum C-reactive protein (CRP), which is a sensitive marker of low-grade inflammation, in a large European population (n = 8863) and trans-ethnic replication in African Americans (n = 4111). We found differential methylation at 218 CpG sites to be associated with CRP (P < 1.15 {\texttimes} 10(-7)) in the discovery panel of European ancestry and replicated (P < 2.29 {\texttimes} 10(-4)) 58 CpG sites (45 unique loci) among African Americans. To further characterize the molecular and clinical relevance of the findings, we examined the association with gene expression, genetic sequence variants, and clinical outcomes. DNA methylation at nine (16\%) CpG sites was associated with whole blood gene expression in cis (P < 8.47 {\texttimes} 10(-5)), ten (17\%) CpG sites were associated with a nearby genetic variant (P < 2.50 {\texttimes} 10(-3)), and 51 (88\%) were also associated with at least one related cardiometabolic entity (P < 9.58 {\texttimes} 10(-5)). An additive weighted score of replicated CpG sites accounted for up to 6\% inter-individual variation (R2) of age-adjusted and sex-adjusted CRP, independent of known CRP-related genetic variants.

CONCLUSION: We have completed an EWAS of chronic low-grade inflammation and identified many novel genetic loci underlying inflammation that may serve as targets for the development of novel therapeutic interventions for inflammation.

}, issn = {1474-760X}, doi = {10.1186/s13059-016-1119-5}, author = {Ligthart, Symen and Marzi, Carola and Aslibekyan, Stella and Mendelson, Michael M and Conneely, Karen N and Tanaka, Toshiko and Colicino, Elena and Waite, Lindsay L and Joehanes, Roby and Guan, Weihua and Brody, Jennifer A and Elks, Cathy and Marioni, Riccardo and Jhun, Min A and Agha, Golareh and Bressler, Jan and Ward-Caviness, Cavin K and Chen, Brian H and Huan, Tianxiao and Bakulski, Kelly and Salfati, Elias L and Fiorito, Giovanni and Wahl, Simone and Schramm, Katharina and Sha, Jin and Hernandez, Dena G and Just, Allan C and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Pilling, Luke C and Pankow, James S and Tsao, Phil S and Liu, Chunyu and Zhao, Wei and Guarrera, Simonetta and Michopoulos, Vasiliki J and Smith, Alicia K and Peters, Marjolein J and Melzer, David and Vokonas, Pantel and Fornage, Myriam and Prokisch, Holger and Bis, Joshua C and Chu, Audrey Y and Herder, Christian and Grallert, Harald and Yao, Chen and Shah, Sonia and McRae, Allan F and Lin, Honghuang and Horvath, Steve and Fallin, Daniele and Hofman, Albert and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wiggins, Kerri L and Feinberg, Andrew P and Starr, John M and Visscher, Peter M and Murabito, Joanne M and Kardia, Sharon L R and Absher, Devin M and Binder, Elisabeth B and Singleton, Andrew B and Bandinelli, Stefania and Peters, Annette and Waldenberger, Melanie and Matullo, Giuseppe and Schwartz, Joel D and Demerath, Ellen W and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Franco, Oscar H and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Levy, Daniel and Turner, Stephen T and Deary, Ian J and Ressler, Kerry J and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Ferrucci, Luigi and Ong, Ken K and Assimes, Themistocles L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Koenig, Wolfgang and Arnett, Donna K and Baccarelli, Andrea A and Benjamin, Emelia J and Dehghan, Abbas} } @article {7142, title = {GWAS analysis of handgrip and lower body strength in older adults in the CHARGE consortium.}, journal = {Aging Cell}, volume = {15}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {792-800}, abstract = {

Decline in muscle strength with aging is an important predictor of health trajectory in the elderly. Several factors, including genetics, are proposed contributors to variability in muscle strength. To identify genetic contributors to muscle strength, a meta-analysis of genomewide association studies of handgrip was conducted. Grip strength was measured using a handheld dynamometer in 27~581 individuals of European descent over 65~years of age from 14 cohort studies. Genomewide association analysis was conducted on ~2.7 million imputed and genotyped variants (SNPs). Replication of the most significant findings was conducted using data from 6393 individuals from three cohorts. GWAS of lower body strength was also characterized in a subset of cohorts. Two genomewide significant (P-value< 5~{\texttimes}~10(-8) ) and 39 suggestive (P-value< 5~{\texttimes}~10(-5) ) associations were observed from meta-analysis of the discovery cohorts. After meta-analysis with replication cohorts, genomewide significant association was observed for rs752045 on chromosome 8 (β~=~0.47, SE~=~0.08, P-value~=~5.20~{\texttimes}~10(-10) ). This SNP is mapped to an intergenic region and is located within an accessible chromatin region (DNase hypersensitivity site) in skeletal muscle myotubes differentiated from the human skeletal muscle myoblasts cell line. This locus alters a binding motif of the CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-β (CEBPB) that is implicated in muscle repair mechanisms. GWAS of lower body strength did not yield significant results. A common genetic variant in a chromosomal region that regulates myotube differentiation and muscle repair may contribute to variability in grip strength in the elderly. Further studies are needed to uncover the mechanisms that link this genetic variant with muscle strength.

}, issn = {1474-9726}, doi = {10.1111/acel.12468}, author = {Matteini, Amy M and Tanaka, Toshiko and Karasik, David and Atzmon, Gil and Chou, Wen-Chi and Eicher, John D and Johnson, Andrew D and Arnold, Alice M and Callisaya, Michele L and Davies, Gail and Evans, Daniel S and Holtfreter, Birte and Lohman, Kurt and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Mangino, Massimo and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Jennifer A and Teumer, Alexander and Yu, Lei and Arking, Dan E and Buchman, Aron S and Chibinik, Lori B and De Jager, Philip L and Evans, Denis A and Faul, Jessica D and Garcia, Melissa E and Gillham-Nasenya, Irina and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hofman, Albert and Hsu, Yi-Hsiang and Ittermann, Till and Lahousse, Lies and Liewald, David C and Liu, Yongmei and Lopez, Lorna and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Siggeirsdottir, Kristin and Starr, John M and Thomson, Russell and Tranah, Gregory J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Weir, David R and Yaffe, Kristine and Zhao, Wei and Zhuang, Wei Vivian and Zmuda, Joseph M and Bennett, David A and Cummings, Steven R and Deary, Ian J and Ferrucci, Luigi and Harris, Tamara B and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kocher, Thomas and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Psaty, Bruce M and Seshadri, Sudha and Spector, Timothy D and Srikanth, Velandai K and Windham, B Gwen and Zillikens, M Carola and Newman, Anne B and Walston, Jeremy D and Kiel, Douglas P and Murabito, Joanne M} } @article {7340, title = {The complex genetics of gait speed: genome-wide meta-analysis approach.}, journal = {Aging (Albany NY)}, volume = {9}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jan 10}, pages = {209-246}, abstract = {

Emerging evidence suggests that the basis for variation in late-life mobility is attributable, in part, to genetic factors, which may become increasingly important with age. Our objective was to systematically assess the contribution of genetic variation to gait speed in older individuals. We conducted a meta-analysis of gait speed GWASs in 31,478 older adults from 17 cohorts of the CHARGE consortium, and validated our results in 2,588 older adults from 4 independent studies. We followed our initial discoveries with network and eQTL analysis of candidate signals in tissues. The meta-analysis resulted in a list of 536 suggestive genome wide significant SNPs in or near 69 genes. Further interrogation with Pathway Analysis placed gait speed as a polygenic complex trait in five major networks. Subsequent eQTL analysis revealed several SNPs significantly associated with the expression of PRSS16, WDSUB1 and PTPRT, which in addition to the meta-analysis and pathway suggested that genetic effects on gait speed may occur through synaptic function and neuronal development pathways. No genome-wide significant signals for gait speed were identified from this moderately large sample of older adults, suggesting that more refined physical function phenotypes will be needed to identify the genetic basis of gait speed in aging.

}, issn = {1945-4589}, doi = {10.18632/aging.101151}, author = {Ben-Avraham, Dan and Karasik, David and Verghese, Joe and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Smith, Jennifer A and Eicher, John D and Vered, Rotem and Deelen, Joris and Arnold, Alice M and Buchman, Aron S and Tanaka, Toshiko and Faul, Jessica D and Nethander, Maria and Fornage, Myriam and Adams, Hieab H and Matteini, Amy M and Callisaya, Michele L and Smith, Albert V and Yu, Lei and De Jager, Philip L and Evans, Denis A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hofman, Albert and Pattie, Alison and Corley, Janie and Launer, Lenore J and Knopman, Davis S and Parimi, Neeta and Turner, Stephen T and Bandinelli, Stefania and Beekman, Marian and Gutman, Danielle and Sharvit, Lital and Mooijaart, Simon P and Liewald, David C and Houwing-Duistermaat, Jeanine J and Ohlsson, Claes and Moed, Matthijs and Verlinden, Vincent J and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and van der Geest, Jos N and Karlsson, Magnus and Hernandez, Dena and McWhirter, Rebekah and Liu, Yongmei and Thomson, Russell and Tranah, Gregory J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Weir, David R and Zhao, Wei and Starr, John M and Johnson, Andrew D and Ikram, M Arfan and Bennett, David A and Cummings, Steven R and Deary, Ian J and Harris, Tamara B and Kardia, Sharon L R and Mosley, Thomas H and Srikanth, Velandai K and Windham, Beverly G and Newman, Ann B and Walston, Jeremy D and Davies, Gail and Evans, Daniel S and Slagboom, Eline P and Ferrucci, Luigi and Kiel, Douglas P and Murabito, Joanne M and Atzmon, Gil} } @article {7688, title = {Large-scale GWAS identifies multiple loci for hand grip strength providing biological insights into muscular fitness.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {8}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jul 12}, pages = {16015}, abstract = {

Hand grip strength is a widely used proxy of muscular fitness, a marker of frailty, and predictor of a range of morbidities and all-cause mortality. To investigate the genetic determinants of variation in grip strength, we perform a large-scale genetic discovery analysis in a combined sample of 195,180 individuals and identify 16 loci associated with grip strength (P<5 {\texttimes} 10) in combined analyses. A number of these loci contain genes implicated in structure and function of skeletal muscle fibres (ACTG1), neuronal maintenance and signal transduction (PEX14, TGFA, SYT1), or monogenic syndromes with involvement of psychomotor impairment (PEX14, LRPPRC and KANSL1). Mendelian randomization analyses are consistent with a causal effect of higher genetically predicted grip strength on lower fracture risk. In conclusion, our findings provide new biological insight into the mechanistic underpinnings of grip strength and the causal role of muscular strength in age-related morbidities and mortality.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms16015}, author = {Willems, Sara M and Wright, Daniel J and Day, Felix R and Trajanoska, Katerina and Joshi, Peter K and Morris, John A and Matteini, Amy M and Garton, Fleur C and Grarup, Niels and Oskolkov, Nikolay and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Mangino, Massimo and Liu, Jun and Demirkan, Ayse and Lek, Monkol and Xu, Liwen and Wang, Guan and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Gaulton, Kyle J and Lotta, Luca A and Miyamoto-Mikami, Eri and Rivas, Manuel A and White, Tom and Loh, Po-Ru and Aadahl, Mette and Amin, Najaf and Attia, John R and Austin, Krista and Benyamin, Beben and Brage, S{\o}ren and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Ci{\k e}szczyk, Pawe{\l} and Derave, Wim and Eriksson, Karl-Fredrik and Eynon, Nir and Linneberg, Allan and Lucia, Alejandro and Massidda, Myosotis and Mitchell, Braxton D and Miyachi, Motohiko and Murakami, Haruka and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Pandey, Ashutosh and Papadimitriou, Ioannis and Rajpal, Deepak K and Sale, Craig and Schnurr, Theresia M and Sessa, Francesco and Shrine, Nick and Tobin, Martin D and Varley, Ian and Wain, Louise V and Wray, Naomi R and Lindgren, Cecilia M and MacArthur, Daniel G and Waterworth, Dawn M and McCarthy, Mark I and Pedersen, Oluf and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kiel, Douglas P and Pitsiladis, Yannis and Fuku, Noriyuki and Franks, Paul W and North, Kathryn N and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Mather, Karen A and Hansen, Torben and Hansson, Ola and Spector, Tim and Murabito, Joanne M and Richards, J Brent and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Langenberg, Claudia and Perry, John R B and Wareham, Nick J and Scott, Robert A} } @article {8835, title = {Genetic insights into biological mechanisms governing human ovarian ageing.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {596}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Aug}, pages = {393-397}, abstract = {

Reproductive longevity is essential for fertility and influences healthy ageing in women, but insights into its underlying biological mechanisms and treatments to preserve it are limited. Here we identify 290 genetic determinants of ovarian ageing, assessed using normal variation in age at natural menopause (ANM) in about 200,000 women of European ancestry. These common alleles were associated with clinical extremes of ANM; women in the top 1\% of genetic susceptibility have an equivalent risk of premature ovarian insufficiency to those carrying monogenic FMR1 premutations. The identified loci implicate a broad range of DNA damage response (DDR) processes and include loss-of-function variants in key DDR-associated genes. Integration with experimental models demonstrates that these DDR processes act across the life-course to shape the ovarian reserve and its rate of depletion. Furthermore, we demonstrate that experimental manipulation of DDR pathways highlighted by human genetics increases fertility and extends reproductive life in mice. Causal inference analyses using the identified genetic variants indicate that extending reproductive life in women improves bone health and reduces risk of type 2 diabetes, but increases the risk of hormone-sensitive cancers. These findings provide insight into the mechanisms that govern ovarian ageing, when they act, and how they might be targeted by therapeutic approaches to extend fertility and prevent disease.

}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-021-03779-7}, author = {Ruth, Katherine S and Day, Felix R and Hussain, Jazib and Mart{\'\i}nez-Marchal, Ana and Aiken, Catherine E and Azad, Ajuna and Thompson, Deborah J and Knoblochova, Lucie and Abe, Hironori and Tarry-Adkins, Jane L and Gonzalez, Javier Martin and Fontanillas, Pierre and Claringbould, Annique and Bakker, Olivier B and Sulem, Patrick and Walters, Robin G and Terao, Chikashi and Turon, Sandra and Horikoshi, Momoko and Lin, Kuang and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Sankar, Aditya and Hertz, Emil Peter Thrane and Timshel, Pascal N and Shukla, Vallari and Borup, Rehannah and Olsen, Kristina W and Aguilera, Paula and Ferrer-Roda, M{\`o}nica and Huang, Yan and Stankovic, Stasa and Timmers, Paul R H J and Ahearn, Thomas U and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Naderi, Elnaz and Andrulis, Irene L and Arnold, Alice M and Aronson, Kristan J and Augustinsson, Annelie and Bandinelli, Stefania and Barbieri, Caterina M and Beaumont, Robin N and Becher, Heiko and Beckmann, Matthias W and Benonisdottir, Stefania and Bergmann, Sven and Bochud, Murielle and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bojesen, Stig E and Bolla, Manjeet K and Boomsma, Dorret I and Bowker, Nicholas and Brody, Jennifer A and Broer, Linda and Buring, Julie E and Campbell, Archie and Campbell, Harry and Castelao, Jose E and Catamo, Eulalia and Chanock, Stephen J and Chenevix-Trench, Georgia and Ciullo, Marina and Corre, Tanguy and Couch, Fergus J and Cox, Angela and Crisponi, Laura and Cross, Simon S and Cucca, Francesco and Czene, Kamila and Smith, George Davey and de Geus, Eco J C N and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and De Vivo, Immaculata and Demerath, Ellen W and Dennis, Joe and Dunning, Alison M and Dwek, Miriam and Eriksson, Mikael and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fasching, Peter A and Faul, Jessica D and Ferrucci, Luigi and Franceschini, Nora and Frayling, Timothy M and Gago-Dominguez, Manuela and Mezzavilla, Massimo and Garc{\'\i}a-Closas, Montserrat and Gieger, Christian and Giles, Graham G and Grallert, Harald and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gu{\'e}nel, Pascal and Haiman, Christopher A and H{\r a}kansson, Niclas and Hall, Per and Hayward, Caroline and He, Chunyan and He, Wei and Heiss, Gerardo and H{\o}ffding, Miya K and Hopper, John L and Hottenga, Jouke J and Hu, Frank and Hunter, David and Ikram, Mohammad A and Jackson, Rebecca D and Joaquim, Micaella D R and John, Esther M and Joshi, Peter K and Karasik, David and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kartsonaki, Christiana and Karlsson, Robert and Kitahara, Cari M and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooperberg, Charles and Kraft, Peter and Kurian, Allison W and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and La Bianca, Martina and Lachance, Genevieve and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Laven, Joop S E and Lawlor, Deborah A and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Li, Jingmei and Lindblom, Annika and Lindstr{\"o}m, Sara and Lindstrom, Tricia and Linet, Martha and Liu, Yongmei and Liu, Simin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Mangino, Massimo and Mannermaa, Arto and Marco, Brumat and Marten, Jonathan and Martin, Nicholas G and Mbarek, Hamdi and McKnight, Barbara and Medland, Sarah E and Meisinger, Christa and Meitinger, Thomas and Menni, Cristina and Metspalu, Andres and Milani, Lili and Milne, Roger L and Montgomery, Grant W and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Mulas, Antonella and Mulligan, Anna M and Murray, Alison and Nalls, Mike A and Newman, Anne and Noordam, Raymond and Nutile, Teresa and Nyholt, Dale R and Olshan, Andrew F and Olsson, H{\r a}kan and Painter, Jodie N and Patel, Alpa V and Pedersen, Nancy L and Perjakova, Natalia and Peters, Annette and Peters, Ulrike and Pharoah, Paul D P and Polasek, Ozren and Porcu, Eleonora and Psaty, Bruce M and Rahman, Iffat and Rennert, Gad and Rennert, Hedy S and Ridker, Paul M and Ring, Susan M and Robino, Antonietta and Rose, Lynda M and Rosendaal, Frits R and Rossouw, Jacques and Rudan, Igor and Rueedi, Rico and Ruggiero, Daniela and Sala, Cinzia F and Saloustros, Emmanouil and Sandler, Dale P and Sanna, Serena and Sawyer, Elinor J and Sarnowski, Chloe and Schlessinger, David and Schmidt, Marjanka K and Schoemaker, Minouk J and Schraut, Katharina E and Scott, Christopher and Shekari, Saleh and Shrikhande, Amruta and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Blair H and Smith, Jennifer A and Sorice, Rossella and Southey, Melissa C and Spector, Tim D and Spinelli, John J and Stampfer, Meir and St{\"o}ckl, Doris and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Strauch, Konstantin and Styrkarsdottir, Unnur and Swerdlow, Anthony J and Tanaka, Toshiko and Teras, Lauren R and Teumer, Alexander and {\TH}orsteinsdottir, Unnur and Timpson, Nicholas J and Toniolo, Daniela and Traglia, Michela and Troester, Melissa A and Truong, Th{\'e}r{\`e}se and Tyrrell, Jessica and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ulivi, Sheila and Vachon, Celine M and Vitart, Veronique and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wang, Qin and Wareham, Nicholas J and Weinberg, Clarice R and Weir, David R and Wilcox, Amber N and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, James F and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Wolk, Alicja and Wood, Andrew R and Zhao, Wei and Zygmunt, Marek and Chen, Zhengming and Li, Liming and Franke, Lude and Burgess, Stephen and Deelen, Patrick and Pers, Tune H and Gr{\o}ndahl, Marie Louise and Andersen, Claus Yding and Pujol, Anna and Lopez-Contreras, Andres J and Daniel, Jeremy A and Stefansson, Kari and Chang-Claude, Jenny and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Chasman, Daniel I and Easton, Douglas F and Visser, Jenny A and Ozanne, Susan E and Namekawa, Satoshi H and Solc, Petr and Murabito, Joanne M and Ong, Ken K and Hoffmann, Eva R and Murray, Anna and Roig, Ignasi and Perry, John R B} } @article {8836, title = {Identification of novel and rare variants associated with handgrip strength using whole genome sequence data from the NHLBI Trans-Omics in Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {16}, year = {2021}, month = {2021}, pages = {e0253611}, abstract = {

Handgrip strength is a widely used measure of muscle strength and a predictor of a range of morbidities including cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality. Previous genome-wide association studies of handgrip strength have focused on common variants primarily in persons of European descent. We aimed to identify rare and ancestry-specific genetic variants associated with handgrip strength by conducting whole-genome sequence association analyses using 13,552 participants from six studies representing diverse population groups from the Trans-Omics in Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program. By leveraging multiple handgrip strength measures performed in study participants over time, we increased our effective sample size by 7-12\%. Single-variant analyses identified ten handgrip strength loci among African-Americans: four rare variants, five low-frequency variants, and one common variant. One significant and four suggestive genes were identified associated with handgrip strength when aggregating rare and functional variants; all associations were ancestry-specific. We additionally leveraged the different ancestries available in the UK Biobank to further explore the ancestry-specific association signals from the single-variant association analyses. In conclusion, our study identified 11 new loci associated with handgrip strength with rare and/or ancestry-specific genetic variations, highlighting the added value of whole-genome sequencing in diverse samples. Several of the associations identified using single-variant or aggregate analyses lie in genes with a function relevant to the brain or muscle or were reported to be associated with muscle or age-related traits. Further studies in samples with sequence data and diverse ancestries are needed to confirm these findings.

}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0253611}, author = {Sarnowski, Chloe and Chen, Han and Biggs, Mary L and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Bressler, Jan and Irvin, Marguerite R and Ryan, Kathleen A and Karasik, David and Arnett, Donna K and Cupples, L Adrienne and Fardo, David W and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Heavner, Benjamin D and Jain, Deepti and Kang, Hyun Min and Kooperberg, Charles and Mainous, Arch G and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth and Smith, Albert V and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Windham, B Gwen and Kiel, Douglas P and Murabito, Joanne M and Lunetta, Kathryn L} } @article {8666, title = {Sequencing of 53,831 diverse genomes from the NHLBI TOPMed Program.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {590}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 02}, pages = {290-299}, abstract = {

The Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) programme seeks to elucidate the genetic architecture and biology of heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders, with the ultimate goal of improving diagnosis, treatment and prevention of these diseases. The initial phases of the programme focused on whole-genome sequencing of individuals with rich phenotypic data and diverse backgrounds. Here we describe the TOPMed goals and design as well as the available resources and early insights obtained from the sequence data. The resources include a variant browser, a genotype imputation server, and genomic and phenotypic data that are available through dbGaP (Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes). In the first 53,831 TOPMed samples, we detected more than 400~million single-nucleotide and insertion or deletion variants after alignment with the reference genome. Additional previously undescribed variants were detected through assembly of unmapped reads and customized analysis in highly variable loci. Among the more than 400~million detected variants, 97\% have frequencies of less than 1\% and 46\% are singletons that are present in only one individual (53\% among unrelated individuals). These rare variants provide insights into mutational processes and recent human evolutionary history. The extensive catalogue of genetic variation in TOPMed studies provides unique opportunities for exploring the contributions of rare and noncoding sequence variants to phenotypic variation. Furthermore, combining TOPMed haplotypes with modern imputation methods improves the power and reach of genome-wide association studies to include variants down to a frequency of approximately 0.01\%.

}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-021-03205-y}, author = {Taliun, Daniel and Harris, Daniel N and Kessler, Michael D and Carlson, Jedidiah and Szpiech, Zachary A and Torres, Raul and Taliun, Sarah A Gagliano and Corvelo, Andr{\'e} and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Kang, Hyun Min and Pitsillides, Achilleas N and LeFaive, Jonathon and Lee, Seung-Been and Tian, Xiaowen and Browning, Brian L and Das, Sayantan and Emde, Anne-Katrin and Clarke, Wayne E and Loesch, Douglas P and Shetty, Amol C and Blackwell, Thomas W and Smith, Albert V and Wong, Quenna and Liu, Xiaoming and Conomos, Matthew P and Bobo, Dean M and Aguet, Francois and Albert, Christine and Alonso, Alvaro and Ardlie, Kristin G and Arking, Dan E and Aslibekyan, Stella and Auer, Paul L and Barnard, John and Barr, R Graham and Barwick, Lucas and Becker, Lewis C and Beer, Rebecca L and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bielak, Lawrence F and Blangero, John and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and Brody, Jennifer A and Burchard, Esteban G and Cade, Brian E and Casella, James F and Chalazan, Brandon and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Cho, Michael H and Choi, Seung Hoan and Chung, Mina K and Clish, Clary B and Correa, Adolfo and Curran, Joanne E and Custer, Brian and Darbar, Dawood and Daya, Michelle and de Andrade, Mariza and DeMeo, Dawn L and Dutcher, Susan K and Ellinor, Patrick T and Emery, Leslie S and Eng, Celeste and Fatkin, Diane and Fingerlin, Tasha and Forer, Lukas and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Fuchsberger, Christian and Fullerton, Stephanie M and Germer, Soren and Gladwin, Mark T and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Guo, Xiuqing and Hall, Michael E and He, Jiang and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Heckbert, Susan R and Irvin, Marguerite R and Johnsen, Jill M and Johnson, Andrew D and Kaplan, Robert and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Tanika and Kelly, Shannon and Kenny, Eimear E and Kiel, Douglas P and Klemmer, Robert and Konkle, Barbara A and Kooperberg, Charles and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Lange, Leslie A and Lasky-Su, Jessica and Levy, Daniel and Lin, Xihong and Lin, Keng-Han and Liu, Chunyu and Loos, Ruth J F and Garman, Lori and Gerszten, Robert and Lubitz, Steven A and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Mak, Angel C Y and Manichaikul, Ani and Manning, Alisa K and Mathias, Rasika A and McManus, David D and McGarvey, Stephen T and Meigs, James B and Meyers, Deborah A and Mikulla, Julie L and Minear, Mollie A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mohanty, Sanghamitra and Montasser, May E and Montgomery, Courtney and Morrison, Alanna C and Murabito, Joanne M and Natale, Andrea and Natarajan, Pradeep and Nelson, Sarah C and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pankratz, Nathan and Peloso, Gina M and Peyser, Patricia A and Pleiness, Jacob and Post, Wendy S and Psaty, Bruce M and Rao, D C and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Roden, Dan and Rotter, Jerome I and Ruczinski, Ingo and Sarnowski, Chloe and Schoenherr, Sebastian and Schwartz, David A and Seo, Jeong-Sun and Seshadri, Sudha and Sheehan, Vivien A and Sheu, Wayne H and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stilp, Adrienne M and Tang, Weihong and Taylor, Kent D and Telen, Marilyn and Thornton, Timothy A and Tracy, Russell P and Van Den Berg, David J and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Viaud-Martinez, Karine A and Vrieze, Scott and Weeks, Daniel E and Weir, Bruce S and Weiss, Scott T and Weng, Lu-Chen and Willer, Cristen J and Zhang, Yingze and Zhao, Xutong and Arnett, Donna K and Ashley-Koch, Allison E and Barnes, Kathleen C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Gabriel, Stacey and Gibbs, Richard and Rice, Kenneth M and Rich, Stephen S and Silverman, Edwin K and Qasba, Pankaj and Gan, Weiniu and Papanicolaou, George J and Nickerson, Deborah A and Browning, Sharon R and Zody, Michael C and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and Wilson, James G and Cupples, L Adrienne and Laurie, Cathy C and Jaquish, Cashell E and Hernandez, Ryan D and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Timothy D and Abecasis, Goncalo R} } @article {9418, title = {Rare variants in long non-coding RNAs are associated with blood lipid levels in the TOPMed Whole Genome Sequencing Study.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jun 29}, abstract = {

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are known to perform important regulatory functions. Large-scale whole genome sequencing (WGS) studies and new statistical methods for variant set tests now provide an opportunity to assess the associations between rare variants in lncRNA genes and complex traits across the genome. In this study, we used high-coverage WGS from 66,329 participants of diverse ancestries with blood lipid levels (LDL-C, HDL-C, TC, and TG) in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program to investigate the role of lncRNAs in lipid variability. We aggregated rare variants for 165,375 lncRNA genes based on their genomic locations and conducted rare variant aggregate association tests using the STAAR (variant-Set Test for Association using Annotation infoRmation) framework. We performed STAAR conditional analysis adjusting for common variants in known lipid GWAS loci and rare coding variants in nearby protein coding genes. Our analyses revealed 83 rare lncRNA variant sets significantly associated with blood lipid levels, all of which were located in known lipid GWAS loci (in a {\textpm}500 kb window of a Global Lipids Genetics Consortium index variant). Notably, 61 out of 83 signals (73\%) were conditionally independent of common regulatory variations and rare protein coding variations at the same loci. We replicated 34 out of 61 (56\%) conditionally independent associations using the independent UK Biobank WGS data. Our results expand the genetic architecture of blood lipids to rare variants in lncRNA, implicating new therapeutic opportunities.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.06.28.23291966}, author = {Wang, Yuxuan and Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha and Li, Xihao and Li, Zilin and Holdcraft, Jacob A and Arnett, Donna K and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Cade, Brian E and Carlson, Jenna C and Carson, April P and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Curran, Joanne E and de Vries, Paul S and Dutcher, Susan K and Ellinor, Patrick T and Floyd, James S and Fornage, Myriam and Freedman, Barry I and Gabriel, Stacey and Germer, Soren and Gibbs, Richard A and Guo, Xiuqing and He, Jiang and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Hildalgo, Bertha and Hou, Lifang and Irvin, Marguerite R and Joehanes, Roby and Kaplan, Robert C and Kardia, Sharon Lr and Kelly, Tanika N and Kim, Ryan and Kooperberg, Charles and Kral, Brian G and Levy, Daniel and Li, Changwei and Liu, Chunyu and Lloyd-Jone, Don and Loos, Ruth Jf and Mahaney, Michael C and Martin, Lisa W and Mathias, Rasika A and Minster, Ryan L and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montasser, May E and Morrison, Alanna C and Murabito, Joanne M and Naseri, Take and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Preuss, Michael H and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Rao, Dabeeru C and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Rich, Stephen S and Ruepena, Muagututi{\textquoteright}a Sefuiva and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Albert and Tiwari, Hemant K and Tsai, Michael Y and Viaud-Martinez, Karine A and Wang, Zhe and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhao, Wei and Rotter, Jerome I and Lin, Xihong and Natarajan, Pradeep and Peloso, Gina M} } @article {9866, title = {Genomic and phenotypic correlates of mosaic loss of chromosome Y in blood.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {112}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Feb 06}, pages = {276-290}, abstract = {

Mosaic loss of Y (mLOY) is the most common somatic chromosomal alteration detected in human blood. The presence of mLOY is associated with altered blood cell counts and increased risk of Alzheimer disease, solid tumors, and other age-related diseases. We sought to gain a better understanding of genetic drivers and associated phenotypes of mLOY through analyses of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of a large set of genetically diverse males from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. We show that haplotype-based calling methods can be used with WGS data to successfully identify mLOY events. This approach enabled us to identify differences in mLOY frequencies across populations defined by genetic similarity, revealing a higher frequency of mLOY in the European (EUR) ancestry group compared to other ancestries. We identify multiple loci associated with mLOY susceptibility and show that subsets of human hematopoietic stem cells are enriched for the activity of mLOY susceptibility variants. Finally, we found that certain alleles on chromosome Y are more likely to be lost than others in detectable mLOY clones.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Chromosome Deletion, Chromosomes, Human, Y, Genomics, Haplotypes, Humans, Male, Mosaicism, Phenotype, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2024.12.014}, author = {Jakubek, Yasminka A and Ma, Xiaolong and Stilp, Adrienne M and Yu, Fulong and Bacon, Jason and Wong, Justin W and Aguet, Francois and Ardlie, Kristin and Arnett, Donna K and Barnes, Kathleen and Bis, Joshua C and Blackwell, Tom and Becker, Lewis C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowler, Russell P and Budoff, Matthew J and Carson, April P and Chen, Jiawen and Cho, Michael H and Coresh, Josef and Cox, Nancy J and de Vries, Paul S and DeMeo, Dawn L and Fardo, David W and Fornage, Myriam and Guo, Xiuqing and Hall, Michael E and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Hidalgo, Bertha and Irvin, Marguerite Ryan and Johnson, Andrew D and Jorgenson, Eric and Kenny, Eimear E and Kessler, Michael D and Levy, Daniel and Li, Yun and Lima, Jo{\~a}o A C and Liu, Yongmei and Locke, Adam E and Loos, Ruth J F and Machiela, Mitchell J and Mathias, Rasika A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Murabito, Joanne M and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and North, Kari E and Orchard, Peter and Parker, Stephen C J and Pershad, Yash and Peyser, Patricia A and Pratte, Katherine A and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Redline, Susan and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Shah, Sanjiv J and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Aaron P and Smith, Albert and Taub, Margaret A and Tiwari, Hemant K and Tracy, Russell and Tuftin, Bjoernar and Bick, Alexander G and Sankaran, Vijay G and Reiner, Alexander P and Scheet, Paul and Auer, Paul L} }