@article {1237, title = {Association analyses of 249,796 individuals reveal 18 new loci associated with body mass index.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Nov}, pages = {937-48}, abstract = {

Obesity is globally prevalent and highly heritable, but its underlying genetic factors remain largely elusive. To identify genetic loci for obesity susceptibility, we examined associations between body mass index and \~{} 2.8 million SNPs in up to 123,865 individuals with targeted follow up of 42 SNPs in up to 125,931 additional individuals. We confirmed 14 known obesity susceptibility loci and identified 18 new loci associated with body mass index (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{8}$), one of which includes a copy number variant near GPRC5B. Some loci (at MC4R, POMC, SH2B1 and BDNF) map near key hypothalamic regulators of energy balance, and one of these loci is near GIPR, an incretin receptor. Furthermore, genes in other newly associated loci may provide new insights into human body weight regulation.

}, keywords = {Body Height, Body Mass Index, Body Size, Body Weight, Chromosome Mapping, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.686}, author = {Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Willer, Cristen J and Berndt, Sonja I and Monda, Keri L and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Jackson, Anne U and Lango Allen, Hana and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Randall, Joshua C and Vedantam, Sailaja and Winkler, Thomas W and Qi, Lu and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and Heid, Iris M and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Stringham, Heather M and Weedon, Michael N and Wheeler, Eleanor and Wood, Andrew R and Ferreira, Teresa and Weyant, Robert J and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and Estrada, Karol and Liang, Liming and Nemesh, James and Park, Ju-Hyun and Gustafsson, Stefan and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Yang, Jian and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Feitosa, Mary F and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Mangino, Massimo and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and Scherag, Andre and Smith, Albert Vernon and Welch, Ryan and Zhao, Jing Hua and Aben, Katja K and Absher, Devin M and Amin, Najaf and Dixon, Anna L and Fisher, Eva and Glazer, Nicole L and Goddard, Michael E and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hoesel, Volker and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Ketkar, Shamika and Lamina, Claudia and Li, Shengxu and Moffatt, Miriam F and Myers, Richard H and Narisu, Narisu and Perry, John R B and Peters, Marjolein J and Preuss, Michael and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sandholt, Camilla and Scott, Laura J and Timpson, Nicholas J and Tyrer, Jonathan P and van Wingerden, Sophie and Watanabe, Richard M and White, Charles C and Wiklund, Fredrik and Barlassina, Christina and Chasman, Daniel I and Cooper, Matthew N and Jansson, John-Olov and Lawrence, Robert W and Pellikka, Niina and Prokopenko, Inga and Shi, Jianxin and Thiering, Elisabeth and Alavere, Helene and Alibrandi, Maria T S and Almgren, Peter and Arnold, Alice M and Aspelund, Thor and Atwood, Larry D and Balkau, Beverley and Balmforth, Anthony J and Bennett, Amanda J and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Bergman, Richard N and Bergmann, Sven and Biebermann, Heike and Blakemore, Alexandra I F and Boes, Tanja and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bornstein, Stefan R and Brown, Morris J and Buchanan, Thomas A and Busonero, Fabio and Campbell, Harry and Cappuccio, Francesco P and Cavalcanti-Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chen, Chih-Mei and Chines, Peter S and Clarke, Robert and Coin, Lachlan and Connell, John and Day, Ian N M and den Heijer, Martin and Duan, Jubao and Ebrahim, Shah and Elliott, Paul and Elosua, Roberto and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Erdos, Michael R and Eriksson, Johan G and Facheris, Maurizio F and Felix, Stephan B and Fischer-Posovszky, Pamela and Folsom, Aaron R and Friedrich, Nele and Freimer, Nelson B and Fu, Mao and Gaget, Stefan and Gejman, Pablo V and Geus, Eco J C and Gieger, Christian and Gjesing, Anette P and Goel, Anuj and Goyette, Philippe and Grallert, Harald and Gr{\"a}ssler, J{\"u}rgen and Greenawalt, Danielle M and Groves, Christopher J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Guiducci, Candace and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hassanali, Neelam and Hall, Alistair S and Havulinna, Aki S and Hayward, Caroline and Heath, Andrew C and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hicks, Andrew A and Hinney, Anke and Hofman, Albert and Homuth, Georg and Hui, Jennie and Igl, Wilmar and Iribarren, Carlos and Isomaa, Bo and Jacobs, Kevin B and Jarick, Ivonne and Jewell, Elizabeth and John, Ulrich and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jula, Antti and Kaakinen, Marika and Kajantie, Eero and Kaplan, Lee M and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kettunen, Johannes and Kinnunen, Leena and Knowles, Joshua W and Kolcic, Ivana and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kraft, Peter and Kval{\o}y, Kirsti and Laitinen, Jaana and Lantieri, Olivier and Lanzani, Chiara and Launer, Lenore J and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lettre, Guillaume and Liu, Jianjun and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lorentzon, Mattias and Luben, Robert N and Ludwig, Barbara and Manunta, Paolo and Marek, Diana and Marre, Michel and Martin, Nicholas G and McArdle, Wendy L and McCarthy, Anne and McKnight, Barbara and Meitinger, Thomas and Melander, Olle and Meyre, David and Midthjell, Kristian and Montgomery, Grant W and Morken, Mario A and Morris, Andrew P and Mulic, Rosanda and Ngwa, Julius S and Nelis, Mari and Neville, Matt J and Nyholt, Dale R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and O{\textquoteright}Rahilly, Stephen and Ong, Ken K and Oostra, Ben and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Perola, Markus and Pichler, Irene and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Platou, Carl G P and Polasek, Ozren and Pouta, Anneli and Rafelt, Suzanne and Raitakari, Olli and Rayner, Nigel W and Ridderstr{\r a}le, Martin and Rief, Winfried and Ruokonen, Aimo and Robertson, Neil R and Rzehak, Peter and Salomaa, Veikko and Sanders, Alan R and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Sanna, Serena and Saramies, Jouko and Savolainen, Markku J and Scherag, Susann and Schipf, Sabine and Schreiber, Stefan and Schunkert, Heribert and Silander, Kaisa and Sinisalo, Juha and Siscovick, David S and Smit, Jan H and Soranzo, Nicole and Sovio, Ulla and Stephens, Jonathan and Surakka, Ida and Swift, Amy J and Tammesoo, Mari-Liis and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Teder-Laving, Maris and Teslovich, Tanya M and Thompson, John R and Thomson, Brian and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and van Meurs, Joyce B J and van Ommen, Gert-Jan and Vatin, Vincent and Viikari, Jorma and Visvikis-Siest, Sophie and Vitart, Veronique and Vogel, Carla I G and Voight, Benjamin F and Waite, Lindsay L and Wallaschofski, Henri and Walters, G Bragi and Widen, Elisabeth and Wiegand, Susanna and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witte, Daniel R and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Xu, Jianfeng and Zhang, Qunyuan and Zgaga, Lina and Ziegler, Andreas and Zitting, Paavo and Beilby, John P and Farooqi, I Sadaf and Hebebrand, Johannes and Huikuri, Heikki V and James, Alan L and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Levinson, Douglas F and Macciardi, Fabio and Nieminen, Markku S and Ohlsson, Claes and Palmer, Lyle J and Ridker, Paul M and Stumvoll, Michael and Beckmann, Jacques S and Boeing, Heiner and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boomsma, Dorret I and Caulfield, Mark J and Chanock, Stephen J and Collins, Francis S and Cupples, L Adrienne and Smith, George Davey and Erdmann, Jeanette and Froguel, Philippe and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hall, Per and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Tamara B and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hayes, Richard B and Heinrich, Joachim and Hu, Frank B and Hveem, Kristian and Illig, Thomas and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Kaprio, Jaakko and Karpe, Fredrik and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Krude, Heiko and Laakso, Markku and Lawlor, Debbie A and Metspalu, Andres and Munroe, Patricia B and Ouwehand, Willem H and Pedersen, Oluf and Penninx, Brenda W and Peters, Annette and Pramstaller, Peter P and Quertermous, Thomas and Reinehr, Thomas and Rissanen, Aila and Rudan, Igor and Samani, Nilesh J and Schwarz, Peter E H and Shuldiner, Alan R and Spector, Timothy D and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uda, Manuela and Uitterlinden, Andre and Valle, Timo T and Wabitsch, Martin and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Wilson, James F and Wright, Alan F and Zillikens, M Carola and Chatterjee, Nilanjan and McCarroll, Steven A and Purcell, Shaun and Schadt, Eric E and Visscher, Peter M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and Fox, Caroline S and Groop, Leif C and Haritunians, Talin and Hunter, David J and Kaplan, Robert C and Mohlke, Karen L and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Peltonen, Leena and Schlessinger, David and Strachan, David P and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wichmann, H-Erich and Frayling, Timothy M and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Boehnke, Michael and Stefansson, Kari and North, Kari E and McCarthy, Mark I and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Ingelsson, Erik and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {1221, title = {Biological, clinical and population relevance of 95 loci for blood lipids.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {466}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Aug 05}, pages = {707-13}, abstract = {

Plasma concentrations of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides are among the most important risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) and are targets for therapeutic intervention. We screened the genome for common variants associated with plasma lipids in >100,000 individuals of European ancestry. Here we report 95 significantly associated loci (P < 5 x 10(-8)), with 59 showing genome-wide significant association with lipid traits for the first time. The newly reported associations include single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) near known lipid regulators (for example, CYP7A1, NPC1L1 and SCARB1) as well as in scores of loci not previously implicated in lipoprotein metabolism. The 95 loci contribute not only to normal variation in lipid traits but also to extreme lipid phenotypes and have an impact on lipid traits in three non-European populations (East Asians, South Asians and African Americans). Our results identify several novel loci associated with plasma lipids that are also associated with CAD. Finally, we validated three of the novel genes-GALNT2, PPP1R3B and TTC39B-with experiments in mouse models. Taken together, our findings provide the foundation to develop a broader biological understanding of lipoprotein metabolism and to identify new therapeutic opportunities for the prevention of CAD.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Animals, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Lipid Metabolism, Lipids, Liver, Male, Mice, N-Acetylgalactosaminyltransferases, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Protein Phosphatase 1, Reproducibility of Results, Triglycerides}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature09270}, author = {Teslovich, Tanya M and Musunuru, Kiran and Smith, Albert V and Edmondson, Andrew C and Stylianou, Ioannis M and Koseki, Masahiro and Pirruccello, James P and Ripatti, Samuli and Chasman, Daniel I and Willer, Cristen J and Johansen, Christopher T and Fouchier, Sigrid W and Isaacs, Aaron and Peloso, Gina M and Barbalic, Maja and Ricketts, Sally L and Bis, Joshua C and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Feitosa, Mary F and Chambers, John and Orho-Melander, Marju and Melander, Olle and Johnson, Toby and Li, Xiaohui and Guo, Xiuqing and Li, Mingyao and Shin Cho, Yoon and Jin Go, Min and Jin Kim, Young and Lee, Jong-Young and Park, Taesung and Kim, Kyunga and Sim, Xueling and Twee-Hee Ong, Rick and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Lange, Leslie A and Smith, Joshua D and Song, Kijoung and Hua Zhao, Jing and Yuan, Xin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lamina, Claudia and Ziegler, Andreas and Zhang, Weihua and Zee, Robert Y L and Wright, Alan F and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Wilson, James F and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wichmann, H-Erich and Whitfield, John B and Waterworth, Dawn M and Wareham, Nicholas J and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Vollenweider, Peter and Voight, Benjamin F and Vitart, Veronique and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Uda, Manuela and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Thompson, John R and Tanaka, Toshiko and Surakka, Ida and Stringham, Heather M and Spector, Tim D and Soranzo, Nicole and Smit, Johannes H and Sinisalo, Juha and Silander, Kaisa and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Scuteri, Angelo and Scott, James and Schlessinger, David and Sanna, Serena and Salomaa, Veikko and Saharinen, Juha and Sabatti, Chiara and Ruokonen, Aimo and Rudan, Igor and Rose, Lynda M and Roberts, Robert and Rieder, Mark and Psaty, Bruce M and Pramstaller, Peter P and Pichler, Irene and Perola, Markus and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pattaro, Cristian and Parker, Alex N and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Oostra, Ben A and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nieminen, Markku S and Nickerson, Deborah A and Montgomery, Grant W and Meitinger, Thomas and McPherson, Ruth and McCarthy, Mark I and McArdle, Wendy and Masson, David and Martin, Nicholas G and Marroni, Fabio and Mangino, Massimo and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Lucas, Gavin and Luben, Robert and Loos, Ruth J F and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lettre, Guillaume and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lakatta, Edward G and Laaksonen, Reijo and Kyvik, Kirsten O and Kronenberg, Florian and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kaplan, Lee M and Johansson, Asa and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Ingelsson, Erik and Igl, Wilmar and Kees Hovingh, G and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Hofman, Albert and Hicks, Andrew A and Hengstenberg, Christian and Heid, Iris M and Hayward, Caroline and Havulinna, Aki S and Hastie, Nicholas D and Harris, Tamara B and Haritunians, Talin and Hall, Alistair S and Gyllensten, Ulf and Guiducci, Candace and Groop, Leif C and Gonzalez, Elena and Gieger, Christian and Freimer, Nelson B and Ferrucci, Luigi and Erdmann, Jeanette and Elliott, Paul and Ejebe, Kenechi G and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Dominiczak, Anna F and Demissie, Serkalem and Deloukas, Panagiotis and de Geus, Eco J C and de Faire, Ulf and Crawford, Gabriel and Collins, Francis S and Chen, Yii-der I and Caulfield, Mark J and Campbell, Harry and Burtt, Noel P and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Boomsma, Dorret I and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Bergman, Richard N and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Bandinelli, Stefania and Ballantyne, Christie M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Quertermous, Thomas and Altshuler, David and Seielstad, Mark and Wong, Tien Y and Tai, E-Shyong and Feranil, Alan B and Kuzawa, Christopher W and Adair, Linda S and Taylor, Herman A and Borecki, Ingrid B and Gabriel, Stacey B and Wilson, James G and Holm, Hilma and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Krauss, Ronald M and Mohlke, Karen L and Ordovas, Jose M and Munroe, Patricia B and Kooner, Jaspal S and Tall, Alan R and Hegele, Robert A and Kastelein, John J P and Schadt, Eric E and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and Strachan, David P and Mooser, Vincent and Stefansson, Kari and Reilly, Muredach P and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Ridker, Paul M and Rader, Daniel J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Peltonen, Leena and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehnke, Michael and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {1188, title = {Candidate gene association resource (CARe): design, methods, and proof of concept.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {3}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jun}, pages = {267-75}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute{\textquoteright}s Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe), a planned cross-cohort analysis of genetic variation in cardiovascular, pulmonary, hematologic, and sleep-related traits, comprises >40,000 participants representing 4 ethnic groups in 9 community-based cohorts. The goals of CARe include the discovery of new variants associated with traits using a candidate gene approach and the discovery of new variants using the genome-wide association mapping approach specifically in African Americans.

METHODS AND RESULTS: CARe has assembled DNA samples for >40,000 individuals self-identified as European American, African American, Hispanic, or Chinese American, with accompanying data on hundreds of phenotypes that have been standardized and deposited in the CARe Phenotype Database. All participants were genotyped for 7 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) selected based on prior association evidence. We performed association analyses relating each of these SNPs to lipid traits, stratified by sex and ethnicity, and adjusted for age and age squared. In at least 2 of the ethnic groups, SNPs near CETP, LIPC, and LPL strongly replicated for association with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations, PCSK9 with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and LPL and APOA5 with serum triglycerides. Notably, some SNPs showed varying effect sizes and significance of association in different ethnic groups.

CONCLUSIONS: The CARe Pilot Study validates the operational framework for phenotype collection, SNP genotyping, and analytic pipeline of the CARe project and validates the planned candidate gene study of approximately 2000 biological candidate loci in all participants and genome-wide association study in approximately 8000 African American participants. CARe will serve as a valuable resource for the scientific community.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, Databases, Genetic, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Association Studies, Genotype, Humans, Phenotype, Pilot Projects, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Research Design, Triglycerides}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.109.882696}, author = {Musunuru, Kiran and Lettre, Guillaume and Young, Taylor and Farlow, Deborah N and Pirruccello, James P and Ejebe, Kenechi G and Keating, Brendan J and Yang, Qiong and Chen, Ming-Huei and Lapchyk, Nina and Crenshaw, Andrew and Ziaugra, Liuda and Rachupka, Anthony and Benjamin, Emelia J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Fornage, Myriam and Fox, Ervin R and Heckbert, Susan R and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Nizzari, Marcia M and Paltoo, Dina N and Papanicolaou, George J and Patel, Sanjay R and Psaty, Bruce M and Rader, Daniel J and Redline, Susan and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Herman A and Tracy, Russell P and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wilson, James G and Kathiresan, Sekar and Fabsitz, Richard R and Boerwinkle, Eric and Gabriel, Stacey B} } @article {1248, title = {European ancestry as a risk factor for atrial fibrillation in African Americans.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {122}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Nov 16}, pages = {2009-15}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Despite a higher burden of standard atrial fibrillation (AF) risk factors, African Americans have a lower risk of AF than whites. It is unknown whether the higher risk is due to genetic or environmental factors. Because African Americans have varying degrees of European ancestry, we sought to test the hypothesis that European ancestry is an independent risk factor for AF.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied whites (n=4543) and African Americans (n=822) in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and whites (n=10 902) and African Americans (n=3517) in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study (n=3517). Percent European ancestry in African Americans was estimated with 1747 ancestry informative markers from the Illumina custom ITMAT-Broad-CARe array. Among African Americans without baseline AF, 120 of 804 CHS participants and 181 of 3517 ARIC participants developed incident AF. A meta-analysis from the 2 studies revealed that every 10\% increase in European ancestry increased the risk of AF by 13\% (hazard ratio, 1.13; 95\% confidence interval, 1.03 to 1.23; P=0.007). After adjustment for potential confounders, European ancestry remained a predictor of incident AF in each cohort alone, with a combined estimated hazard ratio for each 10\% increase in European ancestry of 1.17 (95\% confidence interval, 1.07 to 1.29; P=0.001). A second analysis using 3192 ancestry informative markers from a genome-wide Affymetrix 6.0 array in ARIC African Americans yielded similar results.

CONCLUSIONS: European ancestry predicted risk of incident AF. Our study suggests that investigating genetic variants contributing to differential AF risk in individuals of African versus European ancestry will be informative.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.958306}, author = {Marcus, Gregory M and Alonso, Alvaro and Peralta, Carmen A and Lettre, Guillaume and Vittinghoff, Eric and Lubitz, Steven A and Fox, Ervin R and Levitzky, Yamini S and Mehra, Reena and Kerr, Kathleen F and Deo, Rajat and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Akylbekova, Meggie and Ellinor, Patrick T and Paltoo, Dina N and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Benjamin, Emelia J and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {1234, title = {Hundreds of variants clustered in genomic loci and biological pathways affect human height.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {467}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Oct 14}, pages = {832-8}, abstract = {

Most common human traits and diseases have a polygenic pattern of inheritance: DNA sequence variants at many genetic loci influence the phenotype. Genome-wide association (GWA) studies have identified more than 600 variants associated with human traits, but these typically explain small fractions of phenotypic variation, raising questions about the use of further studies. Here, using 183,727 individuals, we show that hundreds of genetic variants, in at least 180 loci, influence adult height, a highly heritable and classic polygenic trait. The large number of loci reveals patterns with important implications for genetic studies of common human diseases and traits. First, the 180 loci are not random, but instead are enriched for genes that are connected in biological pathways (P = 0.016) and that underlie skeletal growth defects (P < 0.001). Second, the likely causal gene is often located near the most strongly associated variant: in 13 of 21 loci containing a known skeletal growth gene, that gene was closest to the associated variant. Third, at least 19 loci have multiple independently associated variants, suggesting that allelic heterogeneity is a frequent feature of polygenic traits, that comprehensive explorations of already-discovered loci should discover additional variants and that an appreciable fraction of associated loci may have been identified. Fourth, associated variants are enriched for likely functional effects on genes, being over-represented among variants that alter amino-acid structure of proteins and expression levels of nearby genes. Our data explain approximately 10\% of the phenotypic variation in height, and we estimate that unidentified common variants of similar effect sizes would increase this figure to approximately 16\% of phenotypic variation (approximately 20\% of heritable variation). Although additional approaches are needed to dissect the genetic architecture of polygenic human traits fully, our findings indicate that GWA studies can identify large numbers of loci that implicate biologically relevant genes and pathways.

}, keywords = {Body Height, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 3, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Multifactorial Inheritance, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature09410}, author = {Lango Allen, Hana and Estrada, Karol and Lettre, Guillaume and Berndt, Sonja I and Weedon, Michael N and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Willer, Cristen J and Jackson, Anne U and Vedantam, Sailaja and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and Ferreira, Teresa and Wood, Andrew R and Weyant, Robert J and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Wheeler, Eleanor and Soranzo, Nicole and Park, Ju-Hyun and Yang, Jian and Gudbjartsson, Daniel and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Randall, Joshua C and Qi, Lu and Vernon Smith, Albert and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Pastinen, Tomi and Liang, Liming and Heid, Iris M and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Winkler, Thomas W and Goddard, Michael E and Sin Lo, Ken and Palmer, Cameron and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Johansson, Asa and Zillikens, M Carola and Feitosa, Mary F and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Johnson, Toby and Ketkar, Shamika and Kraft, Peter and Mangino, Massimo and Prokopenko, Inga and Absher, Devin and Albrecht, Eva and Ernst, Florian and Glazer, Nicole L and Hayward, Caroline and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Jacobs, Kevin B and Knowles, Joshua W and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Monda, Keri L and Polasek, Ozren and Preuss, Michael and Rayner, Nigel W and Robertson, Neil R and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Tyrer, Jonathan P and Voight, Benjamin F and Wiklund, Fredrik and Xu, Jianfeng and Zhao, Jing Hua and Nyholt, Dale R and Pellikka, Niina and Perola, Markus and Perry, John R B and Surakka, Ida and Tammesoo, Mari-Liis and Altmaier, Elizabeth L and Amin, Najaf and Aspelund, Thor and Bhangale, Tushar and Boucher, Gabrielle and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Constance and Coin, Lachlan and Cooper, Matthew N and Dixon, Anna L and Gibson, Quince and Grundberg, Elin and Hao, Ke and Juhani Junttila, M and Kaplan, Lee M and Kettunen, Johannes and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Kwan, Tony and Lawrence, Robert W and Levinson, Douglas F and Lorentzon, Mattias and McKnight, Barbara and Morris, Andrew P and M{\"u}ller, Martina and Suh Ngwa, Julius and Purcell, Shaun and Rafelt, Suzanne and Salem, Rany M and Salvi, Erika and Sanna, Serena and Shi, Jianxin and Sovio, Ulla and Thompson, John R and Turchin, Michael C and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Verlaan, Dominique J and Vitart, Veronique and White, Charles C and Ziegler, Andreas and Almgren, Peter and Balmforth, Anthony J and Campbell, Harry and Citterio, Lorena and De Grandi, Alessandro and Dominiczak, Anna and Duan, Jubao and Elliott, Paul and Elosua, Roberto and Eriksson, Johan G and Freimer, Nelson B and Geus, Eco J C and Glorioso, Nicola and Haiqing, Shen and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Havulinna, Aki S and Hicks, Andrew A and Hui, Jennie and Igl, Wilmar and Illig, Thomas and Jula, Antti and Kajantie, Eero and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Koiranen, Markku and Kolcic, Ivana and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Laitinen, Jaana and Liu, Jianjun and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Marusic, Ana and Maschio, Andrea and Meitinger, Thomas and Mulas, Antonella and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Peden, John F and Petersmann, Astrid and Pichler, Irene and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Pouta, Anneli and Ridderstr{\r a}le, Martin and Rotter, Jerome I and Sambrook, Jennifer G and Sanders, Alan R and Schmidt, Carsten Oliver and Sinisalo, Juha and Smit, Jan H and Stringham, Heather M and Bragi Walters, G and Widen, Elisabeth and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Zagato, Laura and Zgaga, Lina and Zitting, Paavo and Alavere, Helene and Farrall, Martin and McArdle, Wendy L and Nelis, Mari and Peters, Marjolein J and Ripatti, Samuli and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Aben, Katja K and Ardlie, Kristin G and Beckmann, Jacques S and Beilby, John P and Bergman, Richard N and Bergmann, Sven and Collins, Francis S and Cusi, Daniele and den Heijer, Martin and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Gejman, Pablo V and Hall, Alistair S and Hamsten, Anders and Huikuri, Heikki V and Iribarren, Carlos and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kiemeney, Lambertus and Kocher, Thomas and Launer, Lenore J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Melander, Olle and Mosley, Tom H and Musk, Arthur W and Nieminen, Markku S and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Ohlsson, Claes and Oostra, Ben and Palmer, Lyle J and Raitakari, Olli and Ridker, Paul M and Rioux, John D and Rissanen, Aila and Rivolta, Carlo and Schunkert, Heribert and Shuldiner, Alan R and Siscovick, David S and Stumvoll, Michael and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and van Ommen, Gert-Jan and Viikari, Jorma and Heath, Andrew C and Martin, Nicholas G and Montgomery, Grant W and Province, Michael A and Kayser, Manfred and Arnold, Alice M and Atwood, Larry D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chanock, Stephen J and Deloukas, Panos and Gieger, Christian and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Hall, Per and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hoffman, Wolfgang and Lathrop, G Mark and Salomaa, Veikko and Schreiber, Stefan and Uda, Manuela and Waterworth, Dawn and Wright, Alan F and Assimes, Themistocles L and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Hofman, Albert and Mohlke, Karen L and Boomsma, Dorret I and Caulfield, Mark J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Erdmann, Jeanette and Fox, Caroline S and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Harris, Tamara B and Hayes, Richard B and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Mooser, Vincent and Munroe, Patricia B and Ouwehand, Willem H and Penninx, Brenda W and Pramstaller, Peter P and Quertermous, Thomas and Rudan, Igor and Samani, Nilesh J and Spector, Timothy D and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Watkins, Hugh and Wilson, James F and Groop, Leif C and Haritunians, Talin and Hu, Frank B and Kaplan, Robert C and Metspalu, Andres and North, Kari E and Schlessinger, David and Wareham, Nicholas J and Hunter, David J and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Strachan, David P and Wichmann, H-Erich and Borecki, Ingrid B and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Schadt, Eric E and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Peltonen, Leena and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Visscher, Peter M and Chatterjee, Nilanjan and Loos, Ruth J F and Boehnke, Michael and McCarthy, Mark I and Ingelsson, Erik and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Stefansson, Kari and Frayling, Timothy M and Hirschhorn, Joel N} } @article {1236, title = {Meta-analysis identifies 13 new loci associated with waist-hip ratio and reveals sexual dimorphism in the genetic basis of fat distribution.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Nov}, pages = {949-60}, abstract = {

Waist-hip ratio (WHR) is a measure of body fat distribution and a predictor of metabolic consequences independent of overall adiposity. WHR is heritable, but few genetic variants influencing this trait have been identified. We conducted a meta-analysis of 32 genome-wide association studies for WHR adjusted for body mass index (comprising up to 77,167 participants), following up 16 loci in an additional 29 studies (comprising up to 113,636 subjects). We identified 13 new loci in or near RSPO3, VEGFA, TBX15-WARS2, NFE2L3, GRB14, DNM3-PIGC, ITPR2-SSPN, LY86, HOXC13, ADAMTS9, ZNRF3-KREMEN1, NISCH-STAB1 and CPEB4 (P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{9}$ to P = 1.8 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{4}$$^{0}$) and the known signal at LYPLAL1. Seven of these loci exhibited marked sexual dimorphism, all with a stronger effect on WHR in women than men (P for sex difference = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}${\textthreesuperior} to P = 1.2 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}${\textonesuperior}{\textthreesuperior}). These findings provide evidence for multiple loci that modulate body fat distribution independent of overall adiposity and reveal strong gene-by-sex interactions.

}, keywords = {Adipose Tissue, Age Factors, Chromosome Mapping, Female, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sex Characteristics, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.685}, author = {Heid, Iris M and Jackson, Anne U and Randall, Joshua C and Winkler, Thomas W and Qi, Lu and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Zillikens, M Carola and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and White, Charles C and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Harris, Tamara B and Berndt, Sonja I and Ingelsson, Erik and Willer, Cristen J and Weedon, Michael N and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Vedantam, Sailaja and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Li, Shengxu and Monda, Keri L and Dixon, Anna L and Holmes, Christopher C and Kaplan, Lee M and Liang, Liming and Min, Josine L and Moffatt, Miriam F and Molony, Cliona and Nicholson, George and Schadt, Eric E and Zondervan, Krina T and Feitosa, Mary F and Ferreira, Teresa and Lango Allen, Hana and Weyant, Robert J and Wheeler, Eleanor and Wood, Andrew R and Estrada, Karol and Goddard, Michael E and Lettre, Guillaume and Mangino, Massimo and Nyholt, Dale R and Purcell, Shaun and Smith, Albert Vernon and Visscher, Peter M and Yang, Jian and McCarroll, Steven A and Nemesh, James and Voight, Benjamin F and Absher, Devin and Amin, Najaf and Aspelund, Thor and Coin, Lachlan and Glazer, Nicole L and Hayward, Caroline and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Kaakinen, Marika and Kapur, Karen and Ketkar, Shamika and Knowles, Joshua W and Kraft, Peter and Kraja, Aldi T and Lamina, Claudia and Leitzmann, Michael F and McKnight, Barbara and Morris, Andrew P and Ong, Ken K and Perry, John R B and Peters, Marjolein J and Polasek, Ozren and Prokopenko, Inga and Rayner, Nigel W and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Robertson, Neil R and Sanna, Serena and Sovio, Ulla and Surakka, Ida and Teumer, Alexander and van Wingerden, Sophie and Vitart, Veronique and Zhao, Jing Hua and Cavalcanti-Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Chines, Peter S and Fisher, Eva and Kulzer, Jennifer R and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Narisu, Narisu and Sandholt, Camilla and Scott, Laura J and Silander, Kaisa and Stark, Klaus and Tammesoo, Mari-Liis and Teslovich, Tanya M and Timpson, Nicholas John and Watanabe, Richard M and Welch, Ryan and Chasman, Daniel I and Cooper, Matthew N and Jansson, John-Olov and Kettunen, Johannes and Lawrence, Robert W and Pellikka, Niina and Perola, Markus and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Alavere, Helene and Almgren, Peter and Atwood, Larry D and Bennett, Amanda J and Biffar, Reiner and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bornstein, Stefan R and Buchanan, Thomas A and Campbell, Harry and Day, Ian N M and Dei, Mariano and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Elliott, Paul and Erdos, Michael R and Eriksson, Johan G and Freimer, Nelson B and Fu, Mao and Gaget, Stefan and Geus, Eco J C and Gjesing, Anette P and Grallert, Harald and Gr{\"a}ssler, J{\"u}rgen and Groves, Christopher J and Guiducci, Candace and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hassanali, Neelam and Havulinna, Aki S and Herzig, Karl-Heinz and Hicks, Andrew A and Hui, Jennie and Igl, Wilmar and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jula, Antti and Kajantie, Eero and Kinnunen, Leena and Kolcic, Ivana and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kroemer, Heyo K and Krzelj, Vjekoslav and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kvaloy, Kirsti and Laitinen, Jaana and Lantieri, Olivier and Lathrop, G Mark and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Luben, Robert N and Ludwig, Barbara and McArdle, Wendy L and McCarthy, Anne and Morken, Mario A and Nelis, Mari and Neville, Matt J and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Peden, John F and Pichler, Irene and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Platou, Carl G P and Pouta, Anneli and Ridderstr{\r a}le, Martin and Samani, Nilesh J and Saramies, Jouko and Sinisalo, Juha and Smit, Jan H and Strawbridge, Rona J and Stringham, Heather M and Swift, Amy J and Teder-Laving, Maris and Thomson, Brian and Usala, Gianluca and van Meurs, Joyce B J and van Ommen, Gert-Jan and Vatin, Vincent and Volpato, Claudia B and Wallaschofski, Henri and Walters, G Bragi and Widen, Elisabeth and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witte, Daniel R and Zgaga, Lina and Zitting, Paavo and Beilby, John P and James, Alan L and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Nieminen, Markku S and Ohlsson, Claes and Palmer, Lyle J and Raitakari, Olli and Ridker, Paul M and Stumvoll, Michael and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Viikari, Jorma and Balkau, Beverley and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Bergman, Richard N and Boeing, Heiner and Smith, George Davey and Ebrahim, Shah and Froguel, Philippe and Hansen, Torben and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hveem, Kristian and Isomaa, Bo and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Karpe, Fredrik and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Laakso, Markku and Lawlor, Debbie A and Marre, Michel and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Midthjell, Kristian and Pedersen, Oluf and Salomaa, Veikko and Schwarz, Peter E H and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Valle, Timo T and Wareham, Nicholas J and Arnold, Alice M and Beckmann, Jacques S and Bergmann, Sven and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boomsma, Dorret I and Caulfield, Mark J and Collins, Francis S and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hofman, Albert and Hu, Frank B and Illig, Thomas and Iribarren, Carlos and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Kao, W H Linda and Kaprio, Jaakko and Launer, Lenore J and Munroe, Patricia B and Oostra, Ben and Penninx, Brenda W and Pramstaller, Peter P and Psaty, Bruce M and Quertermous, Thomas and Rissanen, Aila and Rudan, Igor and Shuldiner, Alan R and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Timothy D and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Uda, Manuela and Uitterlinden, Andre and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Vollenweider, Peter and Wilson, James F and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Wright, Alan F and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehnke, Michael and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and Frayling, Timothy M and Groop, Leif C and Haritunians, Talin and Hunter, David J and Kaplan, Robert C and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Peltonen, Leena and Schlessinger, David and Strachan, David P and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Assimes, Themistocles L and Wichmann, H-Erich and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Stefansson, Kari and Cupples, L Adrienne and Loos, Ruth J F and Barroso, In{\^e}s and McCarthy, Mark I and Fox, Caroline S and Mohlke, Karen L and Lindgren, Cecilia M} } @article {1288, title = {Enhanced statistical tests for GWAS in admixed populations: assessment using African Americans from CARe and a Breast Cancer Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Apr}, pages = {e1001371}, abstract = {

While genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have primarily examined populations of European ancestry, more recent studies often involve additional populations, including admixed populations such as African Americans and Latinos. In admixed populations, linkage disequilibrium (LD) exists both at a fine scale in ancestral populations and at a coarse scale (admixture-LD) due to chromosomal segments of distinct ancestry. Disease association statistics in admixed populations have previously considered SNP association (LD mapping) or admixture association (mapping by admixture-LD), but not both. Here, we introduce a new statistical framework for combining SNP and admixture association in case-control studies, as well as methods for local ancestry-aware imputation. We illustrate the gain in statistical power achieved by these methods by analyzing data of 6,209 unrelated African Americans from the CARe project genotyped on the Affymetrix 6.0 chip, in conjunction with both simulated and real phenotypes, as well as by analyzing the FGFR2 locus using breast cancer GWAS data from 5,761 African-American women. We show that, at typed SNPs, our method yields an 8\% increase in statistical power for finding disease risk loci compared to the power achieved by standard methods in case-control studies. At imputed SNPs, we observe an 11\% increase in statistical power for mapping disease loci when our local ancestry-aware imputation framework and the new scoring statistic are jointly employed. Finally, we show that our method increases statistical power in regions harboring the causal SNP in the case when the causal SNP is untyped and cannot be imputed. Our methods and our publicly available software are broadly applicable to GWAS in admixed populations.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Algorithms, Breast Neoplasms, Chromosome Mapping, Coronary Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genetics, Population, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Odds Ratio, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Principal Component Analysis, Receptor, Fibroblast Growth Factor, Type 2, Software}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1001371}, author = {Pasaniuc, Bogdan and Zaitlen, Noah and Lettre, Guillaume and Chen, Gary K and Tandon, Arti and Kao, W H Linda and Ruczinski, Ingo and Fornage, Myriam and Siscovick, David S and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Larkin, Emma and Lange, Leslie A and Cupples, L Adrienne and Yang, Qiong and Akylbekova, Ermeg L and Musani, Solomon K and Divers, Jasmin and Mychaleckyj, Joe and Li, Mingyao and Papanicolaou, George J and Millikan, Robert C and Ambrosone, Christine B and John, Esther M and Bernstein, Leslie and Zheng, Wei and Hu, Jennifer J and Ziegler, Regina G and Nyante, Sarah J and Bandera, Elisa V and Ingles, Sue A and Press, Michael F and Chanock, Stephen J and Deming, Sandra L and Rodriguez-Gil, Jorge L and Palmer, Cameron D and Buxbaum, Sarah and Ekunwe, Lynette and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Henderson, Brian E and Myers, Simon and Haiman, Christopher A and Reich, David and Patterson, Nick and Wilson, James G and Price, Alkes L} } @article {6175, title = {FTO genotype is associated with phenotypic variability of body mass index.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {490}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Oct 11}, pages = {267-72}, abstract = {

There is evidence across several species for genetic control of phenotypic variation of complex traits, such that the variance among phenotypes is genotype dependent. Understanding genetic control of variability is important in evolutionary biology, agricultural selection programmes and human medicine, yet for complex traits, no individual genetic variants associated with variance, as opposed to the mean, have been identified. Here we perform a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of phenotypic variation using \~{}170,000 samples on height and body mass index (BMI) in human populations. We report evidence that the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs7202116 at the FTO gene locus, which is known to be associated with obesity (as measured by mean BMI for each rs7202116 genotype), is also associated with phenotypic variability. We show that the results are not due to scale effects or other artefacts, and find no other experiment-wise significant evidence for effects on variability, either at loci other than FTO for BMI or at any locus for height. The difference in variance for BMI among individuals with opposite homozygous genotypes at the FTO locus is approximately 7\%, corresponding to a difference of \~{}0.5 kilograms in the standard deviation of weight. Our results indicate that genetic variants can be discovered that are associated with variability, and that between-person variability in obesity can partly be explained by the genotype at the FTO locus. The results are consistent with reported FTO by environment interactions for BMI, possibly mediated by DNA methylation. Our BMI results for other SNPs and our height results for all SNPs suggest that most genetic variants, including those that influence mean height or mean BMI, are not associated with phenotypic variance, or that their effects on variability are too small to detect even with samples sizes greater than 100,000.

}, keywords = {Alpha-Ketoglutarate-Dependent Dioxygenase FTO, Body Height, Body Mass Index, Co-Repressor Proteins, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins, Repressor Proteins}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature11401}, author = {Yang, Jian and Loos, Ruth J F and Powell, Joseph E and Medland, Sarah E and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Chasman, Daniel I and Rose, Lynda M and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Waite, Lindsay and Smith, Albert Vernon and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Monda, Keri L and Hadley, David and Mahajan, Anubha and Li, Guo and Kapur, Karen and Vitart, Veronique and Huffman, Jennifer E and Wang, Sophie R and Palmer, Cameron and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fischer, Krista and Zhao, Jing Hua and Demirkan, Ayse and Isaacs, Aaron and Feitosa, Mary F and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and White, Charles and Jackson, Anne U and Preuss, Michael and Ziegler, Andreas and Eriksson, Joel and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Frau, Francesca and Nolte, Ilja M and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Jacobs, Kevin B and Verweij, Niek and Goel, Anuj and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Estrada, Karol and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer Lynn and Sanna, Serena and Sidore, Carlo and Tyrer, Jonathan and Teumer, Alexander and Prokopenko, Inga and Mangino, Massimo and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Shuldiner, Alan R and Hui, Jennie and Beilby, John P and McArdle, Wendy L and Hall, Per and Haritunians, Talin and Zgaga, Lina and Kolcic, Ivana and Polasek, Ozren and Zemunik, Tatijana and Oostra, Ben A and Junttila, M Juhani and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Schreiber, Stefan and Peters, Annette and Hicks, Andrew A and Stephens, Jonathan and Foad, Nicola S and Laitinen, Jaana and Pouta, Anneli and Kaakinen, Marika and Willemsen, Gonneke and Vink, Jacqueline M and Wild, Sarah H and Navis, Gerjan and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Homuth, Georg and John, Ulrich and Iribarren, Carlos and Harris, Tamara and Launer, Lenore and Gudnason, Vilmundur and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cadby, Gemma and Palmer, Lyle J and James, Alan L and Musk, Arthur W and Ingelsson, Erik and Psaty, Bruce M and Beckmann, Jacques S and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Vollenweider, Peter and Hayward, Caroline and Wright, Alan F and Rudan, Igor and Groop, Leif C and Metspalu, Andres and Khaw, Kay Tee and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Province, Michael A and Wareham, Nicholas J and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Huikuri, Heikki V and Cupples, L Adrienne and Atwood, Larry D and Fox, Caroline S and Boehnke, Michael and Collins, Francis S and Mohlke, Karen L and Erdmann, Jeanette and Schunkert, Heribert and Hengstenberg, Christian and Stark, Klaus and Lorentzon, Mattias and Ohlsson, Claes and Cusi, Daniele and Staessen, Jan A and van der Klauw, Melanie M and Pramstaller, Peter P and Kathiresan, Sekar and Jolley, Jennifer D and Ripatti, Samuli and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and de Geus, Eco J C and Boomsma, Dorret I and Penninx, Brenda and Wilson, James F and Campbell, Harry and Chanock, Stephen J and van der Harst, Pim and Hamsten, Anders and Watkins, Hugh and Hofman, Albert and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Zillikens, M Carola and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Zillikens, M Carola and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Vermeulen, Sita H and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Schlessinger, David and Schipf, Sabine and Stumvoll, Michael and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Spector, Tim D and North, Kari E and Lettre, Guillaume and McCarthy, Mark I and Berndt, Sonja I and Heath, Andrew C and Madden, Pamela A F and Nyholt, Dale R and Montgomery, Grant W and Martin, Nicholas G and McKnight, Barbara and Strachan, David P and Hill, William G and Snieder, Harold and Ridker, Paul M and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Stefansson, Kari and Frayling, Timothy M and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Goddard, Michael E and Visscher, Peter M} } @article {1388, title = {Multi-ethnic analysis of lipid-associated loci: the NHLBI CARe project.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {7}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e36473}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Whereas it is well established that plasma lipid levels have substantial heritability within populations, it remains unclear how many of the genetic determinants reported in previous studies (largely performed in European American cohorts) are relevant in different ethnicities.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We tested a set of \~{}50,000 polymorphisms from \~{}2,000 candidate genes and genetic loci from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for association with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides (TG) in 25,000 European Americans and 9,000 African Americans in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe). We replicated associations for a number of genes in one or both ethnicities and identified a novel lipid-associated variant in a locus harboring ICAM1. We compared the architecture of genetic loci associated with lipids in both African Americans and European Americans and found that the same genes were relevant across ethnic groups but the specific associated variants at each gene often differed.

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We identify or provide further evidence for a number of genetic determinants of plasma lipid levels through population association studies. In many loci the determinants appear to differ substantially between African Americans and European Americans.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Triglycerides}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0036473}, author = {Musunuru, Kiran and Romaine, Simon P R and Lettre, Guillaume and Wilson, James G and Volcik, Kelly A and Tsai, Michael Y and Taylor, Herman A and Schreiner, Pamela J and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Redline, Susan and Psaty, Bruce M and Papanicolaou, George J and Ordovas, Jose M and Liu, Kiang and Krauss, Ronald M and Glazer, Nicole L and Gabriel, Stacey B and Fornage, Myriam and Cupples, L Adrienne and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ballantyne, Christie M and Kathiresan, Sekar and Rader, Daniel J} } @article {1378, title = {Novel loci for adiponectin levels and their influence on type 2 diabetes and metabolic traits: a multi-ethnic meta-analysis of 45,891 individuals.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e1002607}, abstract = {

Circulating levels of adiponectin, a hormone produced predominantly by adipocytes, are highly heritable and are inversely associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and other metabolic traits. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in 39,883 individuals of European ancestry to identify genes associated with metabolic disease. We identified 8 novel loci associated with adiponectin levels and confirmed 2 previously reported loci (P = 4.5{\texttimes}10(-8)-1.2{\texttimes}10(-43)). Using a novel method to combine data across ethnicities (N = 4,232 African Americans, N = 1,776 Asians, and N = 29,347 Europeans), we identified two additional novel loci. Expression analyses of 436 human adipocyte samples revealed that mRNA levels of 18 genes at candidate regions were associated with adiponectin concentrations after accounting for multiple testing (p<3{\texttimes}10(-4)). We next developed a multi-SNP genotypic risk score to test the association of adiponectin decreasing risk alleles on metabolic traits and diseases using consortia-level meta-analytic data. This risk score was associated with increased risk of T2D (p = 4.3{\texttimes}10(-3), n = 22,044), increased triglycerides (p = 2.6{\texttimes}10(-14), n = 93,440), increased waist-to-hip ratio (p = 1.8{\texttimes}10(-5), n = 77,167), increased glucose two hours post oral glucose tolerance testing (p = 4.4{\texttimes}10(-3), n = 15,234), increased fasting insulin (p = 0.015, n = 48,238), but with lower in HDL-cholesterol concentrations (p = 4.5{\texttimes}10(-13), n = 96,748) and decreased BMI (p = 1.4{\texttimes}10(-4), n = 121,335). These findings identify novel genetic determinants of adiponectin levels, which, taken together, influence risk of T2D and markers of insulin resistance.

}, keywords = {Adiponectin, African Americans, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Cholesterol, HDL, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Expression, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glucose Tolerance Test, Humans, Insulin Resistance, Male, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002607}, author = {Dastani, Zari and Hivert, Marie-France and Timpson, Nicholas and Perry, John R B and Yuan, Xin and Scott, Robert A and Henneman, Peter and Heid, Iris M and Kizer, Jorge R and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Fuchsberger, Christian and Tanaka, Toshiko and Morris, Andrew P and Small, Kerrin and Isaacs, Aaron and Beekman, Marian and Coassin, Stefan and Lohman, Kurt and Qi, Lu and Kanoni, Stavroula and Pankow, James S and Uh, Hae-Won and Wu, Ying and Bidulescu, Aurelian and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Greenwood, Celia M T and Ladouceur, Martin and Grimsby, Jonna and Manning, Alisa K and Liu, Ching-Ti and Kooner, Jaspal and Mooser, Vincent E and Vollenweider, Peter and Kapur, Karen A and Chambers, John and Wareham, Nicholas J and Langenberg, Claudia and Frants, Rune and Willems-Vandijk, Ko and Oostra, Ben A and Willems, Sara M and Lamina, Claudia and Winkler, Thomas W and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Brody, Jennifer and Chen, Ida and Viikari, Jorma and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Pramstaller, Peter P and Evans, David M and St Pourcain, Beate and Sattar, Naveed and Wood, Andrew R and Bandinelli, Stefania and Carlson, Olga D and Egan, Josephine M and B{\"o}hringer, Stefan and van Heemst, Diana and Kedenko, Lyudmyla and Kristiansson, Kati and Nuotio, Marja-Liisa and Loo, Britt-Marie and Harris, Tamara and Garcia, Melissa and Kanaya, Alka and Haun, Margot and Klopp, Norman and Wichmann, H-Erich and Deloukas, Panos and Katsareli, Efi and Couper, David J and Duncan, Bruce B and Kloppenburg, Margreet and Adair, Linda S and Borja, Judith B and Wilson, James G and Musani, Solomon and Guo, Xiuqing and Johnson, Toby and Semple, Robert and Teslovich, Tanya M and Allison, Matthew A and Redline, Susan and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Mohlke, Karen L and Meulenbelt, Ingrid and Ballantyne, Christie M and Dedoussis, George V and Hu, Frank B and Liu, Yongmei and Paulweber, Bernhard and Spector, Timothy D and Slagboom, P Eline and Ferrucci, Luigi and Jula, Antti and Perola, Markus and Raitakari, Olli and Florez, Jose C and Salomaa, Veikko and Eriksson, Johan G and Frayling, Timothy M and Hicks, Andrew A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Smith, George Davey and Siscovick, David S and Kronenberg, Florian and van Duijn, Cornelia and Loos, Ruth J F and Waterworth, Dawn M and Meigs, James B and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Richards, J Brent and Voight, Benjamin F and Scott, Laura J and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Dina, Christian and Welch, Ryan P and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Huth, Cornelia and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and McCulloch, Laura J and Ferreira, Teresa and Grallert, Harald and Amin, Najaf and Wu, Guanming and Willer, Cristen J and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and McCarroll, Steve A and Hofmann, Oliver M and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and van Hoek, Mandy and Navarro, Pau and Ardlie, Kristin and Balkau, Beverley and Benediktsson, Rafn and Bennett, Amanda J and Blagieva, Roza and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bostr{\"o}m, Kristina Bengtsson and Bravenboer, Bert and Bumpstead, Suzannah and Burtt, Noel P and Charpentier, Guillaume and Chines, Peter S and Cornelis, Marilyn and Crawford, Gabe and Doney, Alex S F and Elliott, Katherine S and Elliott, Amanda L and Erdos, Michael R and Fox, Caroline S and Franklin, Christopher S and Ganser, Martha and Gieger, Christian and Grarup, Niels and Green, Todd and Griffin, Simon and Groves, Christopher J and Guiducci, Candace and Hadjadj, Samy and Hassanali, Neelam and Herder, Christian and Isomaa, Bo and Jackson, Anne U and Johnson, Paul R V and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Kao, Wen H L and Kong, Augustine and Kraft, Peter and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lauritzen, Torsten and Li, Man and Lieverse, Aloysius and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Marre, Michel and Meitinger, Thomas and Midthjell, Kristian and Morken, Mario A and Narisu, Narisu and Nilsson, Peter and Owen, Katharine R and Payne, Felicity and Petersen, Ann-Kristin and Platou, Carl and Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Prokopenko, Inga and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Rayner, N William and Robertson, Neil R and Rocheleau, Ghislain and Roden, Michael and Sampson, Michael J and Saxena, Richa and Shields, Beverley M and Shrader, Peter and Sigurdsson, Gunnar and Spars{\o}, Thomas and Strassburger, Klaus and Stringham, Heather M and Sun, Qi and Swift, Amy J and Thorand, Barbara and Tichet, Jean and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and van Dam, Rob M and van Haeften, Timon W and van Herpt, Thijs and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Walters, G Bragi and Weedon, Michael N and Wijmenga, Cisca and Witteman, Jacqueline and Bergman, Richard N and Cauchi, Stephane and Collins, Francis S and Gloyn, Anna L and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hansen, Torben and Hide, Winston A and Hitman, Graham A and Hofman, Albert and Hunter, David J and Hveem, Kristian and Laakso, Markku and Morris, Andrew D and Palmer, Colin N A and Rudan, Igor and Sijbrands, Eric and Stein, Lincoln D and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andre and Walker, Mark and Watanabe, Richard M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehm, Bernhard O and Campbell, Harry and Daly, Mark J and Hattersley, Andrew T and Pedersen, Oluf and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Groop, Leif and Sladek, Rob and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Wilson, James F and Illig, Thomas and Froguel, Philippe and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Stefansson, Kari and Altshuler, David and Boehnke, Michael and McCarthy, Mark I and Soranzo, Nicole and Wheeler, Eleanor and Glazer, Nicole L and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Randall, Joshua and Elliott, Paul and Rybin, Denis and Dehghan, Abbas and Hottenga, Jouke Jan and Song, Kijoung and Goel, Anuj and Lajunen, Taina and Doney, Alex and Cavalcanti-Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Kumari, Meena and Timpson, Nicholas J and Zabena, Carina and Ingelsson, Erik and An, Ping and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Elliott, Amanda and McCarroll, Steven A and Roccasecca, Rosa Maria and Pattou, Fran{\c c}ois and Sethupathy, Praveen and Ariyurek, Yavuz and Barter, Philip and Beilby, John P and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Bergmann, Sven and Bochud, Murielle and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Borch-Johnsen, Knut and B{\"o}ttcher, Yvonne and Brunner, Eric and Bumpstead, Suzannah J and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chines, Peter and Clarke, Robert and Coin, Lachlan J M and Cooper, Matthew N and Crisponi, Laura and Day, Ian N M and de Geus, Eco J C and Delplanque, Jerome and Fedson, Annette C and Fischer-Rosinsky, Antje and Forouhi, Nita G and Franzosi, Maria Grazia and Galan, Pilar and Goodarzi, Mark O and Graessler, J{\"u}rgen and Grundy, Scott and Gwilliam, Rhian and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Hammond, Naomi and Han, Xijing and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hayward, Caroline and Heath, Simon C and Hercberg, Serge and Hillman, David R and Hingorani, Aroon D and Hui, Jennie and Hung, Joe and Kaakinen, Marika and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kesaniemi, Y Antero and Kivimaki, Mika and Knight, Beatrice and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kyvik, Kirsten Ohm and Lathrop, G Mark and Lawlor, Debbie A and Le Bacquer, Olivier and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Li, Yun and Mahley, Robert and Mangino, Massimo and Mart{\'\i}nez-Larrad, Mar{\'\i}a Teresa and McAteer, Jarred B and McPherson, Ruth and Meisinger, Christa and Melzer, David and Meyre, David and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Naitza, Silvia and Neville, Matthew J and Orr{\`u}, Marco and Pakyz, Ruth and Paolisso, Giuseppe and Pattaro, Cristian and Pearson, Daniel and Peden, John F and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pfeiffer, Andreas F H and Pichler, Irene and Polasek, Ozren and Posthuma, Danielle and Potter, Simon C and Pouta, Anneli and Province, Michael A and Rayner, Nigel W and Rice, Kenneth and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rolandsson, Olov and Sandbaek, Annelli and Sandhu, Manjinder and Sanna, Serena and Sayer, Avan Aihie and Scheet, Paul and Seedorf, Udo and Sharp, Stephen J and Shields, Beverley and Sigur{\dh}sson, Gunnar and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Silveira, Angela and Simpson, Laila and Singleton, Andrew and Smith, Nicholas L and Sovio, Ulla and Swift, Amy and Syddall, Holly and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Varma, Dhiraj and Visvikis-Siest, Sophie and Vitart, Veronique and Vogelzangs, Nicole and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wagner, Peter J and Walley, Andrew and Ward, Kim L and Watkins, Hugh and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witteman, Jaqueline C M and Yarnell, John W G and Zelenika, Diana and Zethelius, Bj{\"o}rn and Zhai, Guangju and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zillikens, M Carola and Borecki, Ingrid B and Meneton, Pierre and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Nathan, David M and Williams, Gordon H and Silander, Kaisa and Bornstein, Stefan R and Schwarz, Peter and Spranger, Joachim and Karpe, Fredrik and Shuldiner, Alan R and Cooper, Cyrus and Serrano-R{\'\i}os, Manuel and Lind, Lars and Palmer, Lyle J and Hu, Frank B and Franks, Paul W and Ebrahim, Shah and Marmot, Michael and Kao, W H Linda and Pramstaller, Peter Paul and Wright, Alan F and Stumvoll, Michael and Hamsten, Anders and Buchanan, Thomas A and Valle, Timo T and Rotter, Jerome I and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Boomsma, Dorret I and Cao, Antonio and Scuteri, Angelo and Schlessinger, David and Uda, Manuela and Ruokonen, Aimo and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Peltonen, Leena and Mooser, Vincent and Sladek, Robert and Musunuru, Kiran and Smith, Albert V and Edmondson, Andrew C and Stylianou, Ioannis M and Koseki, Masahiro and Pirruccello, James P and Chasman, Daniel I and Johansen, Christopher T and Fouchier, Sigrid W and Peloso, Gina M and Barbalic, Maja and Ricketts, Sally L and Bis, Joshua C and Feitosa, Mary F and Orho-Melander, Marju and Melander, Olle and Li, Xiaohui and Li, Mingyao and Cho, Yoon Shin and Go, Min Jin and Kim, Young Jin and Lee, Jong-Young and Park, Taesung and Kim, Kyunga and Sim, Xueling and Ong, Rick Twee-Hee and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Lange, Leslie A and Smith, Joshua D and Ziegler, Andreas and Zhang, Weihua and Zee, Robert Y L and Whitfield, John B and Thompson, John R and Surakka, Ida and Spector, Tim D and Smit, Johannes H and Sinisalo, Juha and Scott, James and Saharinen, Juha and Sabatti, Chiara and Rose, Lynda M and Roberts, Robert and Rieder, Mark and Parker, Alex N and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nieminen, Markku S and Nickerson, Deborah A and Montgomery, Grant W and McArdle, Wendy and Masson, David and Martin, Nicholas G and Marroni, Fabio and Lucas, Gavin and Luben, Robert and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lettre, Guillaume and Launer, Lenore J and Lakatta, Edward G and Laaksonen, Reijo and Kyvik, Kirsten O and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kaplan, Lee M and Johansson, Asa and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Igl, Wilmar and Hovingh, G Kees and Hengstenberg, Christian and Havulinna, Aki S and Hastie, Nicholas D and Harris, Tamara B and Haritunians, Talin and Hall, Alistair S and Groop, Leif C and Gonzalez, Elena and Freimer, Nelson B and Erdmann, Jeanette and Ejebe, Kenechi G and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Dominiczak, Anna F and Demissie, Serkalem and Deloukas, Panagiotis and de Faire, Ulf and Crawford, Gabriel and Chen, Yii-der I and Caulfield, Mark J and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Assimes, Themistocles L and Quertermous, Thomas and Seielstad, Mark and Wong, Tien Y and Tai, E-Shyong and Feranil, Alan B and Kuzawa, Christopher W and Taylor, Herman A and Gabriel, Stacey B and Holm, Hilma and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Krauss, Ronald M and Ordovas, Jose M and Munroe, Patricia B and Kooner, Jaspal S and Tall, Alan R and Hegele, Robert A and Kastelein, John J P and Schadt, Eric E and Strachan, David P and Reilly, Muredach P and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Ridker, Paul M and Rader, Daniel J and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @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 {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 {6558, title = {Large multiethnic Candidate Gene Study for C-reactive protein levels: identification of a novel association at CD36 in African Americans.}, journal = {Hum Genet}, volume = {133}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug}, pages = {985-95}, abstract = {

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a heritable biomarker of systemic inflammation and a predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Large-scale genetic association studies for CRP have largely focused on individuals of European descent. We sought to uncover novel genetic variants for CRP in a multiethnic sample using the ITMAT Broad-CARe (IBC) array, a custom 50,000 SNP gene-centric array having dense coverage of over 2,000 candidate CVD genes. We performed analyses on 7,570 African Americans (AA) from the Candidate gene Association Resource (CARe) study and race-combined meta-analyses that included 29,939 additional individuals of European descent from CARe, the Women{\textquoteright}s Health Initiative (WHI) and KORA studies. We observed array-wide significance (p < 2.2 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) for four loci in AA, three of which have been reported previously in individuals of European descent (IL6R, p = 2.0 {\texttimes} 10(-6); CRP, p = 4.2 {\texttimes} 10(-71); APOE, p = 1.6 {\texttimes} 10(-6)). The fourth significant locus, CD36 (p = 1.6 {\texttimes} 10(-6)), was observed at a functional variant (rs3211938) that is extremely rare in individuals of European descent. We replicated the CD36 finding (p = 1.8 {\texttimes} 10(-5)) in an independent sample of 8,041 AA women from WHI; a meta-analysis combining the CARe and WHI AA results at rs3211938 reached genome-wide significance (p = 1.5 {\texttimes} 10(-10)). In the race-combined meta-analyses, 13 loci reached significance, including ten (CRP, TOMM40/APOE/APOC1, HNF1A, LEPR, GCKR, IL6R, IL1RN, NLRP3, HNF4A and BAZ1B/BCL7B) previously associated with CRP, and one (ARNTL) previously reported to be nominally associated with CRP. Two novel loci were also detected (RPS6KB1, p = 2.0 {\texttimes} 10(-6); CD36, p = 1.4 {\texttimes} 10(-6)). These results highlight both shared and unique genetic risk factors for CRP in AA compared to populations of European descent.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, CD36 Antigens, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetics, Population, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1432-1203}, doi = {10.1007/s00439-014-1439-z}, author = {Ellis, Jaclyn and Lange, Ethan M and Li, Jin and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Baumert, Jens and Walston, Jeremy D and Keating, Brendan J and Durda, Peter and Fox, Ervin R and Palmer, Cameron D and Meng, Yan A and Young, Taylor and Farlow, Deborah N and Schnabel, Renate B and Marzi, Carola S and Larkin, Emma and Martin, Lisa W and Bis, Joshua C and Auer, Paul and Ramachandran, Vasan S and Gabriel, Stacey B and Willis, Monte S and Pankow, James S and Papanicolaou, George J and Rotter, Jerome I and Ballantyne, Christie M and Gross, Myron D and Lettre, Guillaume and Wilson, James G and Peters, Ulrike and Koenig, Wolfgang and Tracy, Russell P and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alex P and Benjamin, Emelia J and Lange, Leslie A} } @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 {7138, title = {Exome Genotyping Identifies Pleiotropic Variants Associated with Red Blood Cell Traits.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {99}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul 7}, pages = {8-21}, abstract = {

Red blood cell (RBC) traits are important heritable clinical biomarkers and modifiers of disease severity. To identify coding genetic variants associated with these traits, we conducted meta-analyses of seven RBC phenotypes in 130,273 multi-ethnic individuals from~studies genotyped on an exome array. After conditional analyses and replication in 27,480 independent individuals, we identified 16 new RBC variants. We found low-frequency missense variants in MAP1A (rs55707100, minor allele frequency [MAF] = 3.3\%, p = 2~{\texttimes}~10(-10) for hemoglobin [HGB]) and HNF4A (rs1800961, MAF = 2.4\%, p < 3~{\texttimes} 10(-8) for hematocrit [HCT] and HGB). In African Americans, we identified a nonsense variant in CD36 associated with higher RBC distribution width (rs3211938, MAF = 8.7\%, p = 7~{\texttimes} 10(-11)) and showed that it is associated with lower CD36 expression and strong allelic imbalance in ex~vivo differentiated human erythroblasts. We also identified a rare missense variant in ALAS2 (rs201062903, MAF = 0.2\%) associated with lower mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (p < 8~{\texttimes} 10(-9)). Mendelian mutations in ALAS2 are a cause of sideroblastic anemia and erythropoietic protoporphyria. Gene-based testing highlighted three rare missense variants in PKLR, a gene mutated in Mendelian non-spherocytic hemolytic anemia, associated with HGB and HCT (SKAT p < 8~{\texttimes} 10(-7)). These rare, low-frequency, and common RBC variants showed pleiotropy, being also associated with platelet, white blood cell, and lipid traits. Our association results and functional annotation suggest the involvement of new genes in human erythropoiesis. We also confirm that rare and low-frequency variants play a role in the architecture of complex human traits, although their phenotypic effect is generally smaller than originally anticipated.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.05.007}, author = {Chami, Nathalie and Chen, Ming-Huei and Slater, Andrew J and Eicher, John D and Evangelou, Evangelos and Tajuddin, Salman M and Love-Gregory, Latisha and Kacprowski, Tim and Schick, Ursula M and Nomura, Akihiro and Giri, Ayush and Lessard, Samuel and Brody, Jennifer A and Schurmann, Claudia and Pankratz, Nathan and Yanek, Lisa R and Manichaikul, Ani and Pazoki, Raha and Mihailov, Evelin and Hill, W David and Raffield, Laura M and Burt, Amber and Bartz, Traci M and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bottinger, Erwin P and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and Crosslin, David R and de Denus, Simon and Dub{\'e}, Marie-Pierre and Elliott, Paul and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Evans, Michele K and Floyd, James S and Fornage, Myriam and Gao, He and Greinacher, Andreas and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Hernesniemi, Jussi and Highland, Heather M and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Hofman, Albert and Irvin, Marguerite R and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lange, Ethan and Launer, Lenore J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Li, Jin and Liewald, David C M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Yongmei and Lu, Yingchang and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mathias, Rasika A and Melander, Olle and Metspalu, Andres and Mononen, Nina and Nalls, Mike A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Nikus, Kjell and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Chris J and Orho-Melander, Marju and Pedersen, Oluf and Petersmann, Astrid and Polfus, Linda and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Raitoharju, Emma and Richard, Melissa and Rice, Kenneth M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Schmidt, Frank and Smith, Albert Vernon and Starr, John M and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Thuesen, Betina H and Torstenson, Eric S and Tracy, Russell P and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Zakai, Neil A and Vacchi-Suzzi, Caterina and van Duijn, Cornelia M and van Rooij, Frank J A and Cushman, Mary and Deary, Ian J and Velez Edwards, Digna R and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Wallentin, Lars and Waterworth, Dawn M and White, Harvey D and Wilson, James G and Zonderman, Alan B and Kathiresan, Sekar and Grarup, Niels and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Loos, Ruth J F and Lange, Leslie A and Faraday, Nauder and Abumrad, Nada A and Edwards, Todd L and Ganesh, Santhi K and Auer, Paul L and Johnson, Andrew D and Reiner, Alexander P and Lettre, Guillaume} } @article {7146, title = {Large-Scale Exome-wide Association Analysis Identifies Loci for White Blood Cell Traits and Pleiotropy with Immune-Mediated Diseases.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {99}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul 7}, pages = {22-39}, abstract = {

White blood cells play diverse roles in innate and adaptive immunity. Genetic association analyses of phenotypic variation in circulating white blood cell (WBC) counts from large samples of otherwise healthy individuals can provide insights into genes and biologic pathways involved in production, differentiation, or clearance of particular WBC lineages (myeloid, lymphoid) and also potentially inform the genetic basis of autoimmune, allergic, and blood diseases. We performed an exome array-based meta-analysis of total WBC and subtype counts (neutrophils, monocytes, lymphocytes, basophils, and eosinophils) in a multi-ancestry discovery and replication sample of~\~{}157,622 individuals from 25 studies. We identified 16 common variants (8 of which were coding variants) associated with one or more WBC traits, the majority of which are pleiotropically associated with autoimmune diseases. Based on functional annotation, these loci included genes encoding surface markers of myeloid, lymphoid, or hematopoietic stem cell differentiation (CD69, CD33, CD87), transcription factors regulating lineage specification during hematopoiesis (ASXL1, IRF8, IKZF1, JMJD1C, ETS2-PSMG1), and molecules involved in neutrophil clearance/apoptosis (C10orf54, LTA), adhesion (TNXB), or centrosome and microtubule structure/function (KIF9, TUBD1). Together with recent reports of somatic ASXL1 mutations among individuals with idiopathic cytopenias or clonal hematopoiesis of undetermined significance, the identification of a common regulatory 3{\textquoteright} UTR variant of ASXL1 suggests that both germline and somatic ASXL1 mutations contribute to lower blood counts in otherwise asymptomatic individuals. These association results shed light on genetic mechanisms that regulate circulating WBC counts and suggest a prominent shared genetic architecture with inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.05.003}, author = {Tajuddin, Salman M and Schick, Ursula M and Eicher, John D and Chami, Nathalie and Giri, Ayush and Brody, Jennifer A and Hill, W David and Kacprowski, Tim and Li, Jin and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Manichaikul, Ani and Mihailov, Evelin and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and Pankratz, Nathan and Pazoki, Raha and Polfus, Linda M and Smith, Albert Vernon and Schurmann, Claudia and Vacchi-Suzzi, Caterina and Waterworth, Dawn M and Evangelou, Evangelos and Yanek, Lisa R and Burt, Amber and Chen, Ming-Huei and van Rooij, Frank J A and Floyd, James S and Greinacher, Andreas and Harris, Tamara B and Highland, Heather M and Lange, Leslie A and Liu, Yongmei and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Nalls, Mike A and Mathias, Rasika A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Nikus, Kjell and Starr, John M and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Velez Edwards, Digna R and Wallentin, Lars and Bartz, Traci M and Becker, Lewis C and Denny, Joshua C and Raffield, Laura M and Rioux, John D and Friedrich, Nele and Fornage, Myriam and Gao, He and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Liewald, David C M and Rich, Stephen S and Uitterlinden, Andre and Bastarache, Lisa and Becker, Diane M and Boerwinkle, Eric and de Denus, Simon and Bottinger, Erwin P and Hayward, Caroline and Hofman, Albert and Homuth, Georg and Lange, Ethan and Launer, Lenore J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lu, Yingchang and Metspalu, Andres and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Chris J and Quarells, Rakale C and Richard, Melissa and Torstenson, Eric S and Taylor, Kent D and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Zonderman, Alan B and Crosslin, David R and Deary, Ian J and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Elliott, Paul and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Slater, Andrew J and Dehghan, Abbas and White, Harvey D and Ganesh, Santhi K and Loos, Ruth J F and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Faraday, Nauder and Wilson, James G and Cushman, Mary and Johnson, Andrew D and Edwards, Todd L and Zakai, Neil A and Lettre, Guillaume and Reiner, Alex P and Auer, Paul L} } @article {7139, title = {Platelet-Related Variants Identified by Exomechip Meta-analysis in 157,293 Individuals.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {99}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul 7}, pages = {40-55}, abstract = {

Platelet production, maintenance, and clearance are tightly controlled processes indicative of platelets{\textquoteright} important roles in hemostasis and thrombosis. Platelets are common targets for primary and secondary prevention of several conditions. They are monitored clinically by complete blood counts, specifically with measurements of platelet count (PLT) and mean platelet volume (MPV). Identifying genetic effects on PLT and MPV can provide mechanistic insights into platelet biology and their role in disease. Therefore, we formed the Blood Cell Consortium (BCX) to perform a large-scale meta-analysis of Exomechip association results for PLT and MPV in 157,293 and 57,617 individuals, respectively. Using the low-frequency/rare coding variant-enriched Exomechip genotyping array, we sought to identify genetic variants associated with PLT and MPV. In addition to confirming 47 known PLT and 20 known MPV associations, we identified 32 PLT and 18 MPV associations not previously observed in the literature across the allele frequency spectrum, including rare large effect (FCER1A), low-frequency (IQGAP2, MAP1A, LY75), and common (ZMIZ2, SMG6, PEAR1, ARFGAP3/PACSIN2) variants. Several variants associated with PLT/MPV (PEAR1, MRVI1, PTGES3) were also associated with platelet reactivity. In concurrent BCX analyses, there was overlap of platelet-associated variants with red (MAP1A, TMPRSS6, ZMIZ2) and white (PEAR1, ZMIZ2, LY75) blood cell traits, suggesting common regulatory pathways with shared genetic architecture among these hematopoietic lineages. Our large-scale Exomechip analyses identified previously undocumented associations with platelet traits and further indicate that several complex quantitative hematological, lipid, and cardiovascular traits share genetic factors.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.05.005}, author = {Eicher, John D and Chami, Nathalie and Kacprowski, Tim and Nomura, Akihiro and Chen, Ming-Huei and Yanek, Lisa R and Tajuddin, Salman M and Schick, Ursula M and Slater, Andrew J and Pankratz, Nathan and Polfus, Linda and Schurmann, Claudia and Giri, Ayush and Brody, Jennifer A and Lange, Leslie A and Manichaikul, Ani and Hill, W David and Pazoki, Raha and Elliot, Paul and Evangelou, Evangelos and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Gao, He and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Mathias, Rasika A and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Burt, Amber and Crosslin, David R and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nikus, Kjell and Hernesniemi, Jussi and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Raitoharju, Emma and Mononen, Nina and Raitakari, Olli T and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Cushman, Mary and Zakai, Neil A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Raffield, Laura M and Quarells, Rakale and Willer, Cristen J and Peloso, Gina M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Liu, Dajiang J and Deloukas, Panos and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Erdmann, Jeanette and Fornage, Myriam and Richard, Melissa and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Rioux, John D and Dub{\'e}, Marie-Pierre and de Denus, Simon and Lu, Yingchang and Bottinger, Erwin P and Loos, Ruth J F and Smith, Albert Vernon and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Velez Edwards, Digna R and Torstenson, Eric S and Liu, Yongmei and Tracy, Russell P and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Highland, Heather M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Li, Jin and Lange, Ethan and Wilson, James G and Mihailov, Evelin and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Hirschhorn, Joel and Metspalu, Andres and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Vacchi-Suzzi, Caterina and Nalls, Mike A and Zonderman, Alan B and Evans, Michele K and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Orho-Melander, Marju and Melander, Olle and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and Waterworth, Dawn M and Wallentin, Lars and White, Harvey D and Floyd, James S and Bartz, Traci M and Rice, Kenneth M and Psaty, Bruce M and Starr, J M and Liewald, David C M and Hayward, Caroline and Deary, Ian J and Greinacher, Andreas and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Thiele, Thomas and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and van Rooij, Frank J A and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Dehghan, Abbas and Edwards, Todd L and Ganesh, Santhi K and Kathiresan, Sekar and Faraday, Nauder and Auer, Paul L and Reiner, Alex P and Lettre, Guillaume and Johnson, Andrew D} } @article {7263, title = {Whole-Exome Sequencing Identifies Loci Associated with Blood Cell Traits and Reveals a Role for Alternative GFI1B Splice Variants in Human Hematopoiesis.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {99}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Sep 01}, pages = {785}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.08.002}, author = {Polfus, Linda M and Khajuria, Rajiv K and Schick, Ursula M and Pankratz, Nathan and Pazoki, Raha and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Ming-Huei and Auer, Paul L and Floyd, James S and Huang, Jie and Lange, Leslie and van Rooij, Frank J A and Gibbs, Richard A and Metcalf, Ginger and Muzny, Donna and Veeraraghavan, Narayanan and Walter, Klaudia and Chen, Lu and Yanek, Lisa and Becker, Lewis C and Peloso, Gina M and Wakabayashi, Aoi and Kals, Mart and Metspalu, Andres and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fox, Keolu and Wallace, Robert and Franceschini, Nora and Matijevic, Nena and Rice, Kenneth M and Bartz, Traci M and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Raitakari, Olli T and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Lettre, Guillaume and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Franco, Oscar H and Rich, Stephen S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wilson, James G and Psaty, Bruce M and Soranzo, Nicole and Dehghan, Abbas and Boerwinkle, Eric and Zhang, Xiaoling and Johnson, Andrew D and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Johnsen, Jill M and Reiner, Alexander P and Ganesh, Santhi K and Sankaran, Vijay G} } @article {7577, title = {Rare coding variants pinpoint genes that control human hematological traits.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {13}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Aug}, pages = {e1006925}, abstract = {

The identification of rare coding or splice site variants remains the most straightforward strategy to link genes with human phenotypes. Here, we analyzed the association between 137,086 rare (minor allele frequency (MAF) <1\%) coding or splice site variants and 15 hematological traits in up to 308,572 participants. We found 56 such rare coding or splice site variants at P<5x10-8, including 31 that are associated with a blood-cell phenotype for the first time. All but one of these 31 new independent variants map to loci previously implicated in hematopoiesis by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). This includes a rare splice acceptor variant (rs146597587, MAF = 0.5\%) in interleukin 33 (IL33) associated with reduced eosinophil count (P = 2.4x10-23), and lower risk of asthma (P = 2.6x10-7, odds ratio [95\% confidence interval] = 0.56 [0.45-0.70]) and allergic rhinitis (P = 4.2x10-4, odds ratio = 0.55 [0.39-0.76]). The single new locus identified in our study is defined by a rare p.Arg172Gly missense variant (rs145535174, MAF = 0.05\%) in plasminogen (PLG) associated with increased platelet count (P = 6.8x10-9), and decreased D-dimer concentration (P = 0.018) and platelet reactivity (P<0.03). Finally, our results indicate that searching for rare coding or splice site variants in very large sample sizes can help prioritize causal genes at many GWAS loci associated with complex human diseases and traits.

}, keywords = {Asthma, Databases, Genetic, Endometriosis, Female, Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Interleukin-33, Linear Models, Logistic Models, Male, Mutation, Missense, Phenotype, Plasminogen, Platelet Count, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Principal Component Analysis, Protein Splicing, Rhinitis, Allergic, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1006925}, author = {Mousas, Abdou and Ntritsos, Georgios and Chen, Ming-Huei and Song, Ci and Huffman, Jennifer E and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Elliott, Paul and Psaty, Bruce M and Auer, Paul L and Johnson, Andrew D and Evangelou, Evangelos and Lettre, Guillaume and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {8490, title = {The Polygenic and Monogenic Basis of Blood Traits and Diseases.}, journal = {Cell}, volume = {182}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Sep 03}, pages = {1214-1231.e11}, abstract = {

Blood cells play essential roles in human health, underpinning physiological processes such as immunity, oxygen transport, and clotting, which when perturbed cause a significant global health burden. Here we integrate data from UK Biobank and a large-scale international collaborative effort, including data for 563,085 European ancestry participants, and discover 5,106 new genetic variants independently associated with 29 blood cell phenotypes covering a range of variation impacting hematopoiesis. We holistically characterize the genetic architecture of hematopoiesis, assess the relevance of the omnigenic model to blood cell phenotypes, delineate relevant hematopoietic cell states influenced by regulatory genetic variants and gene networks, identify novel splice-altering variants mediating the associations, and assess the polygenic prediction potential for blood traits and clinical disorders at the interface of complex and Mendelian genetics. These results show the power of large-scale blood cell trait GWAS to interrogate clinically meaningful variants across a wide allelic spectrum of human variation.

}, issn = {1097-4172}, doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2020.08.008}, author = {Vuckovic, Dragana and Bao, Erik L and Akbari, Parsa and Lareau, Caleb A and Mousas, Abdou and Jiang, Tao and Chen, Ming-Huei and Raffield, Laura M and Tardaguila, Manuel and Huffman, Jennifer E and Ritchie, Scott C and Megy, Karyn and Ponstingl, Hannes and Penkett, Christopher J and Albers, Patrick K and Wigdor, Emilie M and Sakaue, Saori and Moscati, Arden and Manansala, Regina and Lo, Ken Sin and Qian, Huijun and Akiyama, Masato and Bartz, Traci M and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Beswick, Andrew and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bottinger, Erwin P and Brody, Jennifer A and van Rooij, Frank J A and Chitrala, Kumaraswamy N and Wilson, Peter W F and Choquet, Helene and Danesh, John and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Dimou, Niki and Ding, Jingzhong and Elliott, Paul and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Evans, Michele K and Felix, Stephan B and Floyd, James S and Broer, Linda and Grarup, Niels and Guo, Michael H and Guo, Qi and Greinacher, Andreas and Haessler, Jeff and Hansen, Torben and Howson, Joanna M M and Huang, Wei and Jorgenson, Eric and Kacprowski, Tim and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kanai, Masahiro and Karthikeyan, Savita and Koskeridis, Fotios and Lange, Leslie A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Yongmei and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Manichaikul, Ani and Matsuda, Koichi and Mohlke, Karen L and Mononen, Nina and Murakami, Yoshinori and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nikus, Kjell and Pankratz, Nathan and Pedersen, Oluf and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Rich, Stephen S and Rodriguez, Benjamin A T and Rosen, Jonathan D and Rotter, Jerome I and Schubert, Petra and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Surendran, Praveen and Tang, Hua and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Ghanbari, Mohsen and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Watkins, Nicholas A and Weiss, Stefan and Cai, Na and Kundu, Kousik and Watt, Stephen B and Walter, Klaudia and Zonderman, Alan B and Cho, Kelly and Li, Yun and Loos, Ruth J F and Knight, Julian C and Georges, Michel and Stegle, Oliver and Evangelou, Evangelos and Okada, Yukinori and Roberts, David J and Inouye, Michael and Johnson, Andrew D and Auer, Paul L and Astle, William J and Reiner, Alexander P and Butterworth, Adam S and Ouwehand, Willem H and Lettre, Guillaume and Sankaran, Vijay G and Soranzo, Nicole} } @article {8481, title = {Trans-ethnic and Ancestry-Specific Blood-Cell Genetics in 746,667 Individuals from 5 Global Populations.}, journal = {Cell}, volume = {182}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Sep 03}, pages = {1198-1213.e14}, abstract = {

Most loci identified by GWASs have been found in populations of European ancestry (EUR). In trans-ethnic meta-analyses for 15 hematological traits in 746,667 participants, including 184,535 non-EUR individuals, we identified 5,552 trait-variant associations at p~< 5~{\texttimes} 10, including 71 novel associations not found in EUR populations. We also identified 28 additional novel variants in ancestry-specific, non-EUR meta-analyses, including an IL7 missense variant in South Asians associated with lymphocyte count in~vivo and IL-7 secretion levels in~vitro. Fine-mapping prioritized variants annotated as functional and generated 95\% credible sets that were 30\% smaller when using the trans-ethnic as opposed to the EUR-only results. We explored the clinical significance and predictive value of trans-ethnic variants in multiple populations and compared genetic architecture and the effect of natural selection on these blood phenotypes between populations. Altogether, our results for hematological traits highlight the value of a more global representation of populations in genetic studies.

}, issn = {1097-4172}, doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2020.06.045}, author = {Chen, Ming-Huei and Raffield, Laura M and Mousas, Abdou and Sakaue, Saori and Huffman, Jennifer E and Moscati, Arden and Trivedi, Bhavi and Jiang, Tao and Akbari, Parsa and Vuckovic, Dragana and Bao, Erik L and Zhong, Xue and Manansala, Regina and Laplante, V{\'e}ronique and Chen, Minhui and Lo, Ken Sin and Qian, Huijun and Lareau, Caleb A and Beaudoin, M{\'e}lissa and Hunt, Karen A and Akiyama, Masato and Bartz, Traci M and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Beswick, Andrew and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bottinger, Erwin P and Brody, Jennifer A and van Rooij, Frank J A and Chitrala, Kumaraswamynaidu and Cho, Kelly and Choquet, Helene and Correa, Adolfo and Danesh, John and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Dimou, Niki and Ding, Jingzhong and Elliott, Paul and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Evans, Michele K and Floyd, James S and Broer, Linda and Grarup, Niels and Guo, Michael H and Greinacher, Andreas and Haessler, Jeff and Hansen, Torben and Howson, Joanna M M and Huang, Qin Qin and Huang, Wei and Jorgenson, Eric and Kacprowski, Tim and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kanai, Masahiro and Karthikeyan, Savita and Koskeridis, Fotis and Lange, Leslie A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lerch, Markus M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Yongmei and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Manichaikul, Ani and Martin, Hilary C and Matsuda, Koichi and Mohlke, Karen L and Mononen, Nina and Murakami, Yoshinori and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nauck, Matthias and Nikus, Kjell and Ouwehand, Willem H and Pankratz, Nathan and Pedersen, Oluf and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Roberts, David J and Rich, Stephen S and Rodriguez, Benjamin A T and Rosen, Jonathan D and Rotter, Jerome I and Schubert, Petra and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Surendran, Praveen and Tang, Hua and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Trembath, Richard C and Ghanbari, Mohsen and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Watkins, Nicholas A and Zonderman, Alan B and Wilson, Peter W F and Li, Yun and Butterworth, Adam S and Gauchat, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Chiang, Charleston W K and Li, Bingshan and Loos, Ruth J F and Astle, William J and Evangelou, Evangelos and van Heel, David A and Sankaran, Vijay G and Okada, Yukinori and Soranzo, Nicole and Johnson, Andrew D and Reiner, Alexander P and Auer, Paul L and Lettre, Guillaume} } @article {8705, title = {Discovery and fine-mapping of height loci via high-density imputation of GWASs in individuals of African ancestry.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {108}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Apr 01}, pages = {564-582}, abstract = {

Although many loci have been associated with height in European ancestry populations, very few have been identified in African ancestry individuals. Furthermore, many of the known loci have yet to be generalized to and fine-mapped within a large-scale African ancestry sample. We performed sex-combined and sex-stratified meta-analyses in up to 52,764 individuals with height and genome-wide genotyping data from the African Ancestry Anthropometry Genetics Consortium (AAAGC). We additionally combined our African ancestry meta-analysis results with published European genome-wide association study (GWAS) data. In the African ancestry analyses, we identified three novel loci (SLC4A3, NCOA2, ECD/FAM149B1) in sex-combined results and two loci (CRB1, KLF6) in women only. In the African plus European sex-combined GWAS, we identified an additional three novel loci (RCCD1, G6PC3, CEP95) which were equally driven by AAAGC and European results. Among 39 genome-wide significant signals at known loci, conditioning index SNPs from European studies identified 20 secondary signals. Two of the 20 new secondary signals and none of the 8 novel loci had minor allele frequencies (MAF) < 5\%. Of 802 known European height signals, 643 displayed directionally consistent associations with height, of which 205 were nominally significant (p < 0.05) in the African ancestry sex-combined sample. Furthermore, 148 of 241 loci contained <=20 variants in the credible sets that jointly account for 99\% of the posterior probability of driving the associations. In summary, trans-ethnic meta-analyses revealed novel signals and further improved fine-mapping of putative causal variants in loci shared between African and European ancestry populations.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.02.011}, author = {Graff, Mariaelisa and Justice, Anne E and Young, Kristin L and Marouli, Eirini and Zhang, Xinruo and Fine, Rebecca S and Lim, Elise and Buchanan, Victoria and Rand, Kristin and Feitosa, Mary F and Wojczynski, Mary K and Yanek, Lisa R and Shao, Yaming and Rohde, Rebecca and Adeyemo, Adebowale A and Aldrich, Melinda C and Allison, Matthew A and Ambrosone, Christine B and Ambs, Stefan and Amos, Christopher and Arnett, Donna K and Atwood, Larry and Bandera, Elisa V and Bartz, Traci and Becker, Diane M and Berndt, Sonja I and Bernstein, Leslie and Bielak, Lawrence F and Blot, William J and Bottinger, Erwin P and Bowden, Donald W and Bradfield, Jonathan P and Brody, Jennifer A and Broeckel, Ulrich and Burke, Gregory and Cade, Brian E and Cai, Qiuyin and Caporaso, Neil and Carlson, Chris and Carpten, John and Casey, Graham and Chanock, Stephen J and Chen, Guanjie and Chen, Minhui and Chen, Yii-der I and Chen, Wei-Min and Chesi, Alessandra and Chiang, Charleston W K and Chu, Lisa and Coetzee, Gerry A and Conti, David V and Cooper, Richard S and Cushman, Mary and Demerath, Ellen and Deming, Sandra L and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Ding, Jingzhong and Diver, W Ryan and Duan, Qing and Evans, Michele K and Falusi, Adeyinka G and Faul, Jessica D and Fornage, Myriam and Fox, Caroline and Freedman, Barry I and Garcia, Melissa and Gillanders, Elizabeth M and Goodman, Phyllis and Gottesman, Omri and Grant, Struan F A and Guo, Xiuqing and Hakonarson, Hakon and Haritunians, Talin and Harris, Tamara B and Harris, Curtis C and Henderson, Brian E and Hennis, Anselm and Hernandez, Dena G and Hirschhorn, Joel N and McNeill, Lorna Haughton and Howard, Timothy D and Howard, Barbara and Hsing, Ann W and Hsu, Yu-Han H and Hu, Jennifer J and Huff, Chad D and Huo, Dezheng and Ingles, Sue A and Irvin, Marguerite R and John, Esther M and Johnson, Karen C and Jordan, Joanne M and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Kang, Sun J and Kardia, Sharon L and Keating, Brendan J and Kittles, Rick A and Klein, Eric A and Kolb, Suzanne and Kolonel, Laurence N and Kooperberg, Charles and Kuller, Lewis and Kutlar, Abdullah and Lange, Leslie and Langefeld, Carl D and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Leonard, Hampton and Lettre, Guillaume and Levin, Albert M and Li, Yun and Li, Jin and Liu, Yongmei and Liu, Youfang and Liu, Simin and Lohman, Kurt and Lotay, Vaneet and Lu, Yingchang and Maixner, William and Manson, JoAnn E and McKnight, Barbara and Meng, Yan and Monda, Keri L and Monroe, Kris and Moore, Jason H and Mosley, Thomas H and Mudgal, Poorva and Murphy, Adam B and Nadukuru, Rajiv and Nalls, Mike A and Nathanson, Katherine L and Nayak, Uma and N{\textquoteright}diaye, Amidou and Nemesure, Barbara and Neslund-Dudas, Christine and Neuhouser, Marian L and Nyante, Sarah and Ochs-Balcom, Heather and Ogundiran, Temidayo O and Ogunniyi, Adesola and Ojengbede, Oladosu and Okut, Hayrettin and Olopade, Olufunmilayo I and Olshan, Andrew and Padhukasahasram, Badri and Palmer, Julie and Palmer, Cameron D and Palmer, Nicholette D and Papanicolaou, George and Patel, Sanjay R and Pettaway, Curtis A and Peyser, Patricia A and Press, Michael F and Rao, D C and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alex P and Rhie, Suhn K and Rodriguez-Gil, Jorge L and Rotimi, Charles N and Rotter, Jerome I and Ruiz-Narvaez, Edward A and Rybicki, Benjamin A and Salako, Babatunde and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Sanderson, Maureen and Schadt, Eric and Schreiner, Pamela J and Schurmann, Claudia and Schwartz, Ann G and Shriner, Daniel A and Signorello, Lisa B and Singleton, Andrew B and Siscovick, David S and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Shad and Speliotes, Elizabeth and Spitz, Margaret and Stanford, Janet L and Stevens, Victoria L and Stram, Alex and Strom, Sara S and Sucheston, Lara and Sun, Yan V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Taylor, Herman and Taylor, Kira and Tayo, Bamidele O and Thun, Michael J and Tucker, Margaret A and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Van Den Berg, David J and Vedantam, Sailaja and Vitolins, Mara and Wang, Zhaoming and Ware, Erin B and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Weir, David R and Wiencke, John K and Williams, Scott M and Williams, L Keoki and Wilson, James G and Witte, John S and Wrensch, Margaret and Wu, Xifeng and Yao, Jie and Zakai, Neil and Zanetti, Krista and Zemel, Babette S and Zhao, Wei and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zheng, Wei and Zhi, Degui and Zhou, Jie and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Ziegler, Regina G and Zmuda, Joe and Zonderman, Alan B and Psaty, Bruce M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Liu, Ching-Ti and Haiman, Christopher A and Loos, Ruth and Ng, Maggie C Y and North, Kari E} } @article {8779, title = {Whole-genome sequencing association analysis of quantitative red blood cell phenotypes: The NHLBI TOPMed program.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {108}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 05 06}, pages = {874-893}, abstract = {

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS), a powerful tool for detecting novel coding and non-coding disease-causing variants, has largely been applied to clinical diagnosis of inherited disorders. Here we leveraged WGS data in up to 62,653 ethnically diverse participants from the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program and assessed statistical association of variants with seven red blood cell (RBC) quantitative traits. We discovered 14 single variant-RBC trait associations at 12 genomic loci, which have not been reported previously. Several of the RBC trait-variant associations (RPN1, ELL2, MIDN, HBB, HBA1, PIEZO1, and G6PD) were replicated in independent GWAS datasets imputed to the TOPMed reference panel. Most of these discovered variants are rare/low frequency, and several are observed disproportionately among non-European Ancestry (African, Hispanic/Latino, or East Asian) populations. We identified a 3~bp indel p.Lys2169del (g.88717175_88717177TCT[4]) (common only in the Ashkenazi Jewish population) of PIEZO1, a gene responsible for the Mendelian red cell disorder hereditary xerocytosis (MIM: 194380), associated with higher mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC). In stepwise conditional analysis and in gene-based rare variant aggregated association analysis, we identified several of the variants in HBB, HBA1, TMPRSS6, and G6PD that represent the carrier state for known coding, promoter, or splice site loss-of-function variants that cause inherited RBC disorders. Finally, we applied base and nuclease editing to demonstrate that the sentinel variant rs112097551 (nearest gene RPN1) acts through a cis-regulatory element that exerts long-range control of the gene RUVBL1 which is essential for hematopoiesis. Together, these results demonstrate the utility of WGS in ethnically diverse population-based samples and gene editing for expanding knowledge of the genetic architecture of quantitative hematologic traits and suggest a continuum between complex trait and Mendelian red cell disorders.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 16, Datasets as Topic, Erythrocytes, Female, Gene Editing, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, HEK293 Cells, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Phenotype, Quality Control, Reproducibility of Results, United States}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.04.003}, author = {Hu, Yao and Stilp, Adrienne M and McHugh, Caitlin P and Rao, Shuquan and Jain, Deepti and Zheng, Xiuwen and Lane, John and M{\'e}ric de Bellefon, S{\'e}bastian and Raffield, Laura M and Chen, Ming-Huei and Yanek, Lisa R and Wheeler, Marsha and Yao, Yao and Ren, Chunyan and Broome, Jai and Moon, Jee-Young and de Vries, Paul S and Hobbs, Brian D and Sun, Quan and Surendran, Praveen and Brody, Jennifer A and Blackwell, Thomas W and Choquet, Helene and Ryan, Kathleen and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Wang, Zhe and Chami, Nathalie and Preuss, Michael H and Min, Nancy and Ekunwe, Lynette and Lange, Leslie A and Cushman, Mary and Faraday, Nauder and Curran, Joanne E and Almasy, Laura and Kundu, Kousik and Smith, Albert V and Gabriel, Stacey and Rotter, Jerome I and Fornage, Myriam and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Smith, Nicholas L and North, Kari E and Boerwinkle, Eric and Becker, Lewis C and Lewis, Joshua P and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Hou, Lifang and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Morrison, Alanna C and Beaty, Terri H and Kaplan, Robert and Correa, Adolfo and Blangero, John and Jorgenson, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Kooperberg, Charles and Walton, Russell T and Kleinstiver, Benjamin P and Tang, Hua and Loos, Ruth J F and Soranzo, Nicole and Butterworth, Adam S and Nickerson, Debbie and Rich, Stephen S and Mitchell, Braxton D and Johnson, Andrew D and Auer, Paul L and Li, Yun and Mathias, Rasika A and Lettre, Guillaume and Pankratz, Nathan and Laurie, Cathy C and Laurie, Cecelia A and Bauer, Daniel E and Conomos, Matthew P and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {8914, title = {Whole-genome sequencing in diverse subjects identifies genetic correlates of leukocyte traits: The NHLBI TOPMed program.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {108}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 10 07}, pages = {1836-1851}, abstract = {

Many common and rare variants associated with hematologic traits have been discovered through imputation on large-scale reference panels. However, the majority of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have been conducted in Europeans, and determining causal variants has proved challenging. We performed a GWAS of total leukocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil, and basophil counts generated from 109,563,748 variants in the autosomes and the X chromosome in the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program, which included data from 61,802 individuals of diverse ancestry. We discovered and replicated 7 leukocyte trait associations, including (1) the association between a chromosome X, pseudo-autosomal region (PAR), noncoding variant located between cytokine receptor genes (CSF2RA and CLRF2) and lower eosinophil count; and (2) associations between single variants found predominantly among African Americans at the S1PR3 (9q22.1) and HBB (11p15.4) loci and monocyte and lymphocyte counts, respectively. We further provide evidence indicating that the newly discovered eosinophil-lowering chromosome X PAR variant might be associated with reduced susceptibility to common allergic diseases such as atopic dermatitis and asthma. Additionally, we found a burden of very rare FLT3 (13q12.2) variants associated with monocyte counts. Together, these results emphasize the utility of whole-genome sequencing in diverse samples in identifying associations missed by European-ancestry-driven GWASs.

}, keywords = {Asthma, Biomarkers, Dermatitis, Atopic, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Leukocytes, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prognosis, Proteome, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Quantitative Trait Loci, United Kingdom, United States, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.08.007}, author = {Mikhaylova, Anna V and McHugh, Caitlin P and Polfus, Linda M and Raffield, Laura M and Boorgula, Meher Preethi and Blackwell, Thomas W and Brody, Jennifer A and Broome, Jai and Chami, Nathalie and Chen, Ming-Huei and Conomos, Matthew P and Cox, Corey and Curran, Joanne E and Daya, Michelle and Ekunwe, Lynette and Glahn, David C and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Highland, Heather M and Hobbs, Brian D and Ilboudo, Yann and Jain, Deepti and Lange, Leslie A and Miller-Fleming, Tyne W and Min, Nancy and Moon, Jee-Young and Preuss, Michael H and Rosen, Jonathon and Ryan, Kathleen and Smith, Albert V and Sun, Quan and Surendran, Praveen and de Vries, Paul S and Walter, Klaudia and Wang, Zhe and Wheeler, Marsha and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhong, Xue and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Almasy, Laura and Barnes, Kathleen C and Beaty, Terri H and Becker, Lewis C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Butterworth, Adam S and Chavan, Sameer and Cho, Michael H and Choquet, Helene and Correa, Adolfo and Cox, Nancy and DeMeo, Dawn L and Faraday, Nauder and Fornage, Myriam and Gerszten, Robert E and Hou, Lifang and Johnson, Andrew D and Jorgenson, Eric and Kaplan, Robert and Kooperberg, Charles and Kundu, Kousik and Laurie, Cecelia A and Lettre, Guillaume and Lewis, Joshua P and Li, Bingshan and Li, Yun and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Loos, Ruth J F and Manichaikul, Ani and Meyers, Deborah A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and Ngo, Debby and Nickerson, Deborah A and Nongmaithem, Suraj and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Ortega, Victor E and Pankratz, Nathan and Perry, James A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rich, Stephen S and Soranzo, Nicole and Rotter, Jerome I and Silverman, Edwin K and Smith, Nicholas L and Tang, Hua and Tracy, Russell P and Thornton, Timothy A and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Zein, Joe and Mathias, Rasika A and Reiner, Alexander P and Auer, Paul L} }