@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 {1311, title = {Genetic loci associated with plasma phospholipid n-3 fatty acids: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jul}, pages = {e1002193}, abstract = {

Long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) can derive from diet or from α-linolenic acid (ALA) by elongation and desaturation. We investigated the association of common genetic variation with plasma phospholipid levels of the four major n-3 PUFAs by performing genome-wide association studies in five population-based cohorts comprising 8,866 subjects of European ancestry. Minor alleles of SNPs in FADS1 and FADS2 (desaturases) were associated with higher levels of ALA (p = 3 x 10$^{-}$$^{6}$$^{4}$) and lower levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, p = 5 x 10$^{-}$$^{5}$$^{8}$) and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, p = 4 x 10$^{-}${\textonesuperior}$^{5}$$^{4}$). Minor alleles of SNPs in ELOVL2 (elongase) were associated with higher EPA (p = 2 x 10$^{-}${\textonesuperior}{\texttwosuperior}) and DPA (p = 1 x 10$^{-}$$^{4}${\textthreesuperior}) and lower docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, p = 1 x 10$^{-}${\textonesuperior}$^{5}$). In addition to genes in the n-3 pathway, we identified a novel association of DPA with several SNPs in GCKR (glucokinase regulator, p = 1 x 10$^{-}$$^{8}$). We observed a weaker association between ALA and EPA among carriers of the minor allele of a representative SNP in FADS2 (rs1535), suggesting a lower rate of ALA-to-EPA conversion in these subjects. In samples of African, Chinese, and Hispanic ancestry, associations of n-3 PUFAs were similar with a representative SNP in FADS1 but less consistent with a representative SNP in ELOVL2. Our findings show that common variation in n-3 metabolic pathway genes and in GCKR influences plasma phospholipid levels of n-3 PUFAs in populations of European ancestry and, for FADS1, in other ancestries.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Continental Population Groups, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002193}, author = {Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Tanaka, Toshiko and Tang, Weihong and Manichaikul, Ani and Foy, Millennia and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Nettleton, Jennifer A and King, Irena B and Weng, Lu-Chen and Bhattacharya, Sayanti and Bandinelli, Stefania and Bis, Joshua C and Rich, Stephen S and Jacobs, David R and Cherubini, Antonio and McKnight, Barbara and Liang, Shuang and Gu, Xiangjun and Rice, Kenneth and Laurie, Cathy C and Lumley, Thomas and Browning, Brian L and Psaty, Bruce M and Chen, Yii-der I and Friedlander, Yechiel and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Wu, Jason H Y and Siscovick, David S and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Arnett, Donna K and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fornage, Myriam and Tsai, Michael Y and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Steffen, Lyn M} } @article {6096, title = {Genome-wide association and large-scale follow up identifies 16 new loci influencing lung function.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {43}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 25}, pages = {1082-90}, abstract = {

Pulmonary function measures reflect respiratory health and are used in the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We tested genome-wide association with forced expiratory volume in 1 second and the ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1 second to forced vital capacity in 48,201 individuals of European ancestry with follow up of the top associations in up to an additional 46,411 individuals. We identified new regions showing association (combined P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with pulmonary function in or near MFAP2, TGFB2, HDAC4, RARB, MECOM (also known as EVI1), SPATA9, ARMC2, NCR3, ZKSCAN3, CDC123, C10orf11, LRP1, CCDC38, MMP15, CFDP1 and KCNE2. Identification of these 16 new loci may provide insight into the molecular mechanisms regulating pulmonary function and into molecular targets for future therapy to alleviate reduced lung function.

}, keywords = {Child, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Respiratory Function Tests}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.941}, author = {Soler Artigas, Maria and Loth, Daan W and Wain, Louise V and Gharib, Sina A and Obeidat, Ma{\textquoteright}en and Tang, Wenbo and Zhai, Guangju and Zhao, Jing Hua and Smith, Albert Vernon and Huffman, Jennifer E and Albrecht, Eva and Jackson, Catherine M and Evans, David M and Cadby, Gemma and Fornage, Myriam and Manichaikul, Ani and Lopez, Lorna M and Johnson, Toby and Aldrich, Melinda C and Aspelund, Thor and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Campbell, Harry and Cassano, Patricia A and Couper, David J and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Franceschini, Nora and Garcia, Melissa and Gieger, Christian and Gislason, Gauti Kjartan and Grkovic, Ivica and Hammond, Christopher J and Hancock, Dana B and Harris, Tamara B and Ramasamy, Adaikalavan and Heckbert, Susan R and Heli{\"o}vaara, Markku and Homuth, Georg and Hysi, Pirro G and James, Alan L and Jankovic, Stipan and Joubert, Bonnie R and Karrasch, Stefan and Klopp, Norman and Koch, Beate and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Launer, Lenore J and Liu, Yongmei and Loehr, Laura R and Lohman, Kurt and Loos, Ruth J F and Lumley, Thomas and Al Balushi, Khalid A and Ang, Wei Q and Barr, R Graham and Beilby, John and Blakey, John D and Boban, Mladen and Boraska, Vesna and Brisman, Jonas and Britton, John R and Brusselle, Guy G and Cooper, Cyrus and Curjuric, Ivan and Dahgam, Santosh and Deary, Ian J and Ebrahim, Shah and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Francks, Clyde and Gaysina, Darya and Granell, Raquel and Gu, Xiangjun and Hankinson, John L and Hardy, Rebecca and Harris, Sarah E and Henderson, John and Henry, Amanda and Hingorani, Aroon D and Hofman, Albert and Holt, Patrick G and Hui, Jennie and Hunter, Michael L and Imboden, Medea and Jameson, Karen A and Kerr, Shona M and Kolcic, Ivana and Kronenberg, Florian and Liu, Jason Z and Marchini, Jonathan and McKeever, Tricia and Morris, Andrew D and Olin, Anna-Carin and Porteous, David J and Postma, Dirkje S and Rich, Stephen S and Ring, Susan M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rochat, Thierry and Sayer, Avan Aihie and Sayers, Ian and Sly, Peter D and Smith, George Davey and Sood, Akshay and Starr, John M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vonk, Judith M and Wannamethee, S Goya and Whincup, Peter H and Wijmenga, Cisca and Williams, O Dale and Wong, Andrew and Mangino, Massimo and Marciante, Kristin D and McArdle, Wendy L and Meibohm, Bernd and Morrison, Alanna C and North, Kari E and Omenaas, Ernst and Palmer, Lyle J and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Pin, Isabelle and Pola Sbreve Ek, Ozren and Pouta, Anneli and Psaty, Bruce M and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Rantanen, Taina and Ripatti, Samuli and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Rudnicka, Alicja R and Schulz, Holger and Shin, So-Youn and Spector, Tim D and Surakka, Ida and Vitart, Veronique and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wareham, Nicholas J and Warrington, Nicole M and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wild, Sarah H and Wilk, Jemma B and Wjst, Matthias and Wright, Alan F and Zgaga, Lina and Zemunik, Tatijana and Pennell, Craig E and Nyberg, Fredrik and Kuh, Diana and Holloway, John W and Boezen, H Marike and Lawlor, Debbie A and Morris, Richard W and Probst-Hensch, Nicole and Kaprio, Jaakko and Wilson, James F and Hayward, Caroline and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Heinrich, Joachim and Musk, Arthur W and Jarvis, Deborah L and Gl{\"a}ser, Sven and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Ch Stricker, Bruno H and Elliott, Paul and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Strachan, David P and London, Stephanie J and Hall, Ian P and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Tobin, Martin D} } @article {6092, title = {Genome-wide association studies identify CHRNA5/3 and HTR4 in the development of airflow obstruction.}, journal = {Am J Respir Crit Care Med}, volume = {186}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Oct 01}, pages = {622-32}, abstract = {

RATIONALE: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified loci influencing lung function, but fewer genes influencing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are known.

OBJECTIVES: Perform meta-analyses of GWAS for airflow obstruction, a key pathophysiologic characteristic of COPD assessed by spirometry, in population-based cohorts examining all participants, ever smokers, never smokers, asthma-free participants, and more severe cases.

METHODS: Fifteen cohorts were studied for discovery (3,368 affected; 29,507 unaffected), and a population-based family study and a meta-analysis of case-control studies were used for replication and regional follow-up (3,837 cases; 4,479 control subjects). Airflow obstruction was defined as FEV(1) and its ratio to FVC (FEV(1)/FVC) both less than their respective lower limits of normal as determined by published reference equations.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The discovery meta-analyses identified one region on chromosome 15q25.1 meeting genome-wide significance in ever smokers that includes AGPHD1, IREB2, and CHRNA5/CHRNA3 genes. The region was also modestly associated among never smokers. Gene expression studies confirmed the presence of CHRNA5/3 in lung, airway smooth muscle, and bronchial epithelial cells. A single-nucleotide polymorphism in HTR4, a gene previously related to FEV(1)/FVC, achieved genome-wide statistical significance in combined meta-analysis. Top single-nucleotide polymorphisms in ADAM19, RARB, PPAP2B, and ADAMTS19 were nominally replicated in the COPD meta-analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest an important role for the CHRNA5/3 region as a genetic risk factor for airflow obstruction that may be independent of smoking and implicate the HTR4 gene in the etiology of airflow obstruction.

}, keywords = {Aged, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Receptors, Nicotinic, Receptors, Serotonin, 5-HT4, Smoking, Vital Capacity}, issn = {1535-4970}, doi = {10.1164/rccm.201202-0366OC}, author = {Wilk, Jemma B and Shrine, Nick R G and Loehr, Laura R and Zhao, Jing Hua and Manichaikul, Ani and Lopez, Lorna M and Smith, Albert Vernon and Heckbert, Susan R and Smolonska, Joanna and Tang, Wenbo and Loth, Daan W and Curjuric, Ivan and Hui, Jennie and Cho, Michael H and Latourelle, Jeanne C and Henry, Amanda P and Aldrich, Melinda and Bakke, Per and Beaty, Terri H and Bentley, Amy R and Borecki, Ingrid B and Brusselle, Guy G and Burkart, Kristin M and Chen, Ting-Hsu and Couper, David and Crapo, James D and Davies, Gail and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Franceschini, Nora and Gulsvik, Amund and Hancock, Dana B and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and Imboden, Medea and James, Alan L and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Lahousse, Lies and Launer, Lenore J and Litonjua, Augusto and Liu, Yongmei and Lohman, Kurt K and Lomas, David A and Lumley, Thomas and Marciante, Kristin D and McArdle, Wendy L and Meibohm, Bernd and Morrison, Alanna C and Musk, Arthur W and Myers, Richard H and North, Kari E and Postma, Dirkje S and Psaty, Bruce M and Rich, Stephen S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rochat, Thierry and Rotter, Jerome I and Soler Artigas, Maria and Starr, John M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wijmenga, Cisca and Zanen, Pieter and Province, Michael A and Silverman, Edwin K and Deary, Ian J and Palmer, Lyle J and Cassano, Patricia A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Barr, R Graham and Loos, Ruth J F and Strachan, David P and London, Stephanie J and Boezen, H Marike and Probst-Hensch, Nicole and Gharib, Sina A and Hall, Ian P and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Tobin, Martin D and Stricker, Bruno H} } @article {6088, title = {Genome-wide joint meta-analysis of SNP and SNP-by-smoking interaction identifies novel loci for pulmonary function.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e1003098}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies have identified numerous genetic loci for spirometic measures of pulmonary function, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV(1)), and its ratio to forced vital capacity (FEV(1)/FVC). Given that cigarette smoking adversely affects pulmonary function, we conducted genome-wide joint meta-analyses (JMA) of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and SNP-by-smoking (ever-smoking or pack-years) associations on FEV(1) and FEV(1)/FVC across 19 studies (total N = 50,047). We identified three novel loci not previously associated with pulmonary function. SNPs in or near DNER (smallest P(JMA = )5.00{\texttimes}10(-11)), HLA-DQB1 and HLA-DQA2 (smallest P(JMA = )4.35{\texttimes}10(-9)), and KCNJ2 and SOX9 (smallest P(JMA = )1.28{\texttimes}10(-8)) were associated with FEV(1)/FVC or FEV(1) in meta-analysis models including SNP main effects, smoking main effects, and SNP-by-smoking (ever-smoking or pack-years) interaction. The HLA region has been widely implicated for autoimmune and lung phenotypes, unlike the other novel loci, which have not been widely implicated. We evaluated DNER, KCNJ2, and SOX9 and found them to be expressed in human lung tissue. DNER and SOX9 further showed evidence of differential expression in human airway epithelium in smokers compared to non-smokers. Our findings demonstrated that joint testing of SNP and SNP-by-environment interaction identified novel loci associated with complex traits that are missed when considering only the genetic main effects.

}, keywords = {Forced Expiratory Volume, Gene Expression, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, HLA-DQ Antigens, HLA-DQ beta-Chains, Humans, Lung, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Potassium Channels, Inwardly Rectifying, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Receptors, Cell Surface, Smoking, SOX9 Transcription Factor, Vital Capacity}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003098}, author = {Hancock, Dana B and Soler Artigas, Maria and Gharib, Sina A and Henry, Amanda and Manichaikul, Ani and Ramasamy, Adaikalavan and Loth, Daan W and Imboden, Medea and Koch, Beate and McArdle, Wendy L and Smith, Albert V and Smolonska, Joanna and Sood, Akshay and Tang, Wenbo and Wilk, Jemma B and Zhai, Guangju and Zhao, Jing Hua and Aschard, Hugues and Burkart, Kristin M and Curjuric, Ivan and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Elliott, Paul and Gu, Xiangjun and Harris, Tamara B and Janson, Christer and Homuth, Georg and Hysi, Pirro G and Liu, Jason Z and Loehr, Laura R and Lohman, Kurt and Loos, Ruth J F and Manning, Alisa K and Marciante, Kristin D and Obeidat, Ma{\textquoteright}en and Postma, Dirkje S and Aldrich, Melinda C and Brusselle, Guy G and Chen, Ting-Hsu and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Franceschini, Nora and Heinrich, Joachim and Rotter, Jerome I and Wijmenga, Cisca and Williams, O Dale and Bentley, Amy R and Hofman, Albert and Laurie, Cathy C and Lumley, Thomas and Morrison, Alanna C and Joubert, Bonnie R and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Couper, David J and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Liu, Yongmei and Wjst, Matthias and Wain, Louise V and Vonk, Judith M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rochat, Thierry and Rich, Stephen S and Psaty, Bruce M and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and North, Kari E and Mirel, Daniel B and Meibohm, Bernd and Launer, Lenore J and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hammond, Christopher J and Gl{\"a}ser, Sven and Marchini, Jonathan and Kraft, Peter and Wareham, Nicholas J and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Stricker, Bruno H C and Spector, Timothy D and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and Jarvis, Deborah and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Heckbert, Susan R and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Boezen, H Marike and Barr, R Graham and Cassano, Patricia A and Strachan, David P and Fornage, Myriam and Hall, Ian P and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Tobin, Martin D and London, Stephanie J} } @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 {6067, title = {Best practices and joint calling of the HumanExome BeadChip: the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e68095}, abstract = {

Genotyping arrays are a cost effective approach when typing previously-identified genetic polymorphisms in large numbers of samples. One limitation of genotyping arrays with rare variants (e.g., minor allele frequency [MAF] <0.01) is the difficulty that automated clustering algorithms have to accurately detect and assign genotype calls. Combining intensity data from large numbers of samples may increase the ability to accurately call the genotypes of rare variants. Approximately 62,000 ethnically diverse samples from eleven Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium cohorts were genotyped with the Illumina HumanExome BeadChip across seven genotyping centers. The raw data files for the samples were assembled into a single project for joint calling. To assess the quality of the joint calling, concordance of genotypes in a subset of individuals having both exome chip and exome sequence data was analyzed. After exclusion of low performing SNPs on the exome chip and non-overlap of SNPs derived from sequence data, genotypes of 185,119 variants (11,356 were monomorphic) were compared in 530 individuals that had whole exome sequence data. A total of 98,113,070 pairs of genotypes were tested and 99.77\% were concordant, 0.14\% had missing data, and 0.09\% were discordant. We report that joint calling allows the ability to accurately genotype rare variation using array technology when large sample sizes are available and best practices are followed. The cluster file from this experiment is available at www.chargeconsortium.com/main/exomechip.

}, keywords = {Aging, Alleles, Cluster Analysis, Cohort Studies, Continental Population Groups, Exome, Female, Gene Frequency, Genomics, Genotype, Heart, Humans, Male, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sample Size, Self Report, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0068095}, author = {Grove, Megan L and Yu, Bing and Cochran, Barbara J and Haritunians, Talin and Bis, Joshua C and Taylor, Kent D and Hansen, Mark and Borecki, Ingrid B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Fornage, Myriam and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kraaij, Robert and Launer, Lenore J and Levy, Daniel and Liu, Yongmei and Mosley, Thomas and Peloso, Gina M and Psaty, Bruce M and Rich, Stephen S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Siscovick, David S and Smith, Albert V and Uitterlinden, Andre and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wilson, James G and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric} } @article {8014, title = {Common variants associated with plasma triglycerides and risk for coronary artery disease.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Nov}, pages = {1345-52}, abstract = {

Triglycerides are transported in plasma by specific triglyceride-rich lipoproteins; in epidemiological studies, increased triglyceride levels correlate with higher risk for coronary artery disease (CAD). However, it is unclear whether this association reflects causal processes. We used 185 common variants recently mapped for plasma lipids (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8) for each) to examine the role of triglycerides in risk for CAD. First, we highlight loci associated with both low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride levels, and we show that the direction and magnitude of the associations with both traits are factors in determining CAD risk. Second, we consider loci with only a strong association with triglycerides and show that these loci are also associated with CAD. Finally, in a model accounting for effects on LDL-C and/or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, the strength of a polymorphism{\textquoteright}s effect on triglyceride levels is correlated with the magnitude of its effect on CAD risk. These results suggest that triglyceride-rich lipoproteins causally influence risk for CAD.

}, keywords = {Biological Transport, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Triglycerides}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2795}, author = {Do, Ron and Willer, Cristen J and Schmidt, Ellen M and Sengupta, Sebanti and Gao, Chi and Peloso, Gina M and Gustafsson, Stefan and Kanoni, Stavroula and Ganna, Andrea and Chen, Jin and Buchkovich, Martin L and Mora, Samia and Beckmann, Jacques S and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Chang, Hsing-Yi and Demirkan, Ayse and Den Hertog, Heleen M and Donnelly, Louise A and Ehret, Georg B and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Feitosa, Mary F and Ferreira, Teresa and Fischer, Krista and Fontanillas, Pierre and Fraser, Ross M and Freitag, Daniel F and Gurdasani, Deepti and Heikkil{\"a}, Kauko and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Isaacs, Aaron and Jackson, Anne U and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Kaakinen, Marika and Kettunen, Johannes and Kleber, Marcus E and Li, Xiaohui and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Mangino, Massimo and Mihailov, Evelin and Montasser, May E and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nolte, Ilja M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Cameron D and Perola, Markus and Petersen, Ann-Kristin and Sanna, Serena and Saxena, Richa and Service, Susan K and Shah, Sonia and Shungin, Dmitry and Sidore, Carlo and Song, Ci and Strawbridge, Rona J and Surakka, Ida and Tanaka, Toshiko and Teslovich, Tanya M and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and van den Herik, Evita G and Voight, Benjamin F and Volcik, Kelly A and Waite, Lindsay L and Wong, Andrew and Wu, Ying and Zhang, Weihua and Absher, Devin and Asiki, Gershim and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Been, Latonya F and Bolton, Jennifer L and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Brambilla, Paolo and Burnett, Mary S and Cesana, Giancarlo and Dimitriou, Maria and Doney, Alex S F and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Elliott, Paul and Epstein, Stephen E and Eyjolfsson, Gudmundur Ingi and Gigante, Bruna and Goodarzi, Mark O and Grallert, Harald and Gravito, Martha L and Groves, Christopher J and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hayward, Caroline and Hernandez, Dena and Hicks, Andrew A and Holm, Hilma and Hung, Yi-Jen and Illig, Thomas and Jones, Michelle R and Kaleebu, Pontiano and Kastelein, John J P and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kim, Eric and Klopp, Norman and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kumari, Meena and Langenberg, Claudia and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lin, Shih-Yi and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Loos, Ruth J F and Mach, Fran{\c c}ois and McArdle, Wendy L and Meisinger, Christa and Mitchell, Braxton D and M{\"u}ller, Gabrielle and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Narisu, Narisu and Nieminen, Tuomo V M and Nsubuga, Rebecca N and Olafsson, Isleifur and Ong, Ken K and Palotie, Aarno and Papamarkou, Theodore and Pomilla, Cristina and Pouta, Anneli and Rader, Daniel J and Reilly, Muredach P and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rudan, Igor and Ruokonen, Aimo and Samani, Nilesh and Scharnagl, Hubert and Seeley, Janet and Silander, Kaisa and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stirrups, Kathleen and Swift, Amy J and Tiret, Laurence and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Pelt, L Joost and Vedantam, Sailaja and Wainwright, Nicholas and Wijmenga, Cisca and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilsgaard, Tom and Wilson, James F and Young, Elizabeth H and Zhao, Jing Hua and Adair, Linda S and Arveiler, Dominique and Assimes, Themistocles L and Bandinelli, Stefania and Bennett, Franklyn and Bochud, Murielle and Boehm, Bernhard O and Boomsma, Dorret I and Borecki, Ingrid B and Bornstein, Stefan R and Bovet, Pascal and Burnier, Michel and Campbell, Harry and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chambers, John C and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Collins, Francis S and Cooper, Richard S and Danesh, John and Dedoussis, George and de Faire, Ulf and Feranil, Alan B and Ferrieres, Jean and Ferrucci, Luigi and Freimer, Nelson B and Gieger, Christian and Groop, Leif C and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hingorani, Aroon and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Hofman, Albert and Hovingh, G Kees and Hsiung, Chao Agnes and Humphries, Steve E and Hunt, Steven C and Hveem, Kristian and Iribarren, Carlos and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kes{\"a}niemi, Antero and Kivimaki, Mika and Kooner, Jaspal S and Koudstaal, Peter J and Krauss, Ronald M and Kuh, Diana and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kyvik, Kirsten O and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Martin, Nicholas G and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McCarthy, Mark I and McKenzie, Colin A and Meneton, Pierre and Metspalu, Andres and Moilanen, Leena and Morris, Andrew D and Munroe, Patricia B and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Pedersen, Nancy L and Power, Chris and Pramstaller, Peter P and Price, Jackie F and Psaty, Bruce M and Quertermous, Thomas and Rauramaa, Rainer and Saleheen, Danish and Salomaa, Veikko and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Saramies, Jouko and Schwarz, Peter E H and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Shuldiner, Alan R and Siegbahn, Agneta and Spector, Tim D and Stefansson, Kari and Strachan, David P and Tayo, Bamidele O and Tremoli, Elena and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uusitupa, Matti and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Vollenweider, Peter and Wallentin, Lars and Wareham, Nicholas J and Whitfield, John B and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Altshuler, David and Ordovas, Jose M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Palmer, Colin N A and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Chasman, Daniel I and Rotter, Jerome I and Franks, Paul W and Ripatti, Samuli and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Rich, Stephen S and Boehnke, Michael and Deloukas, Panos and Mohlke, Karen L and Ingelsson, Erik and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Daly, Mark J and Neale, Benjamin M and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {6154, title = {Discovery and refinement of loci associated with lipid levels.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Nov}, pages = {1274-1283}, abstract = {

Levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides and total cholesterol are heritable, modifiable risk factors for coronary artery disease. To identify new loci and refine known loci influencing these lipids, we examined 188,577 individuals using genome-wide and custom genotyping arrays. We identify and annotate 157 loci associated with lipid levels at P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8), including 62 loci not previously associated with lipid levels in humans. Using dense genotyping in individuals of European, East Asian, South Asian and African ancestry, we narrow association signals in 12 loci. We find that loci associated with blood lipid levels are often associated with cardiovascular and metabolic traits, including coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, blood pressure, waist-hip ratio and body mass index. Our results demonstrate the value of using genetic data from individuals of diverse ancestry and provide insights into the biological mechanisms regulating blood lipids to guide future genetic, biological and therapeutic research.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Artery Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Lipids, Triglycerides}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2797}, author = {Willer, Cristen J and Schmidt, Ellen M and Sengupta, Sebanti and Peloso, Gina M and Gustafsson, Stefan and Kanoni, Stavroula and Ganna, Andrea and Chen, Jin and Buchkovich, Martin L and Mora, Samia and Beckmann, Jacques S and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Chang, Hsing-Yi and Demirkan, Ayse and Den Hertog, Heleen M and Do, Ron and Donnelly, Louise A and Ehret, Georg B and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Feitosa, Mary F and Ferreira, Teresa and Fischer, Krista and Fontanillas, Pierre and Fraser, Ross M and Freitag, Daniel F and Gurdasani, Deepti and Heikkil{\"a}, Kauko and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Isaacs, Aaron and Jackson, Anne U and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Kaakinen, Marika and Kettunen, Johannes and Kleber, Marcus E and Li, Xiaohui and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Mangino, Massimo and Mihailov, Evelin and Montasser, May E and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nolte, Ilja M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Cameron D and Perola, Markus and Petersen, Ann-Kristin and Sanna, Serena and Saxena, Richa and Service, Susan K and Shah, Sonia and Shungin, Dmitry and Sidore, Carlo and Song, Ci and Strawbridge, Rona J and Surakka, Ida and Tanaka, Toshiko and Teslovich, Tanya M and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and van den Herik, Evita G and Voight, Benjamin F and Volcik, Kelly A and Waite, Lindsay L and Wong, Andrew and Wu, Ying and Zhang, Weihua and Absher, Devin and Asiki, Gershim and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Been, Latonya F and Bolton, Jennifer L and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Brambilla, Paolo and Burnett, Mary S and Cesana, Giancarlo and Dimitriou, Maria and Doney, Alex S F and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Elliott, Paul and Epstein, Stephen E and Ingi Eyjolfsson, Gudmundur and Gigante, Bruna and Goodarzi, Mark O and Grallert, Harald and Gravito, Martha L and Groves, Christopher J and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hayward, Caroline and Hernandez, Dena and Hicks, Andrew A and Holm, Hilma and Hung, Yi-Jen and Illig, Thomas and Jones, Michelle R and Kaleebu, Pontiano and Kastelein, John J P and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kim, Eric and Klopp, Norman and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kumari, Meena and Langenberg, Claudia and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lin, Shih-Yi and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Loos, Ruth J F and Mach, Fran{\c c}ois and McArdle, Wendy L and Meisinger, Christa and Mitchell, Braxton D and M{\"u}ller, Gabrielle and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Narisu, Narisu and Nieminen, Tuomo V M and Nsubuga, Rebecca N and Olafsson, Isleifur and Ong, Ken K and Palotie, Aarno and Papamarkou, Theodore and Pomilla, Cristina and Pouta, Anneli and Rader, Daniel J and Reilly, Muredach P and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rudan, Igor and Ruokonen, Aimo and Samani, Nilesh and Scharnagl, Hubert and Seeley, Janet and Silander, Kaisa and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stirrups, Kathleen and Swift, Amy J and Tiret, Laurence and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Pelt, L Joost and Vedantam, Sailaja and Wainwright, Nicholas and Wijmenga, Cisca and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilsgaard, Tom and Wilson, James F and Young, Elizabeth H and Zhao, Jing Hua and Adair, Linda S and Arveiler, Dominique and Assimes, Themistocles L and Bandinelli, Stefania and Bennett, Franklyn and Bochud, Murielle and Boehm, Bernhard O and Boomsma, Dorret I and Borecki, Ingrid B and Bornstein, Stefan R and Bovet, Pascal and Burnier, Michel and Campbell, Harry and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chambers, John C and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Collins, Francis S and Cooper, Richard S and Danesh, John and Dedoussis, George and de Faire, Ulf and Feranil, Alan B and Ferrieres, Jean and Ferrucci, Luigi and Freimer, Nelson B and Gieger, Christian and Groop, Leif C and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hingorani, Aroon and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Hofman, Albert and Hovingh, G Kees and Hsiung, Chao Agnes and Humphries, Steve E and Hunt, Steven C and Hveem, Kristian and Iribarren, Carlos and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kes{\"a}niemi, Antero and Kivimaki, Mika and Kooner, Jaspal S and Koudstaal, Peter J and Krauss, Ronald M and Kuh, Diana and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kyvik, Kirsten O and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Martin, Nicholas G and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McCarthy, Mark I and McKenzie, Colin A and Meneton, Pierre and Metspalu, Andres and Moilanen, Leena and Morris, Andrew D and Munroe, Patricia B and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Pedersen, Nancy L and Power, Chris and Pramstaller, Peter P and Price, Jackie F and Psaty, Bruce M and Quertermous, Thomas and Rauramaa, Rainer and Saleheen, Danish and Salomaa, Veikko and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Saramies, Jouko and Schwarz, Peter E H and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Shuldiner, Alan R and Siegbahn, Agneta and Spector, Tim D and Stefansson, Kari and Strachan, David P and Tayo, Bamidele O and Tremoli, Elena and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uusitupa, Matti and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Vollenweider, Peter and Wallentin, Lars and Wareham, Nicholas J and Whitfield, John B and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Ordovas, Jose M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Palmer, Colin N A and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Chasman, Daniel I and Rotter, Jerome I and Franks, Paul W and Ripatti, Samuli and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Rich, Stephen S and Boehnke, Michael and Deloukas, Panos and Kathiresan, Sekar and Mohlke, Karen L and Ingelsson, Erik and Abecasis, Goncalo R} } @article {5880, title = {Genome-wide association study identifies novel loci associated with concentrations of four plasma phospholipid fatty acids in the de novo lipogenesis pathway: results from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortiu}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {6}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Apr}, pages = {171-83}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND- Palmitic acid (16:0), stearic acid (18:0), palmitoleic acid (16:1n-7), and oleic acid (18:1n-9) are major saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids that affect cellular signaling and metabolic pathways. They are synthesized via de novo lipogenesis and are the main saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids in the diet. Levels of these fatty acids have been linked to diseases including type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease. METHODS AND RESULTS- Genome-wide association studies were conducted in 5 population-based cohorts comprising 8961 participants of European ancestry to investigate the association of common genetic variation with plasma levels of these 4 fatty acids. We identified polymorphisms in 7 novel loci associated with circulating levels of >=1 of these fatty acids. ALG14 (asparagine-linked glycosylation 14 homolog) polymorphisms were associated with higher 16:0 (P=2.7{\texttimes}10(-11)) and lower 18:0 (P=2.2{\texttimes}10(-18)). FADS1 and FADS2 (desaturases) polymorphisms were associated with higher 16:1n-7 (P=6.6{\texttimes}10(-13)) and 18:1n-9 (P=2.2{\texttimes}10(-32)) and lower 18:0 (P=1.3{\texttimes}10(-20)). LPGAT1 (lysophosphatidylglycerol acyltransferase) polymorphisms were associated with lower 18:0 (P=2.8{\texttimes}10(-9)). GCKR (glucokinase regulator; P=9.8{\texttimes}10(-10)) and HIF1AN (factor inhibiting hypoxia-inducible factor-1; P=5.7{\texttimes}10(-9)) polymorphisms were associated with higher 16:1n-7, whereas PKD2L1 (polycystic kidney disease 2-like 1; P=5.7{\texttimes}10(-15)) and a locus on chromosome 2 (not near known genes) were associated with lower 16:1n-7 (P=4.1{\texttimes}10(-8)). CONCLUSIONS- Our findings provide novel evidence that common variations in genes with diverse functions, including protein-glycosylation, polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolism, phospholipid modeling, and glucose- and oxygen-sensing pathways, are associated with circulating levels of 4 fatty acids in the de novo lipogenesis pathway. These results expand our knowledge of genetic factors relevant to de novo lipogenesis and fatty acid biology.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 2, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Lipogenesis, Male, Middle Aged, Oleic Acid, Palmitic Acid, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Stearic Acids}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.112.964619}, author = {Wu, Jason H Y and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Manichaikul, Ani and Guan, Weihua and Tanaka, Toshiko and Foy, Millennia and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Siscovick, David and Fretts, Amanda M and Johnson, Catherine and King, Irena B and Psaty, Bruce M and McKnight, Barbara and Rich, Stephen S and Chen, Yii-der I and Nettleton, Jennifer A and Tang, Weihong and Bandinelli, Stefania and Jacobs, David R and Browning, Brian L and Laurie, Cathy C and Gu, Xiangjun and Tsai, Michael Y and Steffen, Lyn M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fornage, Myriam and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {6590, title = {Association of low-frequency and rare coding-sequence variants with blood lipids and coronary heart disease in 56,000 whites and blacks.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {94}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb 06}, pages = {223-32}, abstract = {

Low-frequency coding DNA sequence variants in the proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 gene (PCSK9) lower plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), protect against risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), and have prompted the development of a new class of therapeutics. It is uncertain whether the PCSK9 example represents a paradigm or an isolated exception. We used the "Exome Array" to genotype >200,000 low-frequency and rare coding sequence variants across the genome in 56,538 individuals (42,208 European ancestry [EA] and 14,330 African ancestry [AA]) and tested these variants for association with LDL-C, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides. Although we did not identify new genes associated with LDL-C, we did identify four low-frequency (frequencies between 0.1\% and 2\%) variants (ANGPTL8 rs145464906 [c.361C>T; p.Gln121*], PAFAH1B2 rs186808413 [c.482C>T; p.Ser161Leu], COL18A1 rs114139997 [c.331G>A; p.Gly111Arg], and PCSK7 rs142953140 [c.1511G>A; p.Arg504His]) with large effects on HDL-C and/or triglycerides. None of these four variants was associated with risk for CHD, suggesting that examples of low-frequency coding variants with robust effects on both lipids and CHD will be limited.

}, keywords = {1-Alkyl-2-acetylglycerophosphocholine Esterase, Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Alleles, Animals, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Code, Genetic Variation, Humans, Linear Models, Male, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Subtilisins, Triglycerides}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.01.009}, author = {Peloso, Gina M and Auer, Paul L and Bis, Joshua C and Voorman, Arend and Morrison, Alanna C and Stitziel, Nathan O and Brody, Jennifer A and Khetarpal, Sumeet A and Crosby, Jacy R and Fornage, Myriam and Isaacs, Aaron and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Feitosa, Mary F and Davies, Gail and Huffman, Jennifer E and Manichaikul, Ani and Davis, Brian and Lohman, Kurt and Joon, Aron Y and Smith, Albert V and Grove, Megan L and Zanoni, Paolo and Redon, Valeska and Demissie, Serkalem and Lawson, Kim and Peters, Ulrike and Carlson, Christopher and Jackson, Rebecca D and Ryckman, Kelli K and Mackey, Rachel H and Robinson, Jennifer G and Siscovick, David S and Schreiner, Pamela J and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Pankow, James S and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Harris, Tamara B and Taylor, Kent D and Stafford, Jeanette M and Reynolds, Lindsay M and Marioni, Riccardo E and Dehghan, Abbas and Franco, Oscar H and Patel, Aniruddh P and Lu, Yingchang and Hindy, George and Gottesman, Omri and Bottinger, Erwin P and Melander, Olle and Orho-Melander, Marju and Loos, Ruth J F and Duga, Stefano and Merlini, Piera Angelica and Farrall, Martin and Goel, Anuj and Asselta, Rosanna and Girelli, Domenico and Martinelli, Nicola and Shah, Svati H and Kraus, William E and Li, Mingyao and Rader, Daniel J and Reilly, Muredach P and McPherson, Ruth and Watkins, Hugh and Ardissino, Diego and Zhang, Qunyuan and Wang, Judy and Tsai, Michael Y and Taylor, Herman A and Correa, Adolfo and Griswold, Michael E and Lange, Leslie A and Starr, John M and Rudan, Igor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Launer, Lenore J and Ordovas, Jose M and Levy, Daniel and Chen, Y-D Ida and Reiner, Alexander P and Hayward, Caroline and Polasek, Ozren and Deary, Ian J and Borecki, Ingrid B and Liu, Yongmei and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Wilson, James G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Kooperberg, Charles and Rich, Stephen S and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Rice, Kenneth and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kathiresan, Sekar and Cupples, L Adrienne} } @article {6611, title = {A genetic association study of D-dimer levels with 50K SNPs from a candidate gene chip in four ethnic groups.}, journal = {Thromb Res}, volume = {134}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug}, pages = {462-7}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: D-dimer, a fibrin degradation product, is related to risk of cardiovascular disease and venous thromboembolism. Genetic determinants of D-dimer are not well characterized; notably, few data have been reported for African American (AA), Asian, and Hispanic populations.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a large-scale candidate gene association study to identify variants in genes associated with D-dimer levels in multi-ethnic populations. Four cohorts, comprising 6,848 European Americans (EAs), 2,192 AAs, 670 Asians, and 1,286 Hispanics in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Candidate Gene Association Resource consortium, were assembled. Approximately 50,000 genotyped single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 2,000 cardiovascular disease gene loci were analyzed by linear regression, adjusting for age, sex, study site, and principal components in each cohort and ethnic group. Results across studies were combined within each ethnic group by meta-analysis.

RESULTS: Twelve SNPs in coagulation factor V (F5) and 3 SNPs in the fibrinogen alpha chain (FGA) were significantly associated with D-dimer level in EAs with p<2.0{\texttimes}10(-6). The signal for the most associated SNP in F5 (rs6025, factor V Leiden) was replicated in Hispanics (p=0.023), while that for the top functional SNP in FGA (rs6050) was replicated in AAs (p=0.006). No additional SNPs were significantly associated with D-dimer.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study replicated previously reported associations of D-dimer with SNPs in F5 and FGA in EAs; we demonstrated replication of the association of D-dimer with FGA rs6050 in AAs and the factor V Leiden variant in Hispanics.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Ethnic Groups, Factor V, Female, Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products, Fibrinogen, Genetic Association Studies, Genotype, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Young Adult}, issn = {1879-2472}, doi = {10.1016/j.thromres.2014.05.018}, author = {Weng, Lu-Chen and Tang, Weihong and Rich, Stephen S and Smith, Nicholas L and Redline, Susan and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Basu, Saonli and Reiner, Alexander P and Delaney, Joseph A and Tracy, Russell P and Palmer, Cameron D and Young, Taylor and Yang, Qiong and Folsom, Aaron R and Cushman, Mary} } @article {6582, title = {Genome-wide association analysis identifies six new loci associated with forced vital capacity.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {46}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul}, pages = {669-77}, abstract = {

Forced vital capacity (FVC), a spirometric measure of pulmonary function, reflects lung volume and is used to diagnose and monitor lung diseases. We performed genome-wide association study meta-analysis of FVC in 52,253 individuals from 26 studies and followed up the top associations in 32,917 additional individuals of European ancestry. We found six new regions associated at genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with FVC in or near EFEMP1, BMP6, MIR129-2-HSD17B12, PRDM11, WWOX and KCNJ2. Two loci previously associated with spirometric measures (GSTCD and PTCH1) were related to FVC. Newly implicated regions were followed up in samples from African-American, Korean, Chinese and Hispanic individuals. We detected transcripts for all six newly implicated genes in human lung tissue. The new loci may inform mechanisms involved in lung development and the pathogenesis of restrictive lung disease.

}, keywords = {Cohort Studies, Databases, Genetic, Follow-Up Studies, Forced Expiratory Volume, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lung Diseases, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prognosis, Quantitative Trait Loci, Respiratory Function Tests, Spirometry, Vital Capacity}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3011}, author = {Loth, Daan W and Soler Artigas, Maria and Gharib, Sina A and Wain, Louise V and Franceschini, Nora and Koch, Beate and Pottinger, Tess D and Smith, Albert Vernon and Duan, Qing and Oldmeadow, Chris and Lee, Mi Kyeong and Strachan, David P and James, Alan L and Huffman, Jennifer E and Vitart, Veronique and Ramasamy, Adaikalavan and Wareham, Nicholas J and Kaprio, Jaakko and Wang, Xin-Qun and Trochet, Holly and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Flexeder, Claudia and Albrecht, Eva and Lopez, Lorna M and de Jong, Kim and Thyagarajan, Bharat and Alves, Alexessander Couto and Enroth, Stefan and Omenaas, Ernst and Joshi, Peter K and Fall, Tove and Vi{\~n}uela, Ana and Launer, Lenore J and Loehr, Laura R and Fornage, Myriam and Li, Guo and Wilk, Jemma B and Tang, Wenbo and Manichaikul, Ani and Lahousse, Lies and Harris, Tamara B and North, Kari E and Rudnicka, Alicja R and Hui, Jennie and Gu, Xiangjun and Lumley, Thomas and Wright, Alan F and Hastie, Nicholas D and Campbell, Susan and Kumar, Rajesh and Pin, Isabelle and Scott, Robert A and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Surakka, Ida and Liu, Yongmei and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Schulz, Holger and Heinrich, Joachim and Davies, Gail and Vonk, Judith M and Wojczynski, Mary and Pouta, Anneli and Johansson, Asa and Wild, Sarah H and Ingelsson, Erik and Rivadeneira, Fernando and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Hysi, Pirro G and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Morrison, Alanna C and Rotter, Jerome I and Gao, Wei and Postma, Dirkje S and White, Wendy B and Rich, Stephen S and Hofman, Albert and Aspelund, Thor and Couper, David and Smith, Lewis J and Psaty, Bruce M and Lohman, Kurt and Burchard, Esteban G and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Garcia, Melissa and Joubert, Bonnie R and McArdle, Wendy L and Musk, A Bill and Hansel, Nadia and Heckbert, Susan R and Zgaga, Lina and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Navarro, Pau and Rudan, Igor and Oh, Yeon-Mok and Redline, Susan and Jarvis, Deborah L and Zhao, Jing Hua and Rantanen, Taina and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Ripatti, Samuli and Scott, Rodney J and Karrasch, Stefan and Grallert, Harald and Gaddis, Nathan C and Starr, John M and Wijmenga, Cisca and Minster, Ryan L and Lederer, David J and Pekkanen, Juha and Gyllensten, Ulf and Campbell, Harry and Morris, Andrew P and Gl{\"a}ser, Sven and Hammond, Christopher J and Burkart, Kristin M and Beilby, John and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hancock, Dana B and Williams, O Dale and Polasek, Ozren and Zemunik, Tatijana and Kolcic, Ivana and Petrini, Marcy F and Wjst, Matthias and Kim, Woo Jin and Porteous, David J and Scotland, Generation and Smith, Blair H and Viljanen, Anne and Heli{\"o}vaara, Markku and Attia, John R and Sayers, Ian and Hampel, Regina and Gieger, Christian and Deary, Ian J and Boezen, H Marike and Newman, Anne and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Wilson, James F and Lind, Lars and Stricker, Bruno H and Teumer, Alexander and Spector, Timothy D and Mel{\'e}n, Erik and Peters, Marjolein J and Lange, Leslie A and Barr, R Graham and Bracke, Ken R and Verhamme, Fien M and Sung, Joohon and Hiemstra, Pieter S and Cassano, Patricia A and Sood, Akshay and Hayward, Caroline and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Hall, Ian P and Brusselle, Guy G and Tobin, Martin D and London, Stephanie J} } @article {6567, title = {Genome-wide association study of plasma N6 polyunsaturated fatty acids within the cohorts for heart and aging research in genomic epidemiology consortium.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {321-331}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Omega6 (n6) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and their metabolites are involved in cell signaling, inflammation, clot formation, and other crucial biological processes. Genetic components, such as variants of fatty acid desaturase (FADS) genes, determine the composition of n6 PUFAs.

METHODS AND RESULTS: To elucidate undiscovered biological pathways that may influence n6 PUFA composition, we conducted genome-wide association studies and meta-analyses of associations of common genetic variants with 6 plasma n6 PUFAs in 8631 white adults (55\% women) across 5 prospective studies. Plasma phospholipid or total plasma fatty acids were analyzed by similar gas chromatography techniques. The n6 fatty acids linoleic acid (LA), γ-linolenic acid (GLA), dihomo-GLA, arachidonic acid, and adrenic acid were expressed as percentage of total fatty acids. We performed linear regression with robust SEs to test for single-nucleotide polymorphism-fatty acid associations, with pooling using inverse-variance-weighted meta-analysis. Novel regions were identified on chromosome 10 associated with LA (rs10740118; P=8.1{\texttimes}10(-9); near NRBF2), on chromosome 16 with LA, GLA, dihomo-GLA, and arachidonic acid (rs16966952; P=1.2{\texttimes}10(-15), 5.0{\texttimes}10(-11), 7.6{\texttimes}10(-65), and 2.4{\texttimes}10(-10), respectively; NTAN1), and on chromosome 6 with adrenic acid after adjustment for arachidonic acid (rs3134950; P=2.1{\texttimes}10(-10); AGPAT1). We confirmed previous findings of the FADS cluster on chromosome 11 with LA and arachidonic acid, and further observed novel genome-wide significant association of this cluster with GLA, dihomo-GLA, and adrenic acid (P=2.3{\texttimes}10(-72), 2.6{\texttimes}10(-151), and 6.3{\texttimes}10(-140), respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that along with the FADS gene cluster, additional genes may influence n6 PUFA composition.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 10, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 16, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 6, Fatty Acid Desaturases, Fatty Acids, Omega-6, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Heart Diseases, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000208}, author = {Guan, Weihua and Steffen, Brian T and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Wu, Jason H Y and Tanaka, Toshiko and Manichaikul, Ani and Foy, Millennia and Rich, Stephen S and Wang, Lu and Nettleton, Jennifer A and Tang, Weihong and Gu, Xiangjun and Bandinelli, Stafania and King, Irena B and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fornage, Myriam and Mozafarrian, Dariush and Tsai, Michael Y and Steffen, Lyn M} } @article {6605, title = {Loss-of-function mutations in APOC3, triglycerides, and coronary disease.}, journal = {N Engl J Med}, volume = {371}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul 3}, pages = {22-31}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Plasma triglyceride levels are heritable and are correlated with the risk of coronary heart disease. Sequencing of the protein-coding regions of the human genome (the exome) has the potential to identify rare mutations that have a large effect on phenotype.

METHODS: We sequenced the protein-coding regions of 18,666 genes in each of 3734 participants of European or African ancestry in the Exome Sequencing Project. We conducted tests to determine whether rare mutations in coding sequence, individually or in aggregate within a gene, were associated with plasma triglyceride levels. For mutations associated with triglyceride levels, we subsequently evaluated their association with the risk of coronary heart disease in 110,970 persons.

RESULTS: An aggregate of rare mutations in the gene encoding apolipoprotein C3 (APOC3) was associated with lower plasma triglyceride levels. Among the four mutations that drove this result, three were loss-of-function mutations: a nonsense mutation (R19X) and two splice-site mutations (IVS2+1G{\textrightarrow}A and IVS3+1G{\textrightarrow}T). The fourth was a missense mutation (A43T). Approximately 1 in 150 persons in the study was a heterozygous carrier of at least one of these four mutations. Triglyceride levels in the carriers were 39\% lower than levels in noncarriers (P<1{\texttimes}10(-20)), and circulating levels of APOC3 in carriers were 46\% lower than levels in noncarriers (P=8{\texttimes}10(-10)). The risk of coronary heart disease among 498 carriers of any rare APOC3 mutation was 40\% lower than the risk among 110,472 noncarriers (odds ratio, 0.60; 95\% confidence interval, 0.47 to 0.75; P=4{\texttimes}10(-6)).

CONCLUSIONS: Rare mutations that disrupt APOC3 function were associated with lower levels of plasma triglycerides and APOC3. Carriers of these mutations were found to have a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and others.).

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Apolipoprotein C-III, Coronary Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Genotype, Heterozygote, Humans, Liver, Mutation, Risk Factors, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Triglycerides}, issn = {1533-4406}, doi = {10.1056/NEJMoa1307095}, author = {Crosby, Jacy and Peloso, Gina M and Auer, Paul L and Crosslin, David R and Stitziel, Nathan O and Lange, Leslie A and Lu, Yingchang and Tang, Zheng-Zheng and Zhang, He and Hindy, George and Masca, Nicholas and Stirrups, Kathleen and Kanoni, Stavroula and Do, Ron and Jun, Goo and Hu, Youna and Kang, Hyun Min and Xue, Chenyi and Goel, Anuj and Farrall, Martin and Duga, Stefano and Merlini, Pier Angelica and Asselta, Rosanna and Girelli, Domenico and Olivieri, Oliviero and Martinelli, Nicola and Yin, Wu and Reilly, Dermot and Speliotes, Elizabeth and Fox, Caroline S and Hveem, Kristian and Holmen, Oddgeir L and Nikpay, Majid and Farlow, Deborah N and Assimes, Themistocles L and Franceschini, Nora and Robinson, Jennifer and North, Kari E and Martin, Lisa W and DePristo, Mark and Gupta, Namrata and Escher, Stefan A and Jansson, Jan-H{\r a}kan and Van Zuydam, Natalie and Palmer, Colin N A and Wareham, Nicholas and Koch, Werner and Meitinger, Thomas and Peters, Annette and Lieb, Wolfgang and Erbel, Raimund and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Kruppa, Jochen and Degenhardt, Franziska and Gottesman, Omri and Bottinger, Erwin P and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Psaty, Bruce M and Ballantyne, Christie M and Abecasis, Goncalo and Ordovas, Jose M and Melander, Olle and Watkins, Hugh and Orho-Melander, Marju and Ardissino, Diego and Loos, Ruth J F and McPherson, Ruth and Willer, Cristen J and Erdmann, Jeanette and Hall, Alistair S and Samani, Nilesh J and Deloukas, Panos and Schunkert, Heribert and Wilson, James G and Kooperberg, Charles and Rich, Stephen S and Tracy, Russell P and Lin, Dan-Yu and Altshuler, David and Gabriel, Stacey and Nickerson, Deborah A and Jarvik, Gail P and Cupples, L Adrienne and Reiner, Alex P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {6585, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in African Americans provides insights into the genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug}, pages = {e1004517}, abstract = {

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is more prevalent in African Americans than in Europeans. However, little is known about the genetic risk in African Americans despite the recent identification of more than 70 T2D loci primarily by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry. In order to investigate the genetic architecture of T2D in African Americans, the MEta-analysis of type 2 DIabetes in African Americans (MEDIA) Consortium examined 17 GWAS on T2D comprising 8,284 cases and 15,543 controls in African Americans in stage 1 analysis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) association analysis was conducted in each study under the additive model after adjustment for age, sex, study site, and principal components. Meta-analysis of approximately 2.6 million genotyped and imputed SNPs in all studies was conducted using an inverse variance-weighted fixed effect model. Replications were performed to follow up 21 loci in up to 6,061 cases and 5,483 controls in African Americans, and 8,130 cases and 38,987 controls of European ancestry. We identified three known loci (TCF7L2, HMGA2 and KCNQ1) and two novel loci (HLA-B and INS-IGF2) at genome-wide significance (4.15 {\texttimes} 10(-94)}, keywords = {African Americans, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Genome-Wide Association Study, HLA-B27 Antigen, HMGA2 Protein, Humans, KCNQ1 Potassium Channel, Mutant Chimeric Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 Protein}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1004517}, author = {Ng, Maggie C Y and Shriner, Daniel and Chen, Brian H and Li, Jiang and Chen, Wei-Min and Guo, Xiuqing and Liu, Jiankang and Bielinski, Suzette J and Yanek, Lisa R and Nalls, Michael A and Comeau, Mary E and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Jensen, Richard A and Evans, Daniel S and Sun, Yan V and An, Ping and Patel, Sanjay R and Lu, Yingchang and Long, Jirong and Armstrong, Loren L and Wagenknecht, Lynne and Yang, Lingyao and Snively, Beverly M and Palmer, Nicholette D and Mudgal, Poorva and Langefeld, Carl D and Keene, Keith L and Freedman, Barry I and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Nayak, Uma and Raffel, Leslie J and Goodarzi, Mark O and Chen, Y-D Ida and Taylor, Herman A and Correa, Adolfo and Sims, Mario and Couper, David and Pankow, James S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Doumatey, Ayo and Chen, Guanjie and Mathias, Rasika A and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Singleton, Andrew B and Zonderman, Alan B and Igo, Robert P and Sedor, John R and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Siscovick, David S and McKnight, Barbara and Rice, Kenneth and Liu, Yongmei and Hsueh, Wen-Chi and Zhao, Wei and Bielak, Lawrence F and Kraja, Aldi and Province, Michael A and Bottinger, Erwin P and Gottesman, Omri and Cai, Qiuyin and Zheng, Wei and Blot, William J and Lowe, William L and Pacheco, Jennifer A and Crawford, Dana C and Grundberg, Elin and Rich, Stephen S and Hayes, M Geoffrey and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Loos, Ruth J F and Borecki, Ingrid B and Peyser, Patricia A and Cummings, Steven R and Psaty, Bruce M and Fornage, Myriam and Iyengar, Sudha K and Evans, Michele K and Becker, Diane M and Kao, W H Linda and Wilson, James G and Rotter, Jerome I and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Liu, Simin and Rotimi, Charles N and Bowden, Donald W} } @article {6565, title = {Quantifying rare, deleterious variation in 12 human cytochrome P450 drug-metabolism genes in a large-scale exome dataset.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Apr 15}, pages = {1957-63}, abstract = {

The study of genetic influences on drug response and efficacy ({\textquoteright}pharmacogenetics{\textquoteright}) has existed for over 50 years. Yet, we still lack a complete picture of how genetic variation, both common and rare, affects each individual{\textquoteright}s responses to medications. Exome sequencing is a promising alternative method for pharmacogenetic discovery as it provides information on both common and rare variation in large numbers of individuals. Using exome data from 2203 AA and 4300 Caucasian individuals through the NHLBI Exome Sequencing Project, we conducted a survey of coding variation within 12 Cytochrome P450 (CYP) genes that are collectively responsible for catalyzing nearly 75\% of all known Phase I drug oxidation reactions. In addition to identifying many polymorphisms with known pharmacogenetic effects, we discovered over 730 novel nonsynonymous alleles across the 12 CYP genes of interest. These alleles include many with diverse functional effects such as premature stop codons, aberrant splicesites and mutations at conserved active site residues. Our analysis considering both novel, predicted functional alleles as well as known, actionable CYP alleles reveals that rare, deleterious variation contributes markedly to the overall burden of pharmacogenetic alleles within the populations considered, and that the contribution of rare variation to this burden is over three times greater in AA individuals as compared with Caucasians. While most of these impactful alleles are individually rare, 7.6-11.7\% of individuals interrogated in the study carry at least one newly described potentially deleterious alleles in a major drug-metabolizing CYP.

}, keywords = {Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System, Databases, Genetic, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Humans, Pharmaceutical Preparations, Pharmacogenetics, Polymorphism, Genetic}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddt588}, author = {Gordon, Adam S and Tabor, Holly K and Johnson, Andrew D and Snively, Beverly M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Auer, Paul L and Ioannidis, John P A and Peters, Ulrike and Robinson, Jennifer G and Sucheston, Lara E and Wang, Danxin and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Rotter, Jerome I and Psaty, Bruce M and Jackson, Rebecca D and Herrington, David M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Reiner, Alexander P and Rich, Stephen S and Rieder, Mark J and Bamshad, Michael J and Nickerson, Deborah A} } @article {6583, title = {Sequencing of SCN5A identifies rare and common variants associated with cardiac conduction: Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {365-73}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The cardiac sodium channel SCN5A regulates atrioventricular and ventricular conduction. Genetic variants in this gene are associated with PR and QRS intervals. We sought to characterize further the contribution of rare and common coding variation in SCN5A to cardiac conduction.

METHODS AND RESULTS: In Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium Targeted Sequencing Study, we performed targeted exonic sequencing of SCN5A (n=3699, European ancestry individuals) and identified 4 common (minor allele frequency >1\%) and 157 rare variants. Common and rare SCN5A coding variants were examined for association with PR and QRS intervals through meta-analysis of European ancestry participants from CHARGE, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute{\textquoteright}s Exome Sequencing Project (n=607), and the UK10K (n=1275) and by examining Exome Sequencing Project African ancestry participants (n=972). Rare coding SCN5A variants in aggregate were associated with PR interval in European and African ancestry participants (P=1.3{\texttimes}10(-3)). Three common variants were associated with PR and QRS interval duration among European ancestry participants and one among African ancestry participants. These included 2 well-known missense variants: rs1805124 (H558R) was associated with PR and QRS shortening in European ancestry participants (P=6.25{\texttimes}10(-4) and P=5.2{\texttimes}10(-3), respectively) and rs7626962 (S1102Y) was associated with PR shortening in those of African ancestry (P=2.82{\texttimes}10(-3)). Among European ancestry participants, 2 novel synonymous variants, rs1805126 and rs6599230, were associated with cardiac conduction. Our top signal, rs1805126 was associated with PR and QRS lengthening (P=3.35{\texttimes}10(-7) and P=2.69{\texttimes}10(-4), respectively) and rs6599230 was associated with PR shortening (P=2.67{\texttimes}10(-5)).

CONCLUSIONS: By sequencing SCN5A, we identified novel common and rare coding variants associated with cardiac conduction.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Heart Conduction System, Heart Diseases, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, NAV1.5 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000098}, author = {Magnani, Jared W and Brody, Jennifer A and Prins, Bram P and Arking, Dan E and Lin, Honghuang and Yin, Xiaoyan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Morrison, Alanna C and Zhang, Feng and Spector, Tim D and Alonso, Alvaro and Bis, Joshua C and Heckbert, Susan R and Lumley, Thomas and Sitlani, Colleen M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Lubitz, Steven A and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Pulit, Sara L and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Ellinor, Patrick T and Benjamin, Emelia J and Muzny, Donna M and Gibbs, Richard A and Santibanez, Jireh and Taylor, Herman A and Rotter, Jerome I and Lange, Leslie A and Psaty, Bruce M and Jackson, Rebecca and Rich, Stephen S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Jamshidi, Yalda and Sotoodehnia, Nona} } @article {6577, title = {Whole-exome sequencing identifies rare and low-frequency coding variants associated with LDL cholesterol.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {94}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb 06}, pages = {233-45}, abstract = {

Elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is a treatable, heritable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified 157 variants associated with lipid levels but are not well suited to assess the impact of rare and low-frequency variants. To determine whether rare or low-frequency coding variants are associated with LDL-C, we exome sequenced 2,005 individuals, including 554 individuals selected for extreme LDL-C (>98(th) or <2(nd) percentile). Follow-up analyses included sequencing of 1,302 additional individuals and genotype-based analysis of 52,221 individuals. We observed significant evidence of association between LDL-C and the burden of rare or low-frequency variants in PNPLA5, encoding a phospholipase-domain-containing protein, and both known and previously unidentified variants in PCSK9, LDLR and APOB, three known lipid-related genes. The effect sizes for the burden of rare variants for each associated gene were substantially higher than those observed for individual SNPs identified from GWASs. We replicated the PNPLA5 signal in an independent large-scale sequencing study of 2,084 individuals. In conclusion, this large whole-exome-sequencing study for LDL-C identified a gene not known to be implicated in LDL-C and provides unique insight into the design and analysis of similar experiments.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Apolipoproteins E, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, Dyslipidemias, Exome, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Gene Frequency, Genetic Code, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Lipase, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proprotein Convertase 9, Proprotein Convertases, Receptors, LDL, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Serine Endopeptidases}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.01.010}, author = {Lange, Leslie A and Hu, Youna and Zhang, He and Xue, Chenyi and Schmidt, Ellen M and Tang, Zheng-Zheng and Bizon, Chris and Lange, Ethan M and Smith, Joshua D and Turner, Emily H and Jun, Goo and Kang, Hyun Min and Peloso, Gina and Auer, Paul and Li, Kuo-Ping and Flannick, Jason and Zhang, Ji and Fuchsberger, Christian and Gaulton, Kyle and Lindgren, Cecilia and Locke, Adam and Manning, Alisa and Sim, Xueling and Rivas, Manuel A and Holmen, Oddgeir L and Gottesman, Omri and Lu, Yingchang and Ruderfer, Douglas and Stahl, Eli A and Duan, Qing and Li, Yun and Durda, Peter and Jiao, Shuo and Isaacs, Aaron and Hofman, Albert and Bis, Joshua C and Correa, Adolfo and Griswold, Michael E and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Smith, Albert V and Schreiner, Pamela J and Feitosa, Mary F and Zhang, Qunyuan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Crosby, Jacy and Wassel, Christina L and Do, Ron and Franceschini, Nora and Martin, Lisa W and Robinson, Jennifer G and Assimes, Themistocles L and Crosslin, David R and Rosenthal, Elisabeth A and Tsai, Michael and Rieder, Mark J and Farlow, Deborah N and Folsom, Aaron R and Lumley, Thomas and Fox, Ervin R and Carlson, Christopher S and Peters, Ulrike and Jackson, Rebecca D and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Levy, Daniel and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Herman A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Siscovick, David S and Fornage, Myriam and Borecki, Ingrid B and Hayward, Caroline and Rudan, Igor and Chen, Y Eugene and Bottinger, Erwin P and Loos, Ruth J F and S{\ae}trom, P{\r a}l and Hveem, Kristian and Boehnke, Michael and Groop, Leif and McCarthy, Mark and Meitinger, Thomas and Ballantyne, Christie M and Gabriel, Stacey B and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Post, Wendy S and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alexander P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Altshuler, David and Kathiresan, Sekar and Lin, Dan-Yu and Jarvik, Gail P and Cupples, L Adrienne and Kooperberg, Charles and Wilson, James G and Nickerson, Deborah A and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Rich, Stephen S and Tracy, Russell P and Willer, Cristen J} } @article {6597, title = {Association of exome sequences with plasma C-reactive protein levels in >9000 participants.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {24}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan 15}, pages = {559-71}, abstract = {

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

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 1-alpha, Humans, Male, Plasma, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Interleukin-6, Risk Factors}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddu450}, author = {Schick, Ursula M and Auer, Paul L and Bis, Joshua C and Lin, Honghuang and Wei, Peng and Pankratz, Nathan and Lange, Leslie A and Brody, Jennifer and Stitziel, Nathan O and Kim, Daniel S and Carlson, Christopher S and Fornage, Myriam and Haessler, Jeffery and Hsu, Li and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kooperberg, Charles and Leal, Suzanne M and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Tracy, Russell and Ardissino, Diego and Shah, Svati and Willer, Cristen and Loos, Ruth and Melander, Olle and McPherson, Ruth and Hovingh, Kees and Reilly, Muredach and Watkins, Hugh and Girelli, Domenico and Fontanillas, Pierre and Chasman, Daniel I and Gabriel, Stacey B and Gibbs, Richard and Nickerson, Deborah A and Kathiresan, Sekar and Peters, Ulrike and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and Morrison, Alanna C and Benjamin, Emelia J and Gross, Myron D and Reiner, Alex P} } @article {6687, title = {Dietary fatty acids modulate associations between genetic variants and circulating fatty acids in plasma and erythrocyte membranes: Meta-analysis of nine studies in the CHARGE consortium.}, journal = {Mol Nutr Food Res}, volume = {59}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jul}, pages = {1373-83}, abstract = {

SCOPE: Tissue concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids may reduce cardiovascular disease risk, and genetic variants are associated with circulating fatty acids concentrations. Whether dietary fatty acids interact with genetic variants to modify circulating omega-3 fatty acids is unclear. We evaluated interactions between genetic variants and fatty acid intakes for circulating alpha-linoleic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid, and docosapentaenoic acid.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted meta-analyses (N = 11~668) evaluating interactions between dietary fatty acids and genetic variants (rs174538 and rs174548 in FADS1 (fatty acid desaturase 1), rs7435 in AGPAT3 (1-acyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphate), rs4985167 in PDXDC1 (pyridoxal-dependent decarboxylase domain-containing 1), rs780094 in GCKR (glucokinase regulatory protein), and rs3734398 in ELOVL2 (fatty acid elongase 2)). Stratification by measurement compartment (plasma versus erthyrocyte) revealed compartment-specific interactions between FADS1 rs174538 and rs174548 and dietary alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid for docosahexaenoic acid and docosapentaenoic acid.

CONCLUSION: Our findings reinforce earlier reports that genetically based differences in circulating fatty acids may be partially due to differences in the conversion of fatty acid precursors. Further, fatty acids measurement compartment may modify gene-diet relationships, and considering compartment may improve the detection of gene-fatty acids interactions for circulating fatty acid outcomes.

}, keywords = {Acetyltransferases, Acyltransferases, Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Carboxy-Lyases, Diet, Docosahexaenoic Acids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Erythrocyte Membrane, Fatty Acid Desaturases, Fatty Acids, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1613-4133}, doi = {10.1002/mnfr.201400734}, author = {Smith, Caren E and Follis, Jack L and Nettleton, Jennifer A and Foy, Millennia and Wu, Jason H Y and Ma, Yiyi and Tanaka, Toshiko and Manichakul, Ani W and Wu, Hongyu and Chu, Audrey Y and Steffen, Lyn M and Fornage, Myriam and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Ferruci, Luigi and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Rich, Stephen S and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Ridker, Paul M and Tang, Weihong and McKnight, Barbara and Tsai, Michael Y and Bandinelli, Stefania and Rotter, Jerome I and Hu, Frank B and Chasman, Daniel I and Psaty, Bruce M and Arnett, Donna K and King, Irena B and Sun, Qi and Wang, Lu and Lumley, Thomas and Chiuve, Stephanie E and Siscovick, David S and Ordovas, Jose M and Lemaitre, Rozenn N} } @article {6691, title = {Exome sequencing identifies rare LDLR and APOA5 alleles conferring risk for myocardial infarction.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {518}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Feb 5}, pages = {102-6}, abstract = {

Myocardial infarction (MI), a leading cause of death around the world, displays a complex pattern of inheritance. When MI occurs early in life, genetic inheritance is a major component to risk. Previously, rare mutations in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) genes have been shown to contribute to MI risk in individual families, whereas common variants at more than 45 loci have been associated with MI risk in the population. Here we evaluate how rare mutations contribute to early-onset MI risk in the population. We sequenced the protein-coding regions of 9,793 genomes from patients with MI at an early age (<=50 years in males and <=60 years in females) along with MI-free controls. We identified two genes in which rare coding-sequence mutations were more frequent in MI cases versus controls at exome-wide significance. At low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR), carriers of rare non-synonymous mutations were at 4.2-fold increased risk for MI; carriers of null alleles at LDLR were at even higher risk (13-fold difference). Approximately 2\% of early MI cases harbour a rare, damaging mutation in LDLR; this estimate is similar to one made more than 40 years ago using an analysis of total cholesterol. Among controls, about 1 in 217 carried an LDLR coding-sequence mutation and had plasma LDL cholesterol > 190~mg~dl(-1). At apolipoprotein A-V (APOA5), carriers of rare non-synonymous mutations were at 2.2-fold increased risk for MI. When compared with non-carriers, LDLR mutation carriers had higher plasma LDL cholesterol, whereas APOA5 mutation carriers had higher plasma triglycerides. Recent evidence has connected MI risk with coding-sequence mutations at two genes functionally related to APOA5, namely lipoprotein lipase and apolipoprotein C-III (refs 18, 19). Combined, these observations suggest that, as well as LDL cholesterol, disordered metabolism of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins contributes to MI risk.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Age of Onset, Alleles, Apolipoproteins A, Case-Control Studies, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Exome, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetics, Population, Heterozygote, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Mutation, Myocardial Infarction, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Receptors, LDL, Triglycerides, United States}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature13917}, author = {Do, Ron and Stitziel, Nathan O and Won, Hong-Hee and J{\o}rgensen, Anders Berg and Duga, Stefano and Angelica Merlini, Pier and Kiezun, Adam and Farrall, Martin and Goel, Anuj and Zuk, Or and Guella, Illaria and Asselta, Rosanna and Lange, Leslie A and Peloso, Gina M and Auer, Paul L and Girelli, Domenico and Martinelli, Nicola and Farlow, Deborah N and DePristo, Mark A and Roberts, Robert and Stewart, Alexander F R and Saleheen, Danish and Danesh, John and Epstein, Stephen E and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Hovingh, G Kees and Kastelein, John J and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Erdmann, Jeanette and Shah, Svati H and Kraus, William E and Davies, Robert and Nikpay, Majid and Johansen, Christopher T and Wang, Jian and Hegele, Robert A and Hechter, Eliana and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Kleber, Marcus E and Huang, Jie and Johnson, Andrew D and Li, Mingyao and Burke, Greg L and Gross, Myron and Liu, Yongmei and Assimes, Themistocles L and Heiss, Gerardo and Lange, Ethan M and Folsom, Aaron R and Taylor, Herman A and Olivieri, Oliviero and Hamsten, Anders and Clarke, Robert and Reilly, Dermot F and Yin, Wu and Rivas, Manuel A and Donnelly, Peter and Rossouw, Jacques E and Psaty, Bruce M and Herrington, David M and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and Bamshad, Michael J and Tracy, Russell P and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rader, Daniel J and Reilly, Muredach P and Spertus, John A and Cresci, Sharon and Hartiala, Jaana and Tang, W H Wilson and Hazen, Stanley L and Allayee, Hooman and Reiner, Alex P and Carlson, Christopher S and Kooperberg, Charles and Jackson, Rebecca D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Lander, Eric S and Schwartz, Stephen M and Siscovick, David S and McPherson, Ruth and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Watkins, Hugh and Nickerson, Deborah A and Ardissino, Diego and Sunyaev, Shamil R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Altshuler, David and Gabriel, Stacey and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {7376, title = {Gene-centric approach identifies new and known loci for FVIII activity and VWF antigen levels in European Americans and African Americans.}, journal = {Am J Hematol}, volume = {90}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jun}, pages = {534-40}, abstract = {

Coagulation factor VIII and von Willebrand factor (VWF) are key proteins in procoagulant activation. Higher FVIII coagulant activity (FVIII :C) and VWF antigen (VWF :Ag) are risk factors for cardiovascular disease and venous thromboembolism. Beyond associations with ABO blood group, genetic determinants of FVIII and VWF are not well understood, especially in non European-American populations. We performed a genetic association study of FVIII :C and VWF:Ag that assessed 50,000 gene-centric single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 18,556 European Americans (EAs) and 5,047 African Americans (AAs) from five population-based cohorts. Previously unreported associations for FVIII :C were identified in both AAs and EAs with KNG1 (most significantly associated SNP rs710446, Ile581Thr, Ile581Thr, P = 5.10 {\texttimes} 10(-7) in EAs and P = 3.88 {\texttimes} 10(-3) in AAs) and VWF rs7962217 (Gly2705Arg,P = 6.30 {\texttimes} 10(-9) in EAs and P = 2.98 {\texttimes} 10(-2) in AAs. Significant associations for FVIII :C were also observed with F8/TMLHE region SNP rs12557310 in EAs (P = 8.02 {\texttimes} 10(-10) ), with VWF rs1800380 in AAs (P = 5.62 {\texttimes} 10(-11) ), and with MAT1A rs2236568 in AAs (P51.69 {\texttimes} 10(-6) ). We replicated previously reported associations of FVIII :C and VWF :Ag with the ABO blood group, VWF rs1063856(Thr789Ala), rs216321 (Ala852Gln), and VWF rs2229446 (Arg2185Gln). Findings from this study expand our understanding of genetic influences for FVIII :C and VWF :Ag in both EAs and AAs.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, European Continental Ancestry Group, Factor VIII, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Methionine Adenosyltransferase, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Venous Thromboembolism, von Willebrand Factor}, issn = {1096-8652}, doi = {10.1002/ajh.24005}, author = {Tang, Weihong and Cushman, Mary and Green, David and Rich, Stephen S and Lange, Leslie A and Yang, Qiong and Tracy, Russell P and Tofler, Geoffrey H and Basu, Saonli and Wilson, James G and Keating, Brendan J and Weng, Lu-Chen and Taylor, Herman A and Jacobs, David R and Delaney, Joseph A and Palmer, Cameron D and Young, Taylor and Pankow, James S and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Smith, Nicholas L and Reiner, Alexander P and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {6615, title = {Genetic loci associated with circulating levels of very long-chain saturated fatty acids.}, journal = {J Lipid Res}, volume = {56}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan}, pages = {176-84}, abstract = {

Very long-chain saturated fatty acids (VLSFAs) are saturated fatty acids with 20 or more carbons. In contrast to the more abundant saturated fatty acids, such as palmitic acid, there is growing evidence that circulating VLSFAs may have beneficial biological properties. Whether genetic factors influence circulating levels of VLSFAs is not known. We investigated the association of common genetic variation with plasma phospholipid/erythrocyte levels of three VLSFAs by performing genome-wide association studies in seven population-based cohorts comprising 10,129 subjects of European ancestry. We observed associations of circulating VLSFA concentrations with common variants in two genes, serine palmitoyl-transferase long-chain base subunit 3 (SPTLC3), a gene involved in the rate-limiting step of de novo sphingolipid synthesis, and ceramide synthase 4 (CERS4). The SPTLC3 variant at rs680379 was associated with higher arachidic acid (20:0 , P = 5.81 {\texttimes} 10(-13)). The CERS4 variant at rs2100944 was associated with higher levels of 20:0 (P = 2.65 {\texttimes} 10(-40)) and in analyses that adjusted for 20:0, with lower levels of behenic acid (P = 4.22 {\texttimes} 10(-26)) and lignoceric acid (P = 3.20 {\texttimes} 10(-21)). These novel associations suggest an inter-relationship of circulating VLSFAs and sphingolipid synthesis.

}, keywords = {Cohort Studies, Fatty Acids, Genetic Loci, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans}, issn = {1539-7262}, doi = {10.1194/jlr.M052456}, author = {Lemaitre, Rozenn N and King, Irena B and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Wu, Jason H Y and McKnight, Barbara and Manichaikul, Ani and Guan, Weihua and Sun, Qi and Chasman, Daniel I and Foy, Millennia and Wang, Lu and Zhu, Jingwen and Siscovick, David S and Tsai, Michael Y and Arnett, Donna K and Psaty, Bruce M and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Chen, Yii-der I and Tang, Weihong and Weng, Lu-Chen and Wu, Hongyu and Jensen, Majken K and Chu, Audrey Y and Jacobs, David R and Rich, Stephen S and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Steffen, Lyn and Rimm, Eric B and Hu, Frank B and Ridker, Paul M and Fornage, Myriam and Friedlander, Yechiel} } @article {6685, title = {Genetic loci associated with circulating phospholipid trans fatty acids: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {101}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Feb}, pages = {398-406}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Circulating trans fatty acids (TFAs), which cannot be synthesized by humans, are linked to adverse health outcomes. Although TFAs are obtained from diet, little is known about subsequent influences (e.g., relating to incorporation, metabolism, or intercompetition with other fatty acids) that could alter circulating concentrations and possibly modulate or mediate impacts on health.

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to elucidate novel biologic pathways that may influence circulating TFAs by evaluating associations between common genetic variation and TFA biomarkers.

DESIGN: We performed meta-analyses using 7 cohorts of European-ancestry participants (n = 8013) having measured genome-wide variation in single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and circulating TFA biomarkers (erythrocyte or plasma phospholipids), including trans-16:1n-7, total trans-18:1, trans/cis-18:2, cis/trans-18:2, and trans/trans-18:2. We further evaluated SNPs with genome-wide significant associations among African Americans (n = 1082), Chinese Americans (n = 669), and Hispanic Americans (n = 657) from 2 of these cohorts.

RESULTS: Among European-ancestry participants, 31 SNPs in or near the fatty acid desaturase (FADS) 1 and 2 cluster were associated with cis/trans-18:2; a top hit was rs174548 (β = 0.0035, P = 4.90 {\texttimes} 10(-15)), an SNP previously associated with circulating n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid concentrations. No significant association was identified for other TFAs. rs174548 in FADS1/2 was also associated with cis/trans-18:2 in Hispanic Americans (β = 0.0053, P = 1.05 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) and Chinese Americans (β = 0.0028, P = 0.002) but not African Americans (β = 0.0009, P = 0.34); however, in African Americans, fine mapping identified a top hit in FADS2 associated with cis/trans-18:2 (rs174579: β = 0.0118, P = 4.05 {\texttimes} 10(-5)). The association between rs174548 and cis/trans-18:2 remained significant after further adjustment for individual circulating n-3 and n-6 fatty acids, except arachidonic acid. After adjustment for arachidonic acid concentrations, the association between rs174548 and cis/trans-18:2 was nearly eliminated in European-ancestry participants (β-coefficient reduced by 86\%), with similar reductions in Hispanic Americans and Chinese Americans.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide novel evidence for genetic regulation of cis/trans-18:2 by the FADS1/2 cluster and suggest that this regulation may be influenced/mediated by concentrations of arachidonic acid, an n-6 polyunsaturated fat.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Arachidonic Acid, Asian Americans, Biomarkers, European Continental Ancestry Group, Fatty Acids, Omega-6, Gene Frequency, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Genotyping Techniques, Humans, Phospholipids, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Trans Fatty Acids}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.114.094557}, author = {Mozaffarian, Dariush and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Johnson, Catherine O and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Manichaikul, Ani and Sun, Qi and Foy, Millennia and Wang, Lu and Wiener, Howard and Irvin, Marguerite R and Rich, Stephen S and Wu, Hongyu and Jensen, Majken K and Chasman, Daniel I and Chu, Audrey Y and Fornage, Myriam and Steffen, Lyn and King, Irena B and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Chen, Ida Y-D and Wu, Jason H Y and Siscovick, David S and Ridker, Paul M and Tsai, Michael Y and Rimm, Eric B and Hu, Frank B and Arnett, Donna K} } @article {6682, title = {Genome of The Netherlands population-specific imputations identify an ABCA6 variant associated with cholesterol levels.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {6}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {6065}, abstract = {

Variants associated with blood lipid levels may be population-specific. To identify low-frequency variants associated with this phenotype, population-specific reference panels may be used. Here we impute nine large Dutch biobanks (~35,000 samples) with the population-specific reference panel created by the Genome of The Netherlands Project and perform association testing with blood lipid levels. We report the discovery of five novel associations at four loci (P value <6.61 {\texttimes} 10(-4)), including a rare missense variant in ABCA6 (rs77542162, p.Cys1359Arg, frequency 0.034), which is predicted to be deleterious. The frequency of this ABCA6 variant is 3.65-fold increased in the Dutch and its effect (βLDL-C=0.135, βTC=0.140) is estimated to be very similar to those observed for single variants in well-known lipid genes, such as LDLR.

}, keywords = {ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters, Cholesterol, Gene Frequency, Genetic Association Studies, Humans, Mutation, Missense, Netherlands}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms7065}, author = {van Leeuwen, Elisabeth M and Karssen, Lennart C and Deelen, Joris and Isaacs, Aaron and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Mbarek, Hamdi and Kanterakis, Alexandros and Trompet, Stella and Postmus, Iris and Verweij, Niek and van Enckevort, David J and Huffman, Jennifer E and White, Charles C and Feitosa, Mary F and Bartz, Traci M and Manichaikul, Ani and Joshi, Peter K and Peloso, Gina M and Deelen, Patrick and van Dijk, Freerk and Willemsen, Gonneke and de Geus, Eco J and Milaneschi, Yuri and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Francioli, Laurent C and Menelaou, Androniki and Pulit, Sara L and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and Oostra, Ben A and Franco, Oscar H and Mateo Leach, Irene and Beekman, Marian and de Craen, Anton J M and Uh, Hae-Won and Trochet, Holly and Hocking, Lynne J and Porteous, David J and Sattar, Naveed and Packard, Chris J and Buckley, Brendan M and Brody, Jennifer A and Bis, Joshua C and Rotter, Jerome I and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Campbell, Harry and Duan, Qing and Lange, Leslie A and Wilson, James F and Hayward, Caroline and Polasek, Ozren and Vitart, Veronique and Rudan, Igor and Wright, Alan F and Rich, Stephen S and Psaty, Bruce M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Kearney, Patricia M and Stott, David J and Adrienne Cupples, L and Jukema, J Wouter and van der Harst, Pim and Sijbrands, Eric J and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Swertz, Morris A and van Ommen, Gert-Jan B and de Bakker, Paul I W and Eline Slagboom, P and Boomsma, Dorret I and Wijmenga, Cisca and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {6614, title = {Habitual sleep duration is associated with BMI and macronutrient intake and may be modified by CLOCK genetic variants.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {101}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan}, pages = {135-43}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Short sleep duration has been associated with greater risks of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Also, common genetic variants in the human Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput (CLOCK) show associations with ghrelin and total energy intake.

OBJECTIVES: We examined associations between habitual sleep duration, body mass index (BMI), and macronutrient intake and assessed whether CLOCK variants modify these associations.

DESIGN: We conducted inverse-variance weighted, fixed-effect meta-analyses of results of adjusted associations of sleep duration and BMI and macronutrient intake as percentages of total energy as well as interactions with CLOCK variants from 9 cohort studies including up to 14,906 participants of European descent from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium.

RESULTS: We observed a significant association between sleep duration and lower BMI (β {\textpm} SE = 0.16 {\textpm} 0.04, P < 0.0001) in the overall sample; however, associations between sleep duration and relative macronutrient intake were evident in age- and sex-stratified analyses only. We observed a significant association between sleep duration and lower saturated fatty acid intake in younger (aged 20-64 y) adults (men: 0.11 {\textpm} 0.06\%, P = 0.03; women: 0.10 {\textpm} 0.05\%, P = 0.04) and with lower carbohydrate (-0.31 {\textpm} 0.12\%, P < 0.01), higher total fat (0.18 {\textpm} 0.09\%, P = 0.05), and higher PUFA (0.05 {\textpm} 0.02\%, P = 0.02) intakes in older (aged 65-80 y) women. In addition, the following 2 nominally significant interactions were observed: between sleep duration and rs12649507 on PUFA intake and between sleep duration and rs6858749 on protein intake.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that longer habitual sleep duration is associated with lower BMI and age- and sex-specific favorable dietary behaviors. Differences in the relative intake of specific macronutrients associated with short sleep duration could, at least in part, explain previously reported associations between short sleep duration and chronic metabolic abnormalities. In addition, the influence of obesity-associated CLOCK variants on the association between sleep duration and macronutrient intake suggests that longer habitual sleep duration could ameliorate the genetic predisposition to obesity via a favorable dietary profile.

}, keywords = {Adult, Body Mass Index, CLOCK Proteins, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diet, Dietary Proteins, Energy Intake, European Continental Ancestry Group, Fatty Acids, Unsaturated, Female, Gene-Environment Interaction, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sleep, Young Adult}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.114.095026}, author = {Dashti, Hassan S and Follis, Jack L and Smith, Caren E and Tanaka, Toshiko and Cade, Brian E and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Hruby, Adela and Jacques, Paul F and Lamon-Fava, Stefania and Richardson, Kris and Saxena, Richa and Scheer, Frank A J L and Kovanen, Leena and Bartz, Traci M and Per{\"a}l{\"a}, Mia-Maria and Jonsson, Anna and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Kalafati, Ioanna-Panagiota and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Partonen, Timo and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Lahti, Jari and Hernandez, Dena G and Toft, Ulla and Johnson, W Craig and Kanoni, Stavroula and Raitakari, Olli T and Perola, Markus and Psaty, Bruce M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Grarup, Niels and Highland, Heather M and Rallidis, Loukianos and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Havulinna, Aki S and Siscovick, David S and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Rotter, Jerome I and Deloukas, Panos and Viikari, Jorma S A and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Linneberg, Allan and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Hansen, Torben and Salomaa, Veikko and Gharib, Sina A and Eriksson, Johan G and Bandinelli, Stefania and Pedersen, Oluf and Rich, Stephen S and Dedoussis, George and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Ordovas, Jose M} } @article {6686, title = {Low-frequency and rare exome chip variants associate with fasting glucose and type 2 diabetes susceptibility.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {6}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {5897}, abstract = {

Fasting glucose and insulin are intermediate traits for type 2 diabetes. Here we explore the role of coding variation on these traits by analysis of variants on the HumanExome BeadChip in 60,564 non-diabetic individuals and in 16,491 T2D cases and 81,877 controls. We identify a novel association of a low-frequency nonsynonymous SNV in GLP1R (A316T; rs10305492; MAF=1.4\%) with lower FG (β=-0.09{\textpm}0.01 mmol l(-1), P=3.4 {\texttimes} 10(-12)), T2D risk (OR[95\%CI]=0.86[0.76-0.96], P=0.010), early insulin secretion (β=-0.07{\textpm}0.035 pmolinsulin mmolglucose(-1), P=0.048), but higher 2-h glucose (β=0.16{\textpm}0.05 mmol l(-1), P=4.3 {\texttimes} 10(-4)). We identify a gene-based association with FG at G6PC2 (pSKAT=6.8 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) driven by four rare protein-coding SNVs (H177Y, Y207S, R283X and S324P). We identify rs651007 (MAF=20\%) in the first intron of ABO at the putative promoter of an antisense lncRNA, associating with higher FG (β=0.02{\textpm}0.004 mmol l(-1), P=1.3 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Our approach identifies novel coding variant associations and extends the allelic spectrum of variation underlying diabetes-related quantitative traits and T2D susceptibility.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Blood Glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Fasting, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor, Glucose-6-Phosphatase, Humans, Insulin, Mutation Rate, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms6897}, author = {Wessel, Jennifer and Chu, Audrey Y and Willems, Sara M and Wang, Shuai and Yaghootkar, Hanieh and Brody, Jennifer A and Dauriz, Marco and Hivert, Marie-France and Raghavan, Sridharan and Lipovich, Leonard and Hidalgo, Bertha and Fox, Keolu and Huffman, Jennifer E and An, Ping and Lu, Yingchang and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Grarup, Niels and Ehm, Margaret G and Li, Li and Baldridge, Abigail S and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Abrol, Ravinder and Besse, C{\'e}line and Boland, Anne and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Fornage, Myriam and Freitag, Daniel F and Garcia, Melissa E and Guo, Xiuqing and Hara, Kazuo and Isaacs, Aaron and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Lange, Leslie A and Layton, Jill C and Li, Man and Hua Zhao, Jing and Meidtner, Karina and Morrison, Alanna C and Nalls, Mike A and Peters, Marjolein J and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Schurmann, Claudia and Silveira, Angela and Smith, Albert V and Southam, Lorraine and Stoiber, Marcus H and Strawbridge, Rona J and Taylor, Kent D and Varga, Tibor V and Allin, Kristine H and Amin, Najaf and Aponte, Jennifer L and Aung, Tin and Barbieri, Caterina and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Boehnke, Michael and Bombieri, Cristina and Bowden, Donald W and Burns, Sean M and Chen, Yuning and Chen, Yii-DerI and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Correa, Adolfo and Czajkowski, Jacek and Dehghan, Abbas and Ehret, Georg B and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Escher, Stefan A and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Fr{\r a}nberg, Mattias and Gambaro, Giovanni and Giulianini, Franco and Goddard, William A and Goel, Anuj and Gottesman, Omri and Grove, Megan L and Gustafsson, Stefan and Hai, Yang and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Heo, Jiyoung and Hoffmann, Per and Ikram, Mohammad K and Jensen, Richard A and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Karaleftheri, Maria and Khor, Chiea C and Kirkpatrick, Andrea and Kraja, Aldi T and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lange, Ethan M and Lee, I T and Lee, Wen-Jane and Leong, Aaron and Liao, Jiemin and Liu, Chunyu and Liu, Yongmei and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Linneberg, Allan and Malerba, Giovanni and Mamakou, Vasiliki and Marouli, Eirini and Maruthur, Nisa M and Matchan, Angela and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and McLeod, Olga and Metcalf, Ginger A and Mohlke, Karen L and Muzny, Donna M and Ntalla, Ioanna and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pasko, Dorota and Peter, Andreas and Rayner, Nigel W and Renstrom, Frida and Rice, Ken and Sala, Cinzia F and Sennblad, Bengt and Serafetinidis, Ioannis and Smith, Jennifer A and Soranzo, Nicole and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Stahl, Eli A and Stirrups, Kathleen and Tentolouris, Nikos and Thanopoulou, Anastasia and Torres, Mina and Traglia, Michela and Tsafantakis, Emmanouil and Javad, Sundas and Yanek, Lisa R and Zengini, Eleni and Becker, Diane M and Bis, Joshua C and Brown, James B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Hansen, Torben and Ingelsson, Erik and Karter, Andrew J and Lorenzo, Carlos and Mathias, Rasika A and Norris, Jill M and Peloso, Gina M and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Toniolo, Daniela and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Varma, Rohit and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Boeing, Heiner and Bottinger, Erwin P and Dedoussis, George and Deloukas, Panos and Ferrannini, Ele and Franco, Oscar H and Franks, Paul W and Gibbs, Richard A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hayward, Caroline and Hofman, Albert and Jansson, Jan-H{\r a}kan and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Levy, Daniel and Oostra, Ben A and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and O{\textquoteright}Rahilly, Stephen and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Pankow, James S and Polasek, Ozren and Province, Michael A and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rudan, Igor and Schulze, Matthias B and Smith, Blair H and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Walker, Mark and Watkins, Hugh and Wong, Tien Y and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Laakso, Markku and Borecki, Ingrid B and Chasman, Daniel I and Pedersen, Oluf and Psaty, Bruce M and Tai, E Shyong and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wareham, Nicholas J and Waterworth, Dawn M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kao, W H Linda and Florez, Jose C and Loos, Ruth J F and Wilson, James G and Frayling, Timothy M and Siscovick, David S and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Rotter, Jerome I and Meigs, James B and Scott, Robert A and Goodarzi, Mark O} } @article {6568, title = {Mendelian randomization of blood lipids for coronary heart disease.}, journal = {Eur Heart J}, volume = {36}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Mar 01}, pages = {539-50}, abstract = {

AIMS: To investigate the causal role of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglycerides in coronary heart disease (CHD) using multiple instrumental variables for Mendelian randomization.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We developed weighted allele scores based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with established associations with HDL-C, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). For each trait, we constructed two scores. The first was unrestricted, including all independent SNPs associated with the lipid trait identified from a prior meta-analysis (threshold P < 2 {\texttimes} 10(-6)); and the second a restricted score, filtered to remove any SNPs also associated with either of the other two lipid traits at P <= 0.01. Mendelian randomization meta-analyses were conducted in 17 studies including 62,199 participants and 12,099 CHD events. Both the unrestricted and restricted allele scores for LDL-C (42 and 19 SNPs, respectively) associated with CHD. For HDL-C, the unrestricted allele score (48 SNPs) was associated with CHD (OR: 0.53; 95\% CI: 0.40, 0.70), per 1 mmol/L higher HDL-C, but neither the restricted allele score (19 SNPs; OR: 0.91; 95\% CI: 0.42, 1.98) nor the unrestricted HDL-C allele score adjusted for triglycerides, LDL-C, or statin use (OR: 0.81; 95\% CI: 0.44, 1.46) showed a robust association. For triglycerides, the unrestricted allele score (67 SNPs) and the restricted allele score (27 SNPs) were both associated with CHD (OR: 1.62; 95\% CI: 1.24, 2.11 and 1.61; 95\% CI: 1.00, 2.59, respectively) per 1-log unit increment. However, the unrestricted triglyceride score adjusted for HDL-C, LDL-C, and statin use gave an OR for CHD of 1.01 (95\% CI: 0.59, 1.75).

CONCLUSION: The genetic findings support a causal effect of triglycerides on CHD risk, but a causal role for HDL-C, though possible, remains less certain.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Cholesterol, HDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Gene Frequency, Genotype, Genotyping Techniques, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Assessment, Triglycerides}, issn = {1522-9645}, doi = {10.1093/eurheartj/eht571}, author = {Holmes, Michael V and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Palmer, Tom M and Drenos, Fotios and Lanktree, Matthew B and Nelson, Christopher P and Dale, Caroline E and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Finan, Chris and Swerdlow, Daniel I and Tragante, Vinicius and van Iperen, Erik P A and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Shah, Sonia and Elbers, Clara C and Shah, Tina and Engmann, Jorgen and Giambartolomei, Claudia and White, Jon and Zabaneh, Delilah and Sofat, Reecha and McLachlan, Stela and Doevendans, Pieter A and Balmforth, Anthony J and Hall, Alistair S and North, Kari E and Almoguera, Berta and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Cushman, Mary and Fornage, Myriam and Patel, Sanjay R and Redline, Susan and Siscovick, David S and Tsai, Michael Y and Karczewski, Konrad J and Hofker, Marten H and Verschuren, W Monique and Bots, Michiel L and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Melander, Olle and Dominiczak, Anna F and Morris, Richard and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Price, Jackie and Kumari, Meena and Baumert, Jens and Peters, Annette and Thorand, Barbara and Koenig, Wolfgang and Gaunt, Tom R and Humphries, Steve E and Clarke, Robert and Watkins, Hugh and Farrall, Martin and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and de Bakker, Paul I W and Lange, Leslie A and Davey Smith, George and Reiner, Alex P and Talmud, Philippa J and Kivimaki, Mika and Lawlor, Debbie A and Dudbridge, Frank and Samani, Nilesh J and Keating, Brendan J and Hingorani, Aroon D and Casas, Juan P} } @article {6812, title = {Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies Identifies Genetic Risk Factors for Stroke in African Americans.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {46}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Aug}, pages = {2063-8}, abstract = {

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

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

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

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

}, keywords = {African Americans, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.115.009044}, author = {Carty, Cara L and Keene, Keith L and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Meschia, James F and Chen, Wei-Min and Nalls, Mike and Bis, Joshua C and Kittner, Steven J and Rich, Stephen S and Tajuddin, Salman and Zonderman, Alan B and Evans, Michele K and Langefeld, Carl D and Gottesman, Rebecca and Mosley, Thomas H and Shahar, Eyal and Woo, Daniel and Yaffe, Kristine and Liu, Yongmei and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Dichgans, Martin and Malik, Rainer and Longstreth, W T and Mitchell, Braxton D and Psaty, Bruce M and Kooperberg, Charles and Reiner, Alexander and Worrall, Bradford B and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {6849, title = {Rare and Coding Region Genetic Variants Associated With Risk of Ischemic Stroke: The NHLBI Exome Sequence Project.}, journal = {JAMA Neurol}, volume = {72}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jul}, pages = {781-8}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: Stroke is the second leading cause of death and the third leading cause of years of life lost. Genetic factors contribute to stroke prevalence, and candidate gene and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified variants associated with ischemic stroke risk. These variants often have small effects without obvious biological significance. Exome sequencing may discover predicted protein-altering variants with a potentially large effect on ischemic stroke risk.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the contribution of rare and common genetic variants to ischemic stroke risk by targeting the protein-coding regions of the human genome.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Exome Sequencing Project (ESP) analyzed approximately 6000 participants from numerous cohorts of European and African ancestry. For discovery, 365 cases of ischemic stroke (small-vessel and large-vessel subtypes) and 809 European ancestry controls were sequenced; for replication, 47 affected sibpairs concordant for stroke subtype and an African American case-control series were sequenced, with 1672 cases and 4509 European ancestry controls genotyped. The ESP{\textquoteright}s exome sequencing and genotyping started on January 1, 2010, and continued through June 30, 2012. Analyses were conducted on the full data set between July 12, 2012, and July 13, 2013.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Discovery of new variants or genes contributing to ischemic stroke risk and subtype (primary analysis) and determination of support for protein-coding variants contributing to risk in previously published candidate genes (secondary analysis).

RESULTS: We identified 2 novel genes associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke: a protein-coding variant in PDE4DIP (rs1778155; odds ratio, 2.15; P = 2.63 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with an intracellular signal transduction mechanism and in ACOT4 (rs35724886; odds ratio, 2.04; P = 1.24 {\texttimes} 10(-7)) with a fatty acid metabolism; confirmation of PDE4DIP was observed in affected sibpair families with large-vessel stroke subtype and in African Americans. Replication of protein-coding variants in candidate genes was observed for 2 previously reported GWAS associations: ZFHX3 (cardioembolic stroke) and ABCA1 (large-vessel stroke).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Exome sequencing discovered 2 novel genes and mechanisms, PDE4DIP and ACOT4, associated with increased risk for ischemic stroke. In addition, ZFHX3 and ABCA1 were discovered to have protein-coding variants associated with ischemic stroke. These results suggest that genetic variation in novel pathways contributes to ischemic stroke risk and serves as a target for prediction, prevention, and therapy.

}, keywords = {Aged, Brain Ischemia, Exome, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Muscle Proteins, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Nuclear Proteins, Open Reading Frames, Palmitoyl-CoA Hydrolase, Stroke, United States}, issn = {2168-6157}, doi = {10.1001/jamaneurol.2015.0582}, author = {Auer, Paul L and Nalls, Mike and Meschia, James F and Worrall, Bradford B and Longstreth, W T and Seshadri, Sudha and Kooperberg, Charles and Burger, Kathleen M and Carlson, Christopher S and Carty, Cara L and Chen, Wei-Min and Cupples, L Adrienne and DeStefano, Anita L and Fornage, Myriam and Hardy, John and Hsu, Li and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jarvik, Gail P and Kim, Daniel S and Lakshminarayan, Kamakshi and Lange, Leslie A and Manichaikul, Ani and Quinlan, Aaron R and Singleton, Andrew B and Thornton, Timothy A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Peters, Ulrike and Rich, Stephen S} } @article {6951, title = {Interaction of methylation-related genetic variants with circulating fatty acids on plasma lipids: a meta-analysis of 7 studies and methylation analysis of 3 studies in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {103}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Feb}, pages = {567-78}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation is influenced by diet and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and methylation modulates gene expression.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore whether the gene-by-diet interactions on blood lipids act through DNA methylation.

DESIGN: We selected 7 SNPs on the basis of predicted relations in fatty acids, methylation, and lipids. We conducted a meta-analysis and a methylation and mediation analysis with the use of data from the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) consortium and the ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) consortium.

RESULTS: On the basis of the meta-analysis of 7 cohorts in the CHARGE consortium, higher plasma HDL cholesterol was associated with fewer C alleles at ATP-binding cassette subfamily A member 1 (ABCA1) rs2246293 (β = -0.6 mg/dL, P = 0.015) and higher circulating eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (β = 3.87 mg/dL, P = 5.62 {\texttimes} 10(21)). The difference in HDL cholesterol associated with higher circulating EPA was dependent on genotypes at rs2246293, and it was greater for each additional C allele (β = 1.69 mg/dL, P = 0.006). In the GOLDN (Genetics of Lipid Lowering Drugs and Diet Network) study, higher ABCA1 promoter cg14019050 methylation was associated with more C alleles at rs2246293 (β = 8.84\%, P = 3.51 {\texttimes} 10(18)) and lower circulating EPA (β = -1.46\%, P = 0.009), and the mean difference in methylation of cg14019050 that was associated with higher EPA was smaller with each additional C allele of rs2246293 (β = -2.83\%, P = 0.007). Higher ABCA1 cg14019050 methylation was correlated with lower ABCA1 expression (r = -0.61, P = 0.009) in the ENCODE consortium and lower plasma HDL cholesterol in the GOLDN study (r = -0.12, P = 0.0002). An additional mediation analysis was meta-analyzed across the GOLDN study, Cardiovascular Health Study, and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Compared with the model without the adjustment of cg14019050 methylation, the model with such adjustment provided smaller estimates of the mean plasma HDL cholesterol concentration in association with both the rs2246293 C allele and EPA and a smaller difference by rs2246293 genotypes in the EPA-associated HDL cholesterol. However, the differences between 2 nested models were NS (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: We obtained little evidence that the gene-by-fatty acid interactions on blood lipids act through DNA methylation.

}, keywords = {Apolipoproteins E, ATP Binding Cassette Transporter 1, Cholesterol, HDL, Cohort Studies, Diet, DNA Methylation, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Epigenesis, Genetic, Fatty Acids, Gene Expression Regulation, Humans, Lipids, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Triglycerides}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.115.112987}, author = {Ma, Yiyi and Follis, Jack L and Smith, Caren E and Tanaka, Toshiko and Manichaikul, Ani W and Chu, Audrey Y and Samieri, Cecilia and Zhou, Xia and Guan, Weihua and Wang, Lu and Biggs, Mary L and Chen, Yii-der I and Hernandez, Dena G and Borecki, Ingrid and Chasman, Daniel I and Rich, Stephen S and Ferrucci, Luigi and Irvin, Marguerite Ryan and Aslibekyan, Stella and Zhi, Degui and Tiwari, Hemant K and Claas, Steven A and Sha, Jin and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Lai, Chao-Qiang and Parnell, Laurence D and Lee, Yu-Chi and Amouyel, Philippe and Lambert, Jean-Charles and Psaty, Bruce M and King, Irena B and Mozaffarian, Dariush and McKnight, Barbara and Bandinelli, Stefania and Tsai, Michael Y and Ridker, Paul M and Ding, Jingzhong and Mstat, Kurt Lohmant and Liu, Yongmei and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Barberger-Gateau, Pascale and Steffen, Lyn M and Siscovick, David S and Absher, Devin and Arnett, Donna K and Ordovas, Jose M and Lemaitre, Rozenn N} } @article {7573, title = {Exome-wide association study of plasma lipids in >300,000 individuals.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {49}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Dec}, pages = {1758-1766}, abstract = {

We screened variants on an exome-focused genotyping array in >300,000 participants (replication in >280,000 participants) and identified 444 independent variants in 250 loci significantly associated with total cholesterol (TC), high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and/or triglycerides (TG). At two loci (JAK2 and A1CF), experimental analysis in mice showed lipid changes consistent with the human data. We also found that: (i) beta-thalassemia trait carriers displayed lower TC and were protected from coronary artery disease (CAD); (ii) excluding the CETP locus, there was not a predictable relationship between plasma HDL-C and risk for age-related macular degeneration; (iii) only some mechanisms of lowering LDL-C appeared to increase risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D); and (iv) TG-lowering alleles involved in hepatic production of TG-rich lipoproteins (TM6SF2 and PNPLA3) tracked with higher liver fat, higher risk for T2D, and lower risk for CAD, whereas TG-lowering alleles involved in peripheral lipolysis (LPL and ANGPTL4) had no effect on liver fat but decreased risks for both T2D and CAD.

}, keywords = {Coronary Artery Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Exome, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genotype, Humans, Lipids, Macular Degeneration, Phenotype, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3977}, author = {Liu, Dajiang J and Peloso, Gina M and Yu, Haojie and Butterworth, Adam S and Wang, Xiao and Mahajan, Anubha and Saleheen, Danish and Emdin, Connor and Alam, Dewan and Alves, Alexessander Couto and Amouyel, Philippe and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Arveiler, Dominique and Assimes, Themistocles L and Auer, Paul L and Baber, Usman and Ballantyne, Christie M and Bang, Lia E and Benn, Marianne and Bis, Joshua C and Boehnke, Michael and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bottinger, Erwin P and Brandslund, Ivan and Brown, Morris and Busonero, Fabio and Caulfield, Mark J and Chambers, John C and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Y Eugene and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chowdhury, Rajiv and Christensen, Cramer and Chu, Audrey Y and Connell, John M and Cucca, Francesco and Cupples, L Adrienne and Damrauer, Scott M and Davies, Gail and Deary, Ian J and Dedoussis, George and Denny, Joshua C and Dominiczak, Anna and Dub{\'e}, Marie-Pierre and Ebeling, Tapani and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Feitosa, Mary F and Ferrario, Marco and Ferrieres, Jean and Ford, Ian and Fornage, Myriam and Franks, Paul W and Frayling, Timothy M and Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth and Fritsche, Lars G and Frossard, Philippe and Fuster, Valentin and Ganesh, Santhi K and Gao, Wei and Garcia, Melissa E and Gieger, Christian and Giulianini, Franco and Goodarzi, Mark O and Grallert, Harald and Grarup, Niels and Groop, Leif and Grove, Megan L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Holmen, Oddgeir L and Huffman, Jennifer and Huo, Yong and Hveem, Kristian and Jabeen, Sehrish and Jackson, Anne U and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jensen, Gorm B and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and Jukema, J Wouter and Justesen, Johanne M and Kamstrup, Pia R and Kanoni, Stavroula and Karpe, Fredrik and Kee, Frank and Khera, Amit V and Klarin, Derek and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kooperberg, Charles and Kuulasmaa, Kari and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo and Langenberg, Claudia and Langsted, Anne and Launer, Lenore J and Lauritzen, Torsten and Liewald, David C M and Lin, Li An and Linneberg, Allan and Loos, Ruth J F and Lu, Yingchang and Lu, Xiangfeng and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and M{\"a}larstig, Anders and Manichaikul, Ani and Manning, Alisa K and M{\"a}ntyselk{\"a}, Pekka and Marouli, Eirini and Masca, Nicholas G D and Maschio, Andrea and Meigs, James B and Melander, Olle and Metspalu, Andres and Morris, Andrew P and Morrison, Alanna C and Mulas, Antonella and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Munroe, Patricia B and Neville, Matt J and Nielsen, Jonas B and Nielsen, Sune F and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Ordovas, Jose M and Mehran, Roxana and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christoper J and Orho-Melander, Marju and Molony, Cliona M and Muntendam, Pieter and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmer, Colin N A and Pasko, Dorota and Patel, Aniruddh P and Pedersen, Oluf and Perola, Markus and Peters, Annette and Pisinger, Charlotta and Pistis, Giorgio and Polasek, Ozren and Poulter, Neil and Psaty, Bruce M and Rader, Daniel J and Rasheed, Asif and Rauramaa, Rainer and Reilly, Dermot F and Reiner, Alex P and Renstrom, Frida and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rioux, John D and Robertson, Neil R and Roden, Dan M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Samani, Nilesh J and Sanna, Serena and Sattar, Naveed and Schmidt, Ellen M and Scott, Robert A and Sever, Peter and Sevilla, Raquel S and Shaffer, Christian M and Sim, Xueling and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Small, Kerrin S and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Blair H and Somayajula, Sangeetha and Southam, Lorraine and Spector, Timothy D and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Starr, John M and Stirrups, Kathleen E and Stitziel, Nathan and Strauch, Konstantin and Stringham, Heather M and Surendran, Praveen and Tada, Hayato and Tall, Alan R and Tang, Hua and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Taylor, Kent D and Trompet, Stella and Tsao, Philip S and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and van Zuydam, Natalie R and Varbo, Anette and Varga, Tibor V and Virtamo, Jarmo and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Nan and Wareham, Nick J and Warren, Helen R and Weeke, Peter E and Weinstock, Joshua and Wessel, Jennifer and Wilson, James G and Wilson, Peter W F and Xu, Ming and Yaghootkar, Hanieh and Young, Robin and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Zhang, He and Zheng, Neil S and Zhang, Weihua and Zhang, Yan and Zhou, Wei and Zhou, Yanhua and Zoledziewska, Magdalena and Howson, Joanna M M and Danesh, John and McCarthy, Mark I and Cowan, Chad A and Abecasis, Goncalo and Deloukas, Panos and Musunuru, Kiran and Willer, Cristen J and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {7596, title = {Impact of common genetic determinants of Hemoglobin A1c on type 2 diabetes risk and diagnosis in ancestrally diverse populations: A transethnic genome-wide meta-analysis.}, journal = {PLoS Med}, volume = {14}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep}, pages = {e1002383}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is used to diagnose type 2 diabetes (T2D) and assess glycemic control in patients with diabetes. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 18 HbA1c-associated genetic variants. These variants proved to be classifiable by their likely biological action as erythrocytic (also associated with erythrocyte traits) or glycemic (associated with other glucose-related traits). In this study, we tested the hypotheses that, in a very large scale GWAS, we would identify more genetic variants associated with HbA1c and that HbA1c variants implicated in erythrocytic biology would affect the diagnostic accuracy of HbA1c. We therefore expanded the number of HbA1c-associated loci and tested the effect of genetic risk-scores comprised of erythrocytic or glycemic variants on incident diabetes prediction and on prevalent diabetes screening performance. Throughout this multiancestry study, we kept a focus on interancestry differences in HbA1c genetics performance that might influence race-ancestry differences in health outcomes.

METHODS \& FINDINGS: Using genome-wide association meta-analyses in up to 159,940 individuals from 82 cohorts of European, African, East Asian, and South Asian ancestry, we identified 60 common genetic variants associated with HbA1c. We classified variants as implicated in glycemic, erythrocytic, or unclassified biology and tested whether additive genetic scores of erythrocytic variants (GS-E) or glycemic variants (GS-G) were associated with higher T2D incidence in multiethnic longitudinal cohorts (N = 33,241). Nineteen glycemic and 22 erythrocytic variants were associated with HbA1c at genome-wide significance. GS-G was associated with higher T2D risk (incidence OR = 1.05, 95\% CI 1.04-1.06, per HbA1c-raising allele, p = 3 {\texttimes} 10-29); whereas GS-E was not (OR = 1.00, 95\% CI 0.99-1.01, p = 0.60). In Europeans and Asians, erythrocytic variants in aggregate had only modest effects on the diagnostic accuracy of HbA1c. Yet, in African Americans, the X-linked G6PD G202A variant (T-allele frequency 11\%) was associated with an absolute decrease in HbA1c of 0.81\%-units (95\% CI 0.66-0.96) per allele in hemizygous men, and 0.68\%-units (95\% CI 0.38-0.97) in homozygous women. The G6PD variant may cause approximately 2\% (N = 0.65 million, 95\% CI 0.55-0.74) of African American adults with T2D to remain undiagnosed when screened with HbA1c. Limitations include the smaller sample sizes for non-European ancestries and the inability to classify approximately one-third of the variants. Further studies in large multiethnic cohorts with HbA1c, glycemic, and erythrocytic traits are required to better determine the biological action of the unclassified variants.

CONCLUSIONS: As G6PD deficiency can be clinically silent until illness strikes, we recommend investigation of the possible benefits of screening for the G6PD genotype along with using HbA1c to diagnose T2D in populations of African ancestry or groups where G6PD deficiency is common. Screening with direct glucose measurements, or genetically-informed HbA1c diagnostic thresholds in people with G6PD deficiency, may be required to avoid missed or delayed diagnoses.

}, keywords = {Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glycated Hemoglobin A, Humans, Phenotype, Risk}, issn = {1549-1676}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pmed.1002383}, author = {Wheeler, Eleanor and Leong, Aaron and Liu, Ching-Ti and Hivert, Marie-France and Strawbridge, Rona J and Podmore, Clara and Li, Man and Yao, Jie and Sim, Xueling and Hong, Jaeyoung and Chu, Audrey Y and Zhang, Weihua and Wang, Xu and Chen, Peng and Maruthur, Nisa M and Porneala, Bianca C and Sharp, Stephen J and Jia, Yucheng and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Chang, Li-Ching and Chen, Wei-Min and Elks, Cathy E and Evans, Daniel S and Fan, Qiao and Giulianini, Franco and Go, Min Jin and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Hu, Yao and Jackson, Anne U and Kanoni, Stavroula and Kim, Young Jin and Kleber, Marcus E and Ladenvall, Claes and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Lim, Sing-Hui and Lu, Yingchang and Mahajan, Anubha and Marzi, Carola and Nalls, Mike A and Navarro, Pau and Nolte, Ilja M and Rose, Lynda M and Rybin, Denis V and Sanna, Serena and Shi, Yuan and Stram, Daniel O and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Tan, Shu Pei and van der Most, Peter J and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Wong, Andrew and Yengo, Loic and Zhao, Wanting and Goel, Anuj and Martinez Larrad, Maria Teresa and Radke, D{\"o}rte and Salo, Perttu and Tanaka, Toshiko and van Iperen, Erik P A and Abecasis, Goncalo and Afaq, Saima and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Bertoni, Alain G and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and B{\"o}ttcher, Yvonne and Bottinger, Erwin P and Campbell, Harry and Carlson, Olga D and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Cho, Yoon Shin and Garvey, W Timothy and Gieger, Christian and Goodarzi, Mark O and Grallert, Harald and Hamsten, Anders and Hartman, Catharina A and Herder, Christian and Hsiung, Chao Agnes and Huang, Jie and Igase, Michiya and Isono, Masato and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Kiess, Wieland and Kohara, Katsuhiko and Kovacs, Peter and Lee, Juyoung and Lee, Wen-Jane and Lehne, Benjamin and Li, Huaixing and Liu, Jianjun and Lobbens, Stephane and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Meitinger, Thomas and Miki, Tetsuro and Miljkovic, Iva and Moon, Sanghoon and Mulas, Antonella and M{\"u}ller, Gabriele and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Nauck, Matthias and Pankow, James S and Polasek, Ozren and Prokopenko, Inga and Ramos, Paula S and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Rich, Stephen S and Robertson, Neil R and Roden, Michael and Roussel, Ronan and Rudan, Igor and Scott, Robert A and Scott, William R and Sennblad, Bengt and Siscovick, David S and Strauch, Konstantin and Sun, Liang and Swertz, Morris and Tajuddin, Salman M and Taylor, Kent D and Teo, Yik-Ying and Tham, Yih Chung and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Wareham, Nicholas J and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilsgaard, Tom and Hingorani, Aroon D and Egan, Josephine and Ferrucci, Luigi and Hovingh, G Kees and Jula, Antti and Kivimaki, Mika and Kumari, Meena and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Palmer, Colin N A and Serrano R{\'\i}os, Manuel and Stumvoll, Michael and Watkins, Hugh and Aung, Tin and Bl{\"u}her, Matthias and Boehnke, Michael and Boomsma, Dorret I and Bornstein, Stefan R and Chambers, John C and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chen, Yduan-Tsong and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Cucca, Francesco and de Geus, Eco J C and Deloukas, Panos and Evans, Michele K and Fornage, Myriam and Friedlander, Yechiel and Froguel, Philippe and Groop, Leif and Gross, Myron D and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Ingelsson, Erik and Kato, Norihiro and Kim, Bong-Jo and Koh, Woon-Puay and Kooner, Jaspal S and K{\"o}rner, Antje and Kuh, Diana and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lin, Xu and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and Magnusson, Patrik K E and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McCarthy, Mark I and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Ong, Ken K and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pereira, Mark A and Peters, Annette and Ridker, Paul M and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Sale, Michele and Saleheen, Danish and Saltevo, Juha and Schwarz, Peter Eh and Sheu, Wayne H H and Snieder, Harold and Spector, Timothy D and Tabara, Yasuharu and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and van Dam, Rob M and Wilson, James G and Wilson, James F and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Wong, Tien Yin and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zonderman, Alan B and Soranzo, Nicole and Guo, Xiuqing and Roberts, David J and Florez, Jose C and Sladek, Robert and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Morris, Andrew P and Tai, E-Shyong and Selvin, Elizabeth and Rotter, Jerome I and Langenberg, Claudia and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Meigs, James B} } @article {7791, title = {Genome-wide association meta-analysis of circulating odd-numbered chain saturated fatty acids: Results from the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {13}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {e0196951}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Odd-numbered chain saturated fatty acids (OCSFA) have been associated with potential health benefits. Although some OCSFA (e.g., C15:0 and C17:0) are found in meats and dairy products, sources and metabolism of C19:0 and C23:0 are relatively unknown, and the influence of non-dietary determinants, including genetic factors, on circulating levels of OCSFA is not established.

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the biological processes that influence circulating levels of OCSFA by investigating associations between genetic variation and OCSFA.

DESIGN: We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of plasma phospholipid/erythrocyte levels of C15:0, C17:0, C19:0, and C23:0 among 11,494 individuals of European descent. We also investigated relationships between specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the lactase (LCT) gene, associated with adult-onset lactase intolerance, with circulating levels of dairy-derived OCSFA, and evaluated associations of candidate sphingolipid genes with C23:0 levels.

RESULTS: We found no genome-wide significant evidence that common genetic variation is associated with circulating levels of C15:0 or C23:0. In two cohorts with available data, we identified one intronic SNP (rs13361131) in myosin X gene (MYO10) associated with C17:0 level (P = 1.37{\texttimes}10-8), and two intronic SNP (rs12874278 and rs17363566) in deleted in lymphocytic leukemia 1 (DLEU1) region associated with C19:0 level (P = 7.07{\texttimes}10-9). In contrast, when using a candidate-gene approach, we found evidence that three SNPs in LCT (rs11884924, rs16832067, and rs3816088) are associated with circulating C17:0 level (adjusted P = 4{\texttimes}10-2). In addition, nine SNPs in the ceramide synthase 4 (CERS4) region were associated with circulating C23:0 levels (adjusted P<5{\texttimes}10-2).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that circulating levels of OCSFA may be predominantly influenced by non-genetic factors. SNPs associated with C17:0 level in the LCT gene may reflect genetic influence in dairy consumption or in metabolism of dairy foods. SNPs associated with C23:0 may reflect a role of genetic factors in the synthesis of sphingomyelin.

}, keywords = {Fatty Acids, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Introns, Lactase, Myosins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sphingomyelins, Sphingosine N-Acyltransferase, Tumor Suppressor Proteins}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0196951}, author = {de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Sun, Qi and King, Irena B and Wu, Jason H Y and Manichaikul, Ani and Rich, Stephen S and Tsai, Michael Y and Chen, Y D and Fornage, Myriam and Weihua, Guan and Aslibekyan, Stella and Irvin, Marguerite R and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Arnett, Donna K and Jensen, Majken K and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Steffen, Lyn M and Smith, Caren E and Riserus, Ulf and Lind, Lars and Hu, Frank B and Rimm, Eric B and Siscovick, David S and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {7976, title = {Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 01 22}, pages = {376}, abstract = {

Many genetic loci affect circulating lipid levels, but it remains unknown whether lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, modify these genetic effects. To identify lipid loci interacting with physical activity, we performed genome-wide analyses of circulating HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in up to 120,979 individuals of European, African, Asian, Hispanic, and Brazilian ancestry, with follow-up of suggestive associations in an additional 131,012 individuals. We find four loci, in/near CLASP1, LHX1, SNTA1, and CNTNAP2, that are associated with circulating lipid levels through interaction with physical activity; higher levels of physical activity enhance the HDL cholesterol-increasing effects of the CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 loci and attenuate the LDL cholesterol-increasing effect of the CNTNAP2 locus. The CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 regions harbor genes linked to muscle function and lipid metabolism. Our results elucidate the role of physical activity interactions in the genetic contribution to blood lipid levels.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Brazil, Calcium-Binding Proteins, Cholesterol, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exercise, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Hispanic Americans, Humans, LIM-Homeodomain Proteins, Lipid Metabolism, Lipids, Male, Membrane Proteins, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Middle Aged, Muscle Proteins, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Transcription Factors, Triglycerides, Young Adult}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-08008-w}, author = {Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Bentley, Amy R and Noordam, Raymond and Sung, Yun Ju and Schwander, Karen and Winkler, Thomas W and Jakupovi{\'c}, Hermina and Chasman, Daniel I and Manning, Alisa and Ntalla, Ioanna and Aschard, Hugues and Brown, Michael R and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Franceschini, Nora and Guo, Xiuqing and Vojinovic, Dina and Aslibekyan, Stella and Feitosa, Mary F and Kho, Minjung and Musani, Solomon K and Richard, Melissa and Wang, Heming and Wang, Zhe and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Campbell, Archie and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Fisher, Virginia and Hartwig, Fernando P and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Li, Changwei and Lohman, Kurt K and Marten, Jonathan and Sim, Xueling and Smith, Albert V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Alver, Maris and Amini, Marzyeh and Boissel, Mathilde and Chai, Jin Fang and Chen, Xu and Divers, Jasmin and Evangelou, Evangelos and Gao, Chuan and Graff, Mariaelisa and Harris, Sarah E and He, Meian and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Jackson, Anne U and Zhao, Jing Hua and Kraja, Aldi T and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Laguzzi, Federica and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nolte, Ilja M and Rauramaa, Rainer and Riaz, Muhammad and Robino, Antonietta and Rueedi, Rico and Stringham, Heather M and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and van der Most, Peter J and Varga, Tibor V and Verweij, Niek and Ware, Erin B and Wen, Wanqing and Li, Xiaoyin and Yanek, Lisa R and Amin, Najaf and Arnett, Donna K and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brumat, Marco and Cade, Brian and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Concas, Maria Pina and Connell, John and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Silva, H Janaka and de Vries, Paul S and Demirkan, Ayse and Ding, Jingzhong and Eaton, Charles B and Faul, Jessica D and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gabriel, Kelley P and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Giulianini, Franco and Gu, Chi Charles and Gu, Dongfeng and Harris, Tamara B and He, Jiang and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hunt, Steven C and Ikram, M Arfan and Jonas, Jost B and Koh, Woon-Puay and Komulainen, Pirjo and Krieger, Jose E and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Kuusisto, Johanna and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Leander, Karin and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Lewis, Cora E and Liang, Jingjing and Liu, Jianjun and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Manichaikul, Ani and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mohlke, Karen L and Mosley, Thomas H and Murray, Alison D and Nalls, Mike A and Nang, Ei-Ei Khaing and Nelson, Christopher P and Nona, Sotoodehnia and Norris, Jill M and Nwuba, Chiamaka Vivian and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff and Palmer, Nicholette D and Papanicolau, George J and Pazoki, Raha and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David J and Poveda, Alaitz and Raitakari, Olli T and Rich, Stephen S and Risch, Neil and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rose, Lynda M and Rudan, Igor and Schreiner, Pamela J and Scott, Robert A and Sidney, Stephen S and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Sofer, Tamar and Starr, John M and Sternfeld, Barbara and Strauch, Konstantin and Tang, Hua and Taylor, Kent D and Tsai, Michael Y and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van der Ende, M Yldau and van Heemst, Diana and Voortman, Trudy and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wennberg, Patrik and Wilson, Gregory and Xiang, Yong-Bing and Yao, Jie and Yu, Caizheng and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zhao, Wei and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and de Faire, Ulf and Deary, Ian J and Elliott, Paul and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Kato, Norihiro and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Samani, Nilesh J and Shu, Xiao-Ou and van der Harst, Pim and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Vollenweider, Peter and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wang, Ya X and Wareham, Nicholas J and Weir, David R and Wu, Tangchun and Zheng, Wei and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Evans, Michele K and Franks, Paul W and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hayward, Caroline and Horta, Bernardo L and Kelly, Tanika N and Liu, Yongmei and North, Kari E and Pereira, Alexandre C and Ridker, Paul M and Tai, E Shyong and van Dam, Rob M and Fox, Ervin R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Ching-Ti and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Province, Michael A and Redline, Susan and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Rotter, Jerome I and Kooperberg, Charles B and Gauderman, W James and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth and Munroe, Patricia B and Fornage, Myriam and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rotimi, Charles N and Morrison, Alanna C and Rao, Dabeeru C and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {8400, title = {Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and related phenotypes: polygenic risk scores in population-based and case-control cohorts.}, journal = {Lancet Respir Med}, volume = {8}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 07}, pages = {696-708}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genetic factors influence chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) risk, but the individual variants that have been identified have small effects. We hypothesised that a polygenic risk score using additional variants would predict COPD and associated phenotypes.

METHODS: We constructed a polygenic risk score using a genome-wide association study of lung function (FEV and FEV/forced vital capacity [FVC]) from the UK Biobank and SpiroMeta. We tested this polygenic risk score in nine cohorts of multiple ethnicities for an association with moderate-to-severe COPD (defined as FEV/FVC <0{\textperiodcentered}7 and FEV <80\% of predicted). Associations were tested using logistic regression models, adjusting for age, sex, height, smoking pack-years, and principal components of genetic ancestry. We assessed predictive performance of models by area under the curve. In a subset of studies, we also studied quantitative and qualitative CT imaging phenotypes that reflect parenchymal and airway pathology, and patterns of reduced lung growth.

FINDINGS: The polygenic risk score was associated with COPD in European (odds ratio [OR] per SD 1{\textperiodcentered}81 [95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}74-1{\textperiodcentered}88] and non-European (1{\textperiodcentered}42 [1{\textperiodcentered}34-1{\textperiodcentered}51]) populations. Compared with the first decile, the tenth decile of the polygenic risk score was associated with COPD, with an OR of 7{\textperiodcentered}99 (6{\textperiodcentered}56-9{\textperiodcentered}72) in European ancestry and 4{\textperiodcentered}83 (3{\textperiodcentered}45-6{\textperiodcentered}77) in non-European ancestry cohorts. The polygenic risk score was superior to previously described genetic risk scores and, when combined with clinical risk factors (ie, age, sex, and smoking pack-years), showed improved prediction for COPD compared with a model comprising clinical risk factors alone (AUC 0{\textperiodcentered}80 [0{\textperiodcentered}79-0{\textperiodcentered}81] vs 0{\textperiodcentered}76 [0{\textperiodcentered}75-0{\textperiodcentered}76]). The polygenic risk score was associated with CT imaging phenotypes, including wall area percent, quantitative and qualitative measures of emphysema, local histogram emphysema patterns, and destructive emphysema subtypes. The polygenic risk score was associated with a reduced lung growth pattern.

INTERPRETATION: A risk score comprised of genetic variants can identify a small subset of individuals at markedly increased risk for moderate-to-severe COPD, emphysema subtypes associated with cigarette smoking, and patterns of reduced lung growth.

FUNDING: US National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust.

}, keywords = {Adult, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Risk Factors, Vital Capacity}, issn = {2213-2619}, doi = {10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30101-6}, author = {Moll, Matthew and Sakornsakolpat, Phuwanat and Shrine, Nick and Hobbs, Brian D and DeMeo, Dawn L and John, Catherine and Guyatt, Anna L and McGeachie, Michael J and Gharib, Sina A and Obeidat, Ma{\textquoteright}en and Lahousse, Lies and Wijnant, Sara R A and Brusselle, Guy and Meyers, Deborah A and Bleecker, Eugene R and Li, Xingnan and Tal-Singer, Ruth and Manichaikul, Ani and Rich, Stephen S and Won, Sungho and Kim, Woo Jin and Do, Ah Ra and Washko, George R and Barr, R Graham and Psaty, Bruce M and Bartz, Traci M and Hansel, Nadia N and Barnes, Kathleen and Hokanson, John E and Crapo, James D and Lynch, David and Bakke, Per and Gulsvik, Amund and Hall, Ian P and Wain, Louise and Weiss, Scott T and Silverman, Edwin K and Dudbridge, Frank and Tobin, Martin D and Cho, Michael H} } @article {8625, title = {Genetic loci associated with prevalent and incident myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {15}, year = {2020}, month = {2020}, pages = {e0230035}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies have identified multiple genomic loci associated with coronary artery disease, but most are common variants in non-coding regions that provide limited information on causal genes and etiology of the disease. To overcome the limited scope that common variants provide, we focused our investigation on low-frequency and rare sequence variations primarily residing in coding regions of the genome.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Using samples of individuals of European ancestry from ten cohorts within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, both cross-sectional and prospective analyses were conducted to examine associations between genetic variants and myocardial infarction (MI), coronary heart disease (CHD), and all-cause mortality following these events. For prevalent events, a total of 27,349 participants of European ancestry, including 1831 prevalent MI cases and 2518 prevalent CHD cases were used. For incident cases, a total of 55,736 participants of European ancestry were included (3,031 incident MI cases and 5,425 incident CHD cases). There were 1,860 all-cause deaths among the 3,751 MI and CHD cases from six cohorts that contributed to the analysis of all-cause mortality. Single variant and gene-based analyses were performed separately in each cohort and then meta-analyzed for each outcome. A low-frequency intronic variant (rs988583) in PLCL1 was significantly associated with prevalent MI (OR = 1.80, 95\% confidence interval: 1.43, 2.27; P = 7.12 {\texttimes} 10-7). We conducted gene-based burden tests for genes with a cumulative minor allele count (cMAC) >= 5 and variants with minor allele frequency (MAF) < 5\%. TMPRSS5 and LDLRAD1 were significantly associated with prevalent MI and CHD, respectively, and RC3H2 and ANGPTL4 were significantly associated with incident MI and CHD, respectively. No loci were significantly associated with all-cause mortality following a MI or CHD event.

CONCLUSION: This study identified one known locus (ANGPTL4) and four new loci (PLCL1, RC3H2, TMPRSS5, and LDLRAD1) associated with cardiovascular disease risk that warrant further investigation.

}, keywords = {Aging, Coronary Artery Disease, Cross-Sectional Studies, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0230035}, author = {Hahn, Julie and Fu, Yi-Ping and Brown, Michael R and Bis, Joshua C and de Vries, Paul S and Feitosa, Mary F and Yanek, Lisa R and Weiss, Stefan and Giulianini, Franco and Smith, Albert Vernon and Guo, Xiuqing and Bartz, Traci M and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Franco, Oscar H and Grove, Megan and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Kral, Brian G and Launer, Lenore J and Markus, Marcello R P and Rice, Kenneth M and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Taylor, Kent D and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Yao, Jie and Chasman, Daniel I and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Mathias, Rasika A and Post, Wendy and Psaty, Bruce M and Dehghan, Abbas and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Morrison, Alanna C} } @article {8639, title = {Whole genome sequence analysis of pulmonary function and COPD in 19,996 multi-ethnic participants.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {11}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 10 14}, pages = {5182}, abstract = {

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diagnosed by reduced lung function, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. We performed whole genome sequence (WGS) analysis of lung function and COPD in a multi-ethnic sample of 11,497 participants from population- and family-based studies, and 8499 individuals from COPD-enriched studies in the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program. We identify at genome-wide significance 10 known GWAS loci and 22 distinct, previously unreported loci, including two common variant signals from stratified analysis of African Americans. Four novel common variants within the regions of PIAS1, RGN (two variants) and FTO show evidence of replication in the UK Biobank (European ancestry n ~ 320,000), while colocalization analyses leveraging multi-omic data from GTEx and TOPMed identify potential molecular mechanisms underlying four of the 22 novel loci. Our study demonstrates the value of performing WGS analyses and multi-omic follow-up in cohorts of diverse ancestry.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alpha-Ketoglutarate-Dependent Dioxygenase FTO, Calcium-Binding Proteins, Feasibility Studies, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins, Lung, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Protein Inhibitors of Activated STAT, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Respiratory Physiological Phenomena, Small Ubiquitin-Related Modifier Proteins, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-020-18334-7}, author = {Zhao, Xutong and Qiao, Dandi and Yang, Chaojie and Kasela, Silva and Kim, Wonji and Ma, Yanlin and Shrine, Nick and Batini, Chiara and Sofer, Tamar and Taliun, Sarah A Gagliano and Sakornsakolpat, Phuwanat and Balte, Pallavi P and Prokopenko, Dmitry and Yu, Bing and Lange, Leslie A and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Cade, Brian E and Lee, Jiwon and Gharib, Sina A and Daya, Michelle and Laurie, Cecelia A and Ruczinski, Ingo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Loehr, Laura R and Bartz, Traci M and Morrison, Alanna C and Psaty, Bruce M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wilson, James G and Taylor, Kent D and Durda, Peter and Johnson, W Craig and Cornell, Elaine and Guo, Xiuqing and Liu, Yongmei and Tracy, Russell P and Ardlie, Kristin G and Aguet, Francois and VanDenBerg, David J and Papanicolaou, George J and Rotter, Jerome I and Barnes, Kathleen C and Jain, Deepti and Nickerson, Deborah A and Muzny, Donna M and Metcalf, Ginger A and Doddapaneni, Harshavardhan and Dugan-Perez, Shannon and Gupta, Namrata and Gabriel, Stacey and Rich, Stephen S and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Redline, Susan and Reed, Robert M and Laurie, Cathy C and Daviglus, Martha L and Preudhomme, Liana K and Burkart, Kristin M and Kaplan, Robert C and Wain, Louise V and Tobin, Martin D and London, Stephanie J and Lappalainen, Tuuli and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Silverman, Edwin K and Barr, R Graham and Cho, Michael H and Manichaikul, Ani} } @article {8774, title = {Determinants of penetrance and variable expressivity in monogenic metabolic conditions across 77,184 exomes.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 06 09}, pages = {3505}, abstract = {

Hundreds of thousands of genetic variants have been reported to cause severe monogenic diseases, but the probability that a variant carrier develops the disease (termed penetrance) is unknown for virtually all of them. Additionally, the clinical utility of common polygenetic variation remains uncertain. Using exome sequencing from 77,184 adult individuals (38,618 multi-ancestral individuals from a type 2 diabetes case-control study and 38,566 participants from the UK Biobank, for whom genotype array data were also available), we apply clinical standard-of-care gene variant curation for eight monogenic metabolic conditions. Rare variants causing monogenic diabetes and dyslipidemias display effect sizes significantly larger than the top 1\% of the corresponding polygenic scores. Nevertheless, penetrance estimates for monogenic variant carriers average 60\% or lower for most conditions. We assess epidemiologic and genetic factors contributing to risk prediction in monogenic variant carriers, demonstrating that inclusion of polygenic variation significantly improves biomarker estimation for two monogenic dyslipidemias.

}, keywords = {Adult, Biological Variation, Population, Biomarkers, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Dyslipidemias, Exome, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Humans, Multifactorial Inheritance, Penetrance, Risk Assessment}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-23556-4}, author = {Goodrich, Julia K and Singer-Berk, Moriel and Son, Rachel and Sveden, Abigail and Wood, Jordan and England, Eleina and Cole, Joanne B and Weisburd, Ben and Watts, Nick and Caulkins, Lizz and Dornbos, Peter and Koesterer, Ryan and Zappala, Zachary and Zhang, Haichen and Maloney, Kristin A and Dahl, Andy and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos A and Atzmon, Gil and Barajas-Olmos, Francisco and Barzilai, Nir and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bottinger, Erwin and Bowden, Donald W and Centeno-Cruz, Federico and Chambers, John C and Chami, Nathalie and Chan, Edmund and Chan, Juliana and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Cho, Yoon Shin and Contreras-Cubas, Cecilia and C{\'o}rdova, Emilio and Correa, Adolfo and DeFronzo, Ralph A and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Garay-Sevilla, Ma Eugenia and Garc{\'\i}a-Ortiz, Humberto and Gieger, Christian and Glaser, Benjamin and Gonz{\'a}lez-Villalpando, Clicerio and Gonzalez, Ma Elena and Grarup, Niels and Groop, Leif and Gross, Myron and Haiman, Christopher and Han, Sohee and Hanis, Craig L and Hansen, Torben and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Henderson, Brian E and Hernandez, Juan Manuel Malacara and Hwang, Mi Yeong and Islas-Andrade, Sergio and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and Kang, Hyun Min and Kim, Bong-Jo and Kim, Young Jin and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kooner, Jaspal Singh and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kwak, Soo-Heon and Laakso, Markku and Lange, Leslie and Lee, Jong-Young and Lee, Juyoung and Lehman, Donna M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Jianjun and Loos, Ruth J F and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Ma, Ronald C W and Mart{\'\i}nez-Hern{\'a}ndez, Ang{\'e}lica and Meigs, James B and Meitinger, Thomas and Mendoza-Caamal, Elvia and Mohlke, Karen L and Morris, Andrew D and Morrison, Alanna C and Ng, Maggie C Y and Nilsson, Peter M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Orozco, Lorena and Palmer, Colin N A and Park, Kyong Soo and Post, Wendy S and Pedersen, Oluf and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Reiner, Alexander P and Revilla-Monsalve, Cristina and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Saleheen, Danish and Schurmann, Claudia and Sim, Xueling and Sladek, Rob and Small, Kerrin S and So, Wing Yee and Spector, Timothy D and Strauch, Konstantin and Strom, Tim M and Tai, E Shyong and Tam, Claudia H T and Teo, Yik Ying and Thameem, Farook and Tomlinson, Brian and Tracy, Russell P and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, Teresa and van Dam, Rob M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wilson, James G and Witte, Daniel R and Wong, Tien-Yin and Burtt, Noel P and Zaitlen, Noah and McCarthy, Mark I and Boehnke, Michael and Pollin, Toni I and Flannick, Jason and Mercader, Josep M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell-Luria, Anne and Baxter, Samantha and Florez, Jose C and MacArthur, Daniel G and Udler, Miriam S} } @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} } @article {9246, title = {Correlations between complex human phenotypes vary by genetic background, gender, and environment.}, journal = {Cell Rep Med}, volume = {3}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Dec 20}, pages = {100844}, abstract = {

We develop a closed-form Haseman-Elston estimator for genetic and environmental correlation coefficients between complex phenotypes, which we term HEc, that is as precise as GCTA yet \~{}20{\texttimes} faster. We estimate genetic and environmental correlations between over 7,000 phenotype pairs in subgroups from the Trans-Omics in Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. We demonstrate substantial differences in both heritabilities and genetic correlations for multiple phenotypes and phenotype pairs between individuals of self-reported Black, Hispanic/Latino, and White backgrounds. We similarly observe differences in many of the genetic and environmental correlations between genders. To estimate the contribution of genetics to the observed phenotypic correlation, we introduce "fractional genetic correlation" as the fraction of phenotypic correlation explained by genetics. Finally, we quantify the enrichment of correlations between phenotypic domains, each of which is comprised of multiple phenotypes. Altogether, we demonstrate that the observed correlations between complex human phenotypes depend on the genetic background of the individuals, their gender, and their environment.

}, keywords = {Female, Genetic Background, Humans, Male, Phenotype}, issn = {2666-3791}, doi = {10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100844}, author = {Elgart, Michael and Goodman, Matthew O and Isasi, Carmen and Chen, Han and Morrison, Alanna C and de Vries, Paul S and Xu, Huichun and Manichaikul, Ani W and Guo, Xiuqing and Franceschini, Nora and Psaty, Bruce M and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Fornage, Myriam and Correa, Adolfo and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Hernandez, Ryan and Kaplan, Robert C and Redline, Susan and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {9194, title = {Cross-Ancestry Investigation of Venous Thromboembolism Genomic Predictors.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {146}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Oct 18}, pages = {1225-1242}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a life-threatening vascular event with environmental and genetic determinants. Recent VTE genome-wide association studies (GWAS) meta-analyses involved nearly 30 000 VTE cases and identified up to 40 genetic loci associated with VTE risk, including loci not previously suspected to play a role in hemostasis. The aim of our research was to expand discovery of new genetic loci associated with VTE by using cross-ancestry genomic resources.

METHODS: We present new cross-ancestry meta-analyzed GWAS results involving up to 81 669 VTE cases from 30 studies, with replication of novel loci in independent populations and loci characterization through in silico genomic interrogations.

RESULTS: In our genetic discovery effort that included 55 330 participants with VTE (47 822 European, 6320 African, and 1188 Hispanic ancestry), we identified 48 novel associations, of which 34 were replicated after correction for multiple testing. In our combined discovery-replication analysis (81 669 VTE participants) and ancestry-stratified meta-analyses (European, African, and Hispanic), we identified another 44 novel associations, which are new candidate VTE-associated loci requiring replication. In total, across all GWAS meta-analyses, we identified 135 independent genomic loci significantly associated with VTE risk. A genetic risk score of the significantly associated loci in Europeans identified a 6-fold increase in risk for those in the top 1\% of scores compared with those with average scores. We also identified 31 novel transcript associations in transcriptome-wide association studies and 8 novel candidate genes with protein quantitative-trait locus Mendelian randomization analyses. In silico interrogations of hemostasis and hematology traits and a large phenome-wide association analysis of the 135 GWAS loci provided insights to biological pathways contributing to VTE, with some loci contributing to VTE through well-characterized coagulation pathways and others providing new data on the role of hematology traits, particularly platelet function. Many of the replicated loci are outside of known or currently hypothesized pathways to thrombosis.

CONCLUSIONS: Our cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses identified new loci associated with VTE. These findings highlight new pathways to thrombosis and provide novel molecules that may be useful in the development of improved antithrombosis treatments.

}, keywords = {Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Thrombosis, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.059675}, author = {Thibord, Florian and Klarin, Derek and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Ming-Huei and Levin, Michael G and Chasman, Daniel I and Goode, Ellen L and Hveem, Kristian and Teder-Laving, Maris and Martinez-Perez, Angel and A{\"\i}ssi, Dylan and Daian-Bacq, Delphine and Ito, Kaoru and Natarajan, Pradeep and Lutsey, Pamela L and Nadkarni, Girish N and de Vries, Paul S and Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel and Wolford, Brooke N and Pattee, Jack W and Kooperberg, Charles and Braekkan, Sigrid K and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Saut, No{\'e}mie and Sept, Corriene and Germain, Marine and Judy, Renae L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Ko, Darae and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Taylor, Kent D and Giulianini, Franco and de Andrade, Mariza and N{\o}st, Therese H and Boland, Anne and Empana, Jean-Philippe and Koyama, Satoshi and Gilliland, Thomas and Do, Ron and Huffman, Jennifer E and Wang, Xin and Zhou, Wei and Manuel Soria, Jose and Carlos Souto, Juan and Pankratz, Nathan and Haessler, Jeffery and Hindberg, Kristian and Rosendaal, Frits R and Turman, Constance and Olaso, Robert and Kember, Rachel L and Bartz, Traci M and Lynch, Julie A and Heckbert, Susan R and Armasu, Sebastian M and Brumpton, Ben and Smadja, David M and Jouven, Xavier and Komuro, Issei and Clapham, Katharine R and Loos, Ruth J F and Willer, Cristen J and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Pankow, James S and Reiner, Alexander P and Morelli, Vania M and Ridker, Paul M and Vlieg, Astrid van Hylckama and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and Kraft, Peter and Rader, Daniel J and Min Lee, Kyung and Psaty, Bruce M and Heidi Skogholt, Anne and Emmerich, Joseph and Suchon, Pierre and Rich, Stephen S and Vy, Ha My T and Tang, Weihong and Jackson, Rebecca D and Hansen, John-Bjarne and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Kabrhel, Christopher and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Damrauer, Scott M and Johnson, Andrew D and Smith, Nicholas L} } @article {9167, title = {Endophenotype effect sizes support variant pathogenicity in monogenic disease susceptibility genes.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 08 30}, pages = {5106}, abstract = {

Accurate and efficient classification of variant pathogenicity is critical for research and clinical care. Using data from three large studies, we demonstrate that population-based associations between rare variants and quantitative endophenotypes for three monogenic diseases (low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol for familial hypercholesterolemia, electrocardiographic QTc interval for long QT syndrome, and glycosylated hemoglobin for maturity-onset diabetes of the young) provide evidence for variant pathogenicity. Effect sizes are associated with pathogenic ClinVar assertions (P < 0.001 for each trait) and discriminate pathogenic from non-pathogenic variants (area under the curve 0.82-0.84 across endophenotypes). An effect size threshold of >= 0.5 times the endophenotype standard deviation nominates up to 35\% of rare variants of uncertain significance or not in ClinVar in disease susceptibility genes with pathogenic potential. We propose that variant associations with quantitative endophenotypes for monogenic diseases can provide evidence supporting pathogenicity.

}, keywords = {Disease Susceptibility, Endophenotypes, Humans, Long QT Syndrome, Virulence}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-022-32009-5}, author = {Halford, Jennifer L and Morrill, Valerie N and Choi, Seung Hoan and Jurgens, Sean J and Melloni, Giorgio and Marston, Nicholas A and Weng, Lu-Chen and Nauffal, Victor and Hall, Amelia W and Gunn, Sophia and Austin-Tse, Christina A and Pirruccello, James P and Khurshid, Shaan and Rehm, Heidi L and Benjamin, Emelia J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brody, Jennifer A and Correa, Adolfo and Fornwalt, Brandon K and Gupta, Namrata and Haggerty, Christopher M and Harris, Stephanie and Heckbert, Susan R and Hong, Charles C and Kooperberg, Charles and Lin, Henry J and Loos, Ruth J F and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and Post, Wendy and Psaty, Bruce M and Redline, Susan and Rice, Kenneth M and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Schnatz, Peter F and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Wong, Eugene K and Sabatine, Marc S and Ruff, Christian T and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Ellinor, Patrick T and Lubitz, Steven A} } @article {9253, title = {A framework for detecting noncoding rare-variant associations of large-scale whole-genome sequencing studies.}, journal = {Nat Methods}, volume = {19}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Dec}, pages = {1599-1611}, abstract = {

Large-scale whole-genome sequencing studies have enabled analysis of noncoding rare-variant (RV) associations with complex human diseases and traits. Variant-set analysis is a powerful approach to study RV association. However, existing methods have limited ability in analyzing the noncoding genome. We propose a computationally efficient and robust noncoding RV association detection framework, STAARpipeline, to automatically annotate a whole-genome sequencing study and perform flexible noncoding RV association analysis, including gene-centric analysis and fixed window-based and dynamic window-based non-gene-centric analysis by incorporating variant functional annotations. In gene-centric analysis, STAARpipeline uses STAAR to group noncoding variants based on functional categories of genes and incorporate multiple functional annotations. In non-gene-centric analysis, STAARpipeline uses SCANG-STAAR to incorporate dynamic window sizes and multiple functional annotations. We apply STAARpipeline to identify noncoding RV sets associated with four lipid traits in 21,015 discovery samples from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program and replicate several of them in an additional 9,123 TOPMed samples. We also analyze five non-lipid TOPMed traits.

}, keywords = {Genetic Variation, Genome, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Phenotype, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1548-7105}, doi = {10.1038/s41592-022-01640-x}, author = {Li, Zilin and Li, Xihao and Zhou, Hufeng and Gaynor, Sheila M and Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha and Arapoglou, Theodore and Quick, Corbin and Liu, Yaowu and Chen, Han and Sun, Ryan and Dey, Rounak and Arnett, Donna K and Auer, Paul L and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Blackwell, Thomas W and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Brody, Jennifer A and Cade, Brian E and Conomos, Matthew P and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Curran, Joanne E and de Vries, Paul S and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Franceschini, Nora and Freedman, Barry I and G{\"o}ring, Harald H H and Guo, Xiuqing and Kalyani, Rita R and Kooperberg, Charles and Kral, Brian G and Lange, Leslie A and Lin, Bridget M and Manichaikul, Ani and Manning, Alisa K and Martin, Lisa W and Mathias, Rasika A and Meigs, James B and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montasser, May E and Morrison, Alanna C and Naseri, Take and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Reupena, Muagututi{\textquoteright}a Sefuiva and Rice, Kenneth M and Rich, Stephen S and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Taub, Margaret A and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Weeks, Daniel E and Wilson, James G and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhao, Wei and Rotter, Jerome I and Willer, Cristen J and Natarajan, Pradeep and Peloso, Gina M and Lin, Xihong} } @article {9104, title = {Multi-ancestry genetic study of type 2 diabetes highlights the power of diverse populations for discovery and translation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {54}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 May}, pages = {560-572}, abstract = {

We assembled an ancestrally diverse collection of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in 180,834 affected individuals and 1,159,055 controls (48.9\% non-European descent) through the Diabetes Meta-Analysis of Trans-Ethnic association studies (DIAMANTE) Consortium. Multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analysis identified 237 loci attaining stringent genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10), which were delineated to 338 distinct association signals. Fine-mapping of these signals was enhanced by the increased sample size and expanded population diversity of the multi-ancestry meta-analysis, which localized 54.4\% of T2D associations to a single variant with >50\% posterior probability. This improved fine-mapping enabled systematic assessment of candidate causal genes and molecular mechanisms through which T2D associations are mediated, laying the foundations for functional investigations. Multi-ancestry genetic risk scores enhanced transferability of T2D prediction across diverse populations. Our study provides a step toward more effective clinical translation of T2D GWAS to improve global health for all, irrespective of genetic background.

}, keywords = {Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Ethnicity, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-022-01058-3}, author = {Mahajan, Anubha and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Zhang, Weihua and Ng, Maggie C Y and Petty, Lauren E and Kitajima, Hidetoshi and Yu, Grace Z and R{\"u}eger, Sina and Speidel, Leo and Kim, Young Jin and Horikoshi, Momoko and Mercader, Josep M and Taliun, Daniel and Moon, Sanghoon and Kwak, Soo-Heon and Robertson, Neil R and Rayner, Nigel W and Loh, Marie and Kim, Bong-Jo and Chiou, Joshua and Miguel-Escalada, Irene and Della Briotta Parolo, Pietro and Lin, Kuang and Bragg, Fiona and Preuss, Michael H and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Nano, Jana and Guo, Xiuqing and Lamri, Amel and Nakatochi, Masahiro and Scott, Robert A and Lee, Jung-Jin and Huerta-Chagoya, Alicia and Graff, Mariaelisa and Chai, Jin-Fang and Parra, Esteban J and Yao, Jie and Bielak, Lawrence F and Tabara, Yasuharu and Hai, Yang and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Cook, James P and Kals, Mart and Grarup, Niels and Schmidt, Ellen M and Pan, Ian and Sofer, Tamar and Wuttke, Matthias and Sarnowski, Chloe and Gieger, Christian and Nousome, Darryl and Trompet, Stella and Long, Jirong and Sun, Meng and Tong, Lin and Chen, Wei-Min and Ahmad, Meraj and Noordam, Raymond and Lim, Victor J Y and Tam, Claudia H T and Joo, Yoonjung Yoonie and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Raffield, Laura M and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Prins, Bram Peter and Nicolas, Aude and Yanek, Lisa R and Chen, Guanjie and Jensen, Richard A and Tajuddin, Salman and Kabagambe, Edmond K and An, Ping and Xiang, Anny H and Choi, Hyeok Sun and Cade, Brian E and Tan, Jingyi and Flanagan, Jack and Abaitua, Fernando and Adair, Linda S and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos A and Akiyama, Masato and Anand, Sonia S and Bertoni, Alain and Bian, Zheng and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Brandslund, Ivan and Brody, Jennifer A and Brummett, Chad M and Buchanan, Thomas A and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chan, Juliana C N and Chang, Li-Ching and Chee, Miao-Li and Chen, Ji and Chen, Shyh-Huei and Chen, Yuan-Tsong and Chen, Zhengming and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Cushman, Mary and Das, Swapan K and de Silva, H Janaka and Dedoussis, George and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Doumatey, Ayo P and Du, Shufa and Duan, Qing and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Emery, Leslie S and Evans, Daniel S and Evans, Michele K and Fischer, Krista and Floyd, James S and Ford, Ian and Fornage, Myriam and Franco, Oscar H and Frayling, Timothy M and Freedman, Barry I and Fuchsberger, Christian and Genter, Pauline and Gerstein, Hertzel C and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gonz{\'a}lez-Villalpando, Clicerio and Gonzalez-Villalpando, Maria Elena and Goodarzi, Mark O and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Gorkin, David and Gross, Myron and Guo, Yu and Hackinger, Sophie and Han, Sohee and Hattersley, Andrew T and Herder, Christian and Howard, Annie-Green and Hsueh, Willa and Huang, Mengna and Huang, Wei and Hung, Yi-Jen and Hwang, Mi Yeong and Hwu, Chii-Min and Ichihara, Sahoko and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Ingelsson, Martin and Islam, Md Tariqul and Isono, Masato and Jang, Hye-Mi and Jasmine, Farzana and Jiang, Guozhi and Jonas, Jost B and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kandeel, Fouad R and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Kaur, Varinderpal and Kawaguchi, Takahisa and Keaton, Jacob M and Kho, Abel N and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Kibriya, Muhammad G and Kim, Duk-Hwan and Kohara, Katsuhiko and Kriebel, Jennifer and Kronenberg, Florian and Kuusisto, Johanna and L{\"a}ll, Kristi and Lange, Leslie A and Lee, Myung-Shik and Lee, Nanette R and Leong, Aaron and Li, Liming and Li, Yun and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Ligthart, Symen and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jianjun and Locke, Adam E and Louie, Tin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Luk, Andrea O and Luo, Xi and Lv, Jun and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Mamakou, Vasiliki and Mani, K Radha and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Morris, Andrew D and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nadler, Jerry L and Nalls, Michael A and Nayak, Uma and Nongmaithem, Suraj S and Ntalla, Ioanna and Okada, Yukinori and Orozco, Lorena and Patel, Sanjay R and Pereira, Mark A and Peters, Annette and Pirie, Fraser J and Porneala, Bianca and Prasad, Gauri and Preissl, Sebastian and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Reiner, Alexander P and Roden, Michael and Rohde, Rebecca and Roll, Kathryn and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Sander, Maike and Sandow, Kevin and Sattar, Naveed and Sch{\"o}nherr, Sebastian and Schurmann, Claudia and Shahriar, Mohammad and Shi, Jinxiu and Shin, Dong Mun and Shriner, Daniel and Smith, Jennifer A and So, Wing Yee and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stilp, Adrienne M and Strauch, Konstantin and Suzuki, Ken and Takahashi, Atsushi and Taylor, Kent D and Thorand, Barbara and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tomlinson, Brian and Torres, Jason M and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, Teresa and Udler, Miriam S and Valladares-Salgado, Adan and van Dam, Rob M and van Klinken, Jan B and Varma, Rohit and Vujkovic, Marijana and Wacher-Rodarte, Niels and Wheeler, Eleanor and Whitsel, Eric A and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Witte, Daniel R and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Yamamoto, Ken and Yamauchi, Toshimasa and Yengo, Loic and Yoon, Kyungheon and Yu, Canqing and Yuan, Jian-Min and Yusuf, Salim and Zhang, Liang and Zheng, Wei and Raffel, Leslie J and Igase, Michiya and Ipp, Eli and Redline, Susan and Cho, Yoon Shin and Lind, Lars and Province, Michael A and Hanis, Craig L and Peyser, Patricia A and Ingelsson, Erik and Zonderman, Alan B and Psaty, Bruce M and Wang, Ya-Xing and Rotimi, Charles N and Becker, Diane M and Matsuda, Fumihiko and Liu, Yongmei and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Yokota, Mitsuhiro and Rich, Stephen S and Kooperberg, Charles and Pankow, James S and Engert, James C and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Froguel, Philippe and Wilson, James G and Sheu, Wayne H H and Kardia, Sharon L R and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Hayes, M Geoffrey and Ma, Ronald C W and Wong, Tien-Yin and Groop, Leif and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Chandak, Giriraj R and Collins, Francis S and Bharadwaj, Dwaipayan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Ahsan, Habibul and Motala, Ayesha A and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Park, Kyong-Soo and Jukema, J Wouter and Cruz, Miguel and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and Grallert, Harald and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Bottinger, Erwin P and Dehghan, Abbas and Tai, E-Shyong and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Kato, Norihiro and Laakso, Markku and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Koh, Woon-Puay and Palmer, Colin N A and Liu, Simin and Abecasis, Goncalo and Kooner, Jaspal S and Loos, Ruth J F and North, Kari E and Haiman, Christopher A and Florez, Jose C and Saleheen, Danish and Hansen, Torben and Pedersen, Oluf and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Langenberg, Claudia and Wareham, Nicholas J and Maeda, Shiro and Kadowaki, Takashi and Lee, Juyoung and Millwood, Iona Y and Walters, Robin G and Stefansson, Kari and Myers, Simon R and Ferrer, Jorge and Gaulton, Kyle J and Meigs, James B and Mohlke, Karen L and Gloyn, Anna L and Bowden, Donald W and Below, Jennifer E and Chambers, John C and Sim, Xueling and Boehnke, Michael and Rotter, Jerome I and McCarthy, Mark I and Morris, Andrew P} } @article {9100, title = {A multi-ethnic polygenic risk score is associated with hypertension prevalence and progression throughout adulthood.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Jun 21}, pages = {3549}, abstract = {

In a multi-stage analysis of 52,436 individuals aged 17-90 across diverse cohorts and biobanks, we train, test, and evaluate a polygenic risk score (PRS) for hypertension risk and progression. The PRS is trained using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for systolic, diastolic blood pressure, and hypertension, respectively. For each trait, PRS is selected by optimizing the coefficient of variation (CV) across estimated effect sizes from multiple potential PRS using the same GWAS, after which the 3 trait-specific PRSs are combined via an unweighted sum called "PRSsum", forming the HTN-PRS. The HTN-PRS is associated with both prevalent and incident hypertension at 4-6 years of follow up. This association is further confirmed in age-stratified analysis. In an independent biobank of 40,201 individuals, the HTN-PRS is confirmed to be predictive of increased risk for coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, type 2 diabetes, and chronic kidney disease.

}, keywords = {Adult, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Multifactorial Inheritance, Prevalence, Risk Factors}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-022-31080-2}, author = {Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Goodman, Matthew O and Kelly, Tanika N and Elfassy, Tali and Wiggins, Kerri L and Bis, Joshua C and Guo, Xiuqing and Palmas, Walter and Taylor, Kent D and Lin, Henry J and Haessler, Jeffrey and Gao, Yan and Shimbo, Daichi and Smith, Jennifer A and Yu, Bing and Feofanova, Elena V and Smit, Roelof A J and Wang, Zhe and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Liu, Simin and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Manson, JoAnn E and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Rich, Stephen S and Loos, Ruth J F and Redline, Susan and Correa, Adolfo and Kooperberg, Charles and Fornage, Myriam and Kaplan, Robert C and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Arnett, Donna K and Morrison, Alanna C and Franceschini, Nora and Levy, Daniel and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {9161, title = {Non-linear machine learning models incorporating SNPs and PRS improve polygenic prediction in diverse human populations.}, journal = {Commun Biol}, volume = {5}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 08 22}, pages = {856}, abstract = {

Polygenic risk scores (PRS) are commonly used to quantify the inherited susceptibility for a trait, yet they fail to account for non-linear and interaction effects between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We address this via a machine learning approach, validated in nine complex phenotypes in a multi-ancestry population. We use an ensemble method of SNP selection followed by gradient boosted trees (XGBoost) to allow for non-linearities and interaction effects. We compare our results to the standard, linear PRS model developed using PRSice, LDpred2, and lassosum2. Combining a PRS as a feature in an XGBoost model results in a relative increase in the percentage variance explained compared to the standard linear PRS model by 22\% for height, 27\% for HDL cholesterol, 43\% for body mass index, 50\% for sleep duration, 58\% for systolic blood pressure, 64\% for total cholesterol, 66\% for triglycerides, 77\% for LDL cholesterol, and 100\% for diastolic blood pressure. Multi-ancestry trained models perform similarly to specific racial/ethnic group trained models and are consistently superior to the standard linear PRS models. This work demonstrates an effective method to account for non-linearities and interaction effects in genetics-based prediction models.

}, keywords = {Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Machine Learning, Multifactorial Inheritance, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {2399-3642}, doi = {10.1038/s42003-022-03812-z}, author = {Elgart, Michael and Lyons, Genevieve and Romero-Brufau, Santiago and Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Brody, Jennifer A and Guo, Xiuqing and Lin, Henry J and Raffield, Laura and Gao, Yan and Chen, Han and de Vries, Paul and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Lange, Leslie A and Peloso, Gina M and Fornage, Myriam and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Morrison, Alanna C and Psaty, Bruce M and Levy, Daniel and Redline, Susan and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {8975, title = {Rare coding variants in 35 genes associate with circulating lipid levels-A multi-ancestry analysis of 170,000 exomes.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {109}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 01 06}, pages = {81-96}, abstract = {

Large-scale gene sequencing studies for complex traits have the potential to identify causal genes with therapeutic implications. We performed gene-based association testing of blood lipid levels with rare (minor allele frequency < 1\%) predicted damaging coding variation by using sequence data from >170,000 individuals from multiple ancestries: 97,493 European, 30,025 South Asian, 16,507 African, 16,440 Hispanic/Latino, 10,420 East Asian, and 1,182 Samoan. We identified 35 genes associated with circulating lipid levels; some of these genes have not been previously associated with lipid levels when using rare coding variation from population-based samples. We prioritize 32 genes in array-based genome-wide association study (GWAS) loci based on aggregations of rare coding variants; three (EVI5, SH2B3, and PLIN1) had no prior association of rare coding variants with lipid levels. Most of our associated genes showed evidence of association among multiple ancestries. Finally, we observed an enrichment of gene-based associations for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol drug target genes and for genes closest to GWAS index single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Our results demonstrate that gene-based associations can be beneficial for drug target development and provide evidence that the gene closest to the array-based GWAS index SNP is often the functional gene for blood lipid levels.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Blood Glucose, Case-Control Studies, Computational Biology, Databases, Genetic, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Exome, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genetics, Population, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipid Metabolism, Lipids, Liver, Molecular Sequence Annotation, Multifactorial Inheritance, Open Reading Frames, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.11.021}, author = {Hindy, George and Dornbos, Peter and Chaffin, Mark D and Liu, Dajiang J and Wang, Minxian and Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha and Zhang, David and Park, Joseph and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos A and Antonacci-Fulton, Lucinda and Ardissino, Diego and Arnett, Donna K and Aslibekyan, Stella and Atzmon, Gil and Ballantyne, Christie M and Barajas-Olmos, Francisco and Barzilai, Nir and Becker, Lewis C and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bottinger, Erwin and Bowden, Donald W and Bown, Matthew J and Brody, Jennifer A and Broome, Jai G and Burtt, Noel P and Cade, Brian E and Centeno-Cruz, Federico and Chan, Edmund and Chang, Yi-Cheng and Chen, Yii-der I and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Choi, Won Jung and Chowdhury, Rajiv and Contreras-Cubas, Cecilia and C{\'o}rdova, Emilio J and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Curran, Joanne E and Danesh, John and de Vries, Paul S and DeFronzo, Ralph A and Doddapaneni, Harsha and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Dutcher, Susan K and Ellinor, Patrick T and Emery, Leslie S and Florez, Jose C and Fornage, Myriam and Freedman, Barry I and Fuster, Valentin and Garay-Sevilla, Ma Eugenia and Garc{\'\i}a-Ortiz, Humberto and Germer, Soren and Gibbs, Richard A and Gieger, Christian and Glaser, Benjamin and Gonzalez, Clicerio and Gonzalez-Villalpando, Maria Elena and Graff, Mariaelisa and Graham, Sarah E and Grarup, Niels and Groop, Leif C and Guo, Xiuqing and Gupta, Namrata and Han, Sohee and Hanis, Craig L and Hansen, Torben and He, Jiang and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hung, Yi-Jen and Hwang, Mi Yeong and Irvin, Marguerite R and Islas-Andrade, Sergio and Jarvik, Gail P and Kang, Hyun Min and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Tanika and Kenny, Eimear E and Khan, Alyna T and Kim, Bong-Jo and Kim, Ryan W and Kim, Young Jin and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kooperberg, Charles and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kwak, Soo Heon and Laakso, Markku and Lange, Leslie A and Lee, Jiwon and Lee, Juyoung and Lee, Seonwook and Lehman, Donna M and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Jianjun and Loos, Ruth J F and Lubitz, Steven A and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Ma, Ronald C W and Martin, Lisa Warsinger and Mart{\'\i}nez-Hern{\'a}ndez, Ang{\'e}lica and Mathias, Rasika A and McGarvey, Stephen T and McPherson, Ruth and Meigs, James B and Meitinger, Thomas and Melander, Olle and Mendoza-Caamal, Elvia and Metcalf, Ginger A and Mi, Xuenan and Mohlke, Karen L and Montasser, May E and Moon, Jee-Young and Moreno-Macias, Hortensia and Morrison, Alanna C and Muzny, Donna M and Nelson, Sarah C and Nilsson, Peter M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Orho-Melander, Marju and Orozco, Lorena and Palmer, Colin N A and Palmer, Nicholette D and Park, Cheol Joo and Park, Kyong Soo and Pedersen, Oluf and Peralta, Juan M and Peyser, Patricia A and Post, Wendy S and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Qi, Qibin and Rao, D C and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Revilla-Monsalve, Cristina and Rich, Stephen S and Samani, Nilesh and Schunkert, Heribert and Schurmann, Claudia and Seo, Daekwan and Seo, Jeong-Sun and Sim, Xueling and Sladek, Rob and Small, Kerrin S and So, Wing Yee and Stilp, Adrienne M and Tai, E Shyong and Tam, Claudia H T and Taylor, Kent D and Teo, Yik Ying and Thameem, Farook and Tomlinson, Brian and Tsai, Michael Y and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, Teresa and Udler, Miriam S and van Dam, Rob M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Viaud Martinez, Karine A and Wang, Fei Fei and Wang, Xuzhi and Watkins, Hugh and Weeks, Daniel E and Wilson, James G and Witte, Daniel R and Wong, Tien-Yin and Yanek, Lisa R and Kathiresan, Sekar and Rader, Daniel J and Rotter, Jerome I and Boehnke, Michael and McCarthy, Mark I and Willer, Cristen J and Natarajan, Pradeep and Flannick, Jason A and Khera, Amit V and Peloso, Gina M} } @article {9109, title = {The Value of Rare Genetic Variation in the Prediction of Common Obesity in European Ancestry Populations.}, journal = {Front Endocrinol (Lausanne)}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {2022}, pages = {863893}, abstract = {

Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) aggregate the effects of genetic variants across the genome and are used to predict risk of complex diseases, such as obesity. Current PRSs only include common variants (minor allele frequency (MAF) >=1\%), whereas the contribution of rare variants in PRSs to predict disease remains unknown. Here, we examine whether augmenting the standard common variant PRS (PRS) with a rare variant PRS (PRS) improves prediction of obesity. We used genome-wide genotyped and imputed data on 451,145 European-ancestry participants of the UK Biobank, as well as whole exome sequencing (WES) data on 184,385 participants. We performed single variant analyses (for both common and rare variants) and gene-based analyses (for rare variants) for association with BMI (kg/m), obesity (BMI >= 30 kg/m), and extreme obesity (BMI >= 40 kg/m). We built PRSs and PRSs using a range of methods (Clumping+Thresholding [C+T], PRS-CS, lassosum, gene-burden test). We selected the best-performing PRSs and assessed their performance in 36,757 European-ancestry unrelated participants with whole genome sequencing (WGS) data from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. The best-performing PRS explained 10.1\% of variation in BMI, and 18.3\% and 22.5\% of the susceptibility to obesity and extreme obesity, respectively, whereas the best-performing PRS explained 1.49\%, and 2.97\% and 3.68\%, respectively. The PRS was associated with an increased risk of obesity and extreme obesity (OR = 1.37 per SD, = 1.7x10; OR = 1.55 per SD, = 3.8x10), which was attenuated, after adjusting for PRS (OR = 1.08 per SD, = 9.8x10; OR= 1.09 per SD, = 0.02). When PRS and PRS are combined, the increase in explained variance attributed to PRS was small (incremental Nagelkerke R = 0.24\% for obesity and 0.51\% for extreme obesity). Consistently, combining PRS to PRS provided little improvement to the prediction of obesity (PRS AUC = 0.591; PRS AUC = 0.708; PRS AUC = 0.710). In summary, while rare variants show convincing association with BMI, obesity and extreme obesity, the PRS provides limited improvement over PRS in the prediction of obesity risk, based on these large populations.

}, keywords = {Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Obesity, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1664-2392}, doi = {10.3389/fendo.2022.863893}, author = {Wang, Zhe and Choi, Shing Wan and Chami, Nathalie and Boerwinkle, Eric and Fornage, Myriam and Redline, Susan and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Psaty, Bruce M and Kim, Wonji and McDonald, Merry-Lynn N and Regan, Elizabeth A and Silverman, Edwin K and Liu, Ching-Ti and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Kalyani, Rita R and Mathias, Rasika A and Yanek, Lisa R and Arnett, Donna K and Justice, Anne E and North, Kari E and Kaplan, Robert and Heckbert, Susan R and de Andrade, Mariza and Guo, Xiuqing and Lange, Leslie A and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Ellinor, Patrick T and Lubitz, Steven A and Blangero, John and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Darbar, Dawood and Gladwin, Mark T and Albert, Christine M and Chasman, Daniel I and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kooperberg, Charles and Reiner, Alexander P and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {9158, title = {Whole genome sequence association analysis of fasting glucose and fasting insulin levels in diverse cohorts from the NHLBI TOPMed program.}, journal = {Commun Biol}, volume = {5}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 07 28}, pages = {756}, abstract = {

The genetic determinants of fasting glucose (FG) and fasting insulin (FI) have been studied mostly through genome arrays, resulting in over 100 associated variants. We extended this work with high-coverage whole genome sequencing analyses from fifteen cohorts in NHLBI{\textquoteright}s Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. Over 23,000 non-diabetic individuals from five race-ethnicities/populations (African, Asian, European, Hispanic and Samoan) were included. Eight variants were significantly associated with FG or FI across previously identified regions MTNR1B, G6PC2, GCK, GCKR and FOXA2. We additionally characterize suggestive associations with FG or FI near previously identified SLC30A8, TCF7L2, and ADCY5 regions as well as APOB, PTPRT, and ROBO1. Functional annotation resources including the Diabetes Epigenome Atlas were compiled for each signal (chromatin states, annotation principal components, and others) to elucidate variant-to-function hypotheses. We provide a catalog of nucleotide-resolution genomic variation spanning intergenic and intronic regions creating a foundation for future sequencing-based investigations of glycemic traits.

}, keywords = {Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Fasting, Glucose, Humans, Insulin, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Nerve Tissue Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Precision Medicine, Receptors, Immunologic, United States}, issn = {2399-3642}, doi = {10.1038/s42003-022-03702-4}, author = {DiCorpo, Daniel and Gaynor, Sheila M and Russell, Emily M and Westerman, Kenneth E and Raffield, Laura M and Majarian, Timothy D and Wu, Peitao and Sarnowski, Chloe and Highland, Heather M and Jackson, Anne and Hasbani, Natalie R and de Vries, Paul S and Brody, Jennifer A and Hidalgo, Bertha and Guo, Xiuqing and Perry, James A and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Lent, Samantha and Montasser, May E and Cade, Brian E and Jain, Deepti and Wang, Heming and D{\textquoteright}Oliveira Albanus, Ricardo and Varshney, Arushi and Yanek, Lisa R and Lange, Leslie and Palmer, Nicholette D and Almeida, Marcio and Peralta, Juan M and Aslibekyan, Stella and Baldridge, Abigail S and Bertoni, Alain G and Bielak, Lawrence F and Chen, Chung-Shiuan and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Choi, Won Jung and Goodarzi, Mark O and Floyd, James S and Irvin, Marguerite R and Kalyani, Rita R and Kelly, Tanika N and Lee, Seonwook and Liu, Ching-Ti and Loesch, Douglas and Manson, JoAnn E and Minster, Ryan L and Naseri, Take and Pankow, James S and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Reiner, Alexander P and Reupena, Muagututi{\textquoteright}a Sefuiva and Selvin, Elizabeth and Smith, Jennifer A and Weeks, Daniel E and Xu, Huichun and Yao, Jie and Zhao, Wei and Parker, Stephen and Alonso, Alvaro and Arnett, Donna K and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Curran, Joanne E and Duggirala, Ravindranath and He, Jiang and Heckbert, Susan R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kim, Ryan W and Kooperberg, Charles and Liu, Simin and Mathias, Rasika A and McGarvey, Stephen T and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Redline, Susan and Shuldiner, Alan R and Taylor, Kent D and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Viaud-Martinez, Karine A and Florez, Jose C and Wilson, James G and Sladek, Robert and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Lin, Xihong and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Meigs, James B and Wessel, Jennifer and Manning, Alisa K} } @article {9261, title = {Whole genome sequencing identifies structural variants contributing to hematologic traits in the NHLBI TOPMed program.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Dec 08}, pages = {7592}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies have identified thousands of single nucleotide variants and small indels that contribute to variation in hematologic traits. While structural variants are known to cause rare blood or hematopoietic disorders, the genome-wide contribution of structural variants to quantitative blood cell trait variation is unknown. Here we utilized whole genome sequencing data in ancestrally diverse participants of the NHLBI Trans Omics for Precision Medicine program (N = 50,675) to detect structural variants associated with hematologic traits. Using single variant tests, we assessed the association of common and rare structural variants with red cell-, white cell-, and platelet-related quantitative traits and observed 21 independent signals (12 common and 9 rare) reaching genome-wide significance. The majority of these associations (N = 18) replicated in independent datasets. In genome-editing experiments, we provide evidence that a deletion associated with lower monocyte counts leads to disruption of an S1PR3 monocyte enhancer and decreased S1PR3 expression.

}, keywords = {Blood Cells, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-022-35354-7}, author = {Wheeler, Marsha M and Stilp, Adrienne M and Rao, Shuquan and Halldorsson, Bjarni V and Beyter, Doruk and Wen, Jia and Mihkaylova, Anna V and McHugh, Caitlin P and Lane, John and Jiang, Min-Zhi and Raffield, Laura M and Jun, Goo and Sedlazeck, Fritz J and Metcalf, Ginger and Yao, Yao and Bis, Joshua B and Chami, Nathalie and de Vries, Paul S and Desai, Pinkal and Floyd, James S and Gao, Yan and Kammers, Kai and Kim, Wonji and Moon, Jee-Young and Ratan, Aakrosh and Yanek, Lisa R and Almasy, Laura and Becker, Lewis C and Blangero, John and Cho, Michael H and Curran, Joanne E and Fornage, Myriam and Kaplan, Robert C and Lewis, Joshua P and Loos, Ruth J F and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Tang, Hua and Tracy, Russell P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Blackwell, Thomas W and Smith, Albert V and Johnson, Andrew D and Mathias, Rasika A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Conomos, Matthew P and Li, Yun and {\TH}orsteinsdottir, Unnur and Magn{\'u}sson, Magn{\'u}s K and Stefansson, Kari and Pankratz, Nathan D and Bauer, Daniel E and Auer, Paul L and Reiner, Alex P} } @article {9387, title = {Aberrant activation of TCL1A promotes stem cell expansion in clonal haematopoiesis.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {616}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Apr}, pages = {755-763}, abstract = {

Mutations in a diverse set of driver genes increase the fitness of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), leading to clonal haematopoiesis. These lesions are precursors for blood cancers, but the basis of their fitness advantage remains largely unknown, partly owing to a paucity of large cohorts in which the clonal expansion rate has been assessed by longitudinal sampling. Here, to circumvent this limitation, we developed a method to infer the expansion rate from data from a single time point. We applied this method to 5,071 people with clonal haematopoiesis. A genome-wide association study revealed that a common inherited polymorphism in the TCL1A promoter was associated with a slower expansion rate in clonal haematopoiesis overall, but the effect varied by driver gene. Those carrying this protective allele exhibited markedly reduced growth rates or prevalence of clones with driver mutations in TET2, ASXL1, SF3B1 and SRSF2, but~this effect was not seen in~clones with~driver mutations in DNMT3A. TCL1A was not expressed in normal or DNMT3A-mutated HSCs, but the introduction of mutations in TET2 or ASXL1 led to the expression of TCL1A protein and the expansion of HSCs in vitro. The protective allele restricted TCL1A expression and expansion of mutant HSCs, as did experimental~knockdown of TCL1A expression. Forced expression of TCL1A promoted the expansion of human HSCs in vitro and mouse HSCs in vivo. Our results indicate that the fitness advantage of several commonly mutated driver genes in clonal haematopoiesis may be mediated by TCL1A activation.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Animals, Clonal Hematopoiesis, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hematopoiesis, Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Humans, Mice, Mutation, Promoter Regions, Genetic}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-023-05806-1}, author = {Weinstock, Joshua S and Gopakumar, Jayakrishnan and Burugula, Bala Bharathi and Uddin, Md Mesbah and Jahn, Nikolaus and Belk, Julia A and Bouzid, Hind and Daniel, Bence and Miao, Zhuang and Ly, Nghi and Mack, Taralynn M and Luna, Sofia E and Prothro, Katherine P and Mitchell, Shaneice R and Laurie, Cecelia A and Broome, Jai G and Taylor, Kent D and Guo, Xiuqing and Sinner, Moritz F and von Falkenhausen, Aenne S and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Shuldiner, Alan R and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Lewis, Joshua P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Barnes, Kathleen C and Chami, Nathalie and Kenny, Eimear E and Loos, Ruth J F and Fornage, Myriam and Hou, Lifang and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Redline, Susan and Cade, Brian E and Psaty, Bruce M and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Silverman, Edwin K and Yun, Jeong H and Qiao, Dandi and Palmer, Nicholette D and Freedman, Barry I and Bowden, Donald W and Cho, Michael H and DeMeo, Dawn L and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Yanek, Lisa R and Becker, Lewis C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Peyser, Patricia A and He, Jiang and Rienstra, Michiel and van der Harst, Pim and Kaplan, Robert and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Arnett, Donna K and Irvin, Marguerite R and Tiwari, Hemant and Cutler, Michael J and Knight, Stacey and Muhlestein, J Brent and Correa, Adolfo and Raffield, Laura M and Gao, Yan and de Andrade, Mariza and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Tracy, Russell P and Konkle, Barbara A and Johnsen, Jill M and Wheeler, Marsha M and Smith, J Gustav and Melander, Olle and Nilsson, Peter M and Custer, Brian S and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Curran, Joanne E and Blangero, John and McGarvey, Stephen and Williams, L Keoki and Xiao, Shujie and Yang, Mao and Gu, C Charles and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Lee, Wen-Jane and Marcus, Gregory M and Kane, John P and Pullinger, Clive R and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Darbar, Dawood and Roden, Dan M and Albert, Christine and Kooperberg, Charles and Zhou, Ying and Manson, JoAnn E and Desai, Pinkal and Johnson, Andrew D and Mathias, Rasika A and Blackwell, Thomas W and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Smith, Albert V and Kang, Hyun M and Satpathy, Ansuman T and Natarajan, Pradeep and Kitzman, Jacob O and Whitsel, Eric A and Reiner, Alexander P and Bick, Alexander G and Jaiswal, Siddhartha} } @article {9456, title = {Association of omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids with incident chronic kidney disease: pooled analysis of 19 cohorts.}, journal = {BMJ}, volume = {380}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jan 18}, pages = {e072909}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prospective associations of circulating levels of omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 PUFA) biomarkers (including plant derived α linolenic acid and seafood derived eicosapentaenoic acid, docosapentaenoic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid) with incident chronic kidney disease (CKD).

DESIGN: Pooled analysis.

DATA SOURCES: A consortium of 19 studies from 12 countries identified up to May 2020.

STUDY SELECTION: Prospective studies with measured n-3 PUFA biomarker data and incident CKD based on estimated glomerular filtration rate.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Each participating cohort conducted de novo analysis with prespecified and consistent exposures, outcomes, covariates, and models. The results were pooled across cohorts using inverse variance weighted meta-analysis.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcome of incident CKD was defined as new onset estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m. In a sensitivity analysis, incident CKD was defined as new onset estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m and <75\% of baseline rate.

RESULTS: 25 570 participants were included in the primary outcome analysis and 4944 (19.3\%) developed incident CKD during follow-up (weighted median 11.3 years). In multivariable adjusted models, higher levels of total seafood n-3 PUFAs were associated with a lower incident CKD risk (relative risk per interquintile range 0.92, 95\% confidence interval 0.86 to 0.98; P=0.009, I=9.9\%). In categorical analyses, participants with total seafood n-3 PUFA level in the highest fifth had 13\% lower risk of incident CKD compared with those in the lowest fifth (0.87, 0.80 to 0.96; P=0.005, I=0.0\%). Plant derived α linolenic acid levels were not associated with incident CKD (1.00, 0.94 to 1.06; P=0.94, I=5.8\%). Similar results were obtained in the sensitivity analysis. The association appeared consistent across subgroups by age (>=60 <60 years), estimated glomerular filtration rate (60-89 >=90 mL/min/1.73 m), hypertension, diabetes, and coronary heart disease at baseline.

CONCLUSIONS: Higher seafood derived n-3 PUFA levels were associated with lower risk of incident CKD, although this association was not found for plant derived n-3 PUFAs. These results support a favourable role for seafood derived n-3 PUFAs in preventing CKD.

}, keywords = {alpha-Linolenic Acid, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Fatty Acids, Unsaturated, Humans, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Risk Factors}, issn = {1756-1833}, doi = {10.1136/bmj-2022-072909}, author = {Ong, Kwok Leung and Marklund, Matti and Huang, Liping and Rye, Kerry-Anne and Hui, Nicholas and Pan, Xiong-Fei and Rebholz, Casey M and Kim, Hyunju and Steffen, Lyn M and van Westing, Anniek C and Geleijnse, Johanna M and Hoogeveen, Ellen K and Chen, Yun-Yu and Chien, Kuo-Liong and Fretts, Amanda M and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Imamura, Fumiaki and Forouhi, Nita G and Wareham, Nicholas J and Birukov, Anna and J{\"a}ger, Susanne and Kuxhaus, Olga and Schulze, Matthias B and de Mello, Vanessa Derenji and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uusitupa, Matti and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Tintle, Nathan and Harris, William S and Yamasaki, Keisuke and Hirakawa, Yoichiro and Ninomiya, Toshiharu and Tanaka, Toshiko and Ferrucci, Luigi and Bandinelli, Stefania and Virtanen, Jyrki K and Voutilainen, Ari and Jayasena, Tharusha and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Poljak, Anne and Bustamante, Sonia and Sachdev, Perminder S and Senn, Mackenzie K and Rich, Stephen S and Tsai, Michael Y and Wood, Alexis C and Laakso, Markku and Lankinen, Maria and Yang, Xiaowei and Sun, Liang and Li, Huaixing and Lin, Xu and Nowak, Christoph and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Riserus, Ulf and Lind, Lars and Le Goff, M{\'e}lanie and Samieri, Cecilia and Helmer, Catherine and Qian, Frank and Micha, Renata and Tin, Adrienne and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and de Boer, Ian H and Siscovick, David S and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Wu, Jason HY} } @article {9388, title = {Association of Severe Hypercholesterolemia and Familial Hypercholesterolemia Genotype With Risk of Coronary Heart Disease.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {147}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 May 16}, pages = {1556-1559}, keywords = {Coronary Disease, Genotype, Humans, Hypercholesterolemia, Hyperlipoproteinemia Type II}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.123.064168}, author = {Zhang, Yiyi and Dron, Jacqueline S and Bellows, Brandon K and Khera, Amit V and Liu, Junxiu and Balte, Pallavi P and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Amr, Sami Samir and Lebo, Matthew S and Nagy, Anna and Peloso, Gina M and Natarajan, Pradeep and Rotter, Jerome I and Willer, Cristen and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ballantyne, Christie M and Lutsey, Pamela L and Fornage, Myriam and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Hou, Lifang and Psaty, Bruce M and Bis, Joshua C and Floyd, James S and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Carson, April P and Hall, Michael E and Rich, Stephen S and Guo, Xiuqing and Kazi, Dhruv S and de Ferranti, Sarah D and Moran, Andrew E} } @article {9379, title = {Evaluating the use of blood pressure polygenic risk scores across race/ethnic background groups.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {14}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jun 02}, pages = {3202}, abstract = {

We assess performance and limitations of polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for multiple blood pressure (BP) phenotypes in diverse population groups. We compare "clumping-and-thresholding" (PRSice2) and LD-based (LDPred2) methods to construct PRSs from each of multiple GWAS, as well as multi-PRS approaches that sum PRSs with and without weights, including PRS-CSx. We use datasets from the MGB Biobank, TOPMed study, UK biobank, and from All of Us to train, assess, and validate PRSs in groups defined by self-reported race/ethnic background (Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino, and White). For both SBP and DBP, the PRS-CSx based PRS, constructed as a weighted sum of PRSs developed from multiple independent GWAS, perform best across all race/ethnic backgrounds. Stratified analysis in All of Us shows that PRSs are better predictive of BP in females compared to males, individuals without obesity, and middle-aged (40-60 years) compared to older and younger individuals.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Ethnicity, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Multifactorial Inheritance, Population Health, Risk Factors}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-023-38990-9}, author = {Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Goodman, Matthew O and Khan, Alyna T and Wang, Jiongming and Feofanova, Elena and Bis, Joshua C and Wiggins, Kerri L and Huffman, Jennifer E and Kelly, Tanika and Elfassy, Tali and Guo, Xiuqing and Palmas, Walter and Lin, Henry J and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Gao, Yan and Young, Kendra and Kinney, Gregory L and Smith, Jennifer A and Yu, Bing and Liu, Simin and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Manson, JoAnn E and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Lee, I-Te and Gu, C Charles and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and Fornage, Myriam and Kooperberg, Charles and Correa, Adolfo and Psaty, Bruce M and Arnett, Donna K and Isasi, Carmen R and Rich, Stephen S and Kaplan, Robert C and Redline, Susan and Mitchell, Braxton D and Franceschini, Nora and Levy, Daniel and Rotter, Jerome I and Morrison, Alanna C and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {9419, title = {The genetic determinants of recurrent somatic mutations in 43,693 blood genomes.}, journal = {Sci Adv}, volume = {9}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Apr 28}, pages = {eabm4945}, abstract = {

Nononcogenic somatic mutations are thought to be uncommon and inconsequential. To test this, we analyzed 43,693 National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine blood whole genomes from 37 cohorts and identified 7131 non-missense somatic mutations that are recurrently mutated in at least 50 individuals. These recurrent non-missense somatic mutations (RNMSMs) are not clearly explained by other clonal phenomena such as clonal hematopoiesis. RNMSM prevalence increased with age, with an average 50-year-old having 27 RNMSMs. Inherited germline variation associated with RNMSM acquisition. These variants were found in genes involved in adaptive immune function, proinflammatory cytokine production, and lymphoid lineage commitment. In addition, the presence of eight specific RNMSMs associated with blood cell traits at effect sizes comparable to Mendelian genetic mutations. Overall, we found that somatic mutations in blood are an unexpectedly common phenomenon with ancestry-specific determinants and human health consequences.

}, keywords = {Germ-Line Mutation, Hematopoiesis, Humans, Middle Aged, Mutation, Mutation, Missense, Phenotype}, issn = {2375-2548}, doi = {10.1126/sciadv.abm4945}, author = {Weinstock, Joshua S and Laurie, Cecelia A and Broome, Jai G and Taylor, Kent D and Guo, Xiuqing and Shuldiner, Alan R and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Lewis, Joshua P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Barnes, Kathleen C and Chami, Nathalie and Kenny, Eimear E and Loos, Ruth J F and Fornage, Myriam and Redline, Susan and Cade, Brian E and Gilliland, Frank D and Chen, Zhanghua and Gauderman, W James and Kumar, Rajesh and Grammer, Leslie and Schleimer, Robert P and Psaty, Bruce M and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Silverman, Edwin K and Yun, Jeong H and Qiao, Dandi and Weiss, Scott T and Lasky-Su, Jessica and DeMeo, Dawn L and Palmer, Nicholette D and Freedman, Barry I and Bowden, Donald W and Cho, Michael H and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Johnson, Andrew D and Yanek, Lisa R and Becker, Lewis C and Kardia, Sharon and He, Jiang and Kaplan, Robert and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Arnett, Donna K and Irvin, Marguerite R and Tiwari, Hemant and Correa, Adolfo and Raffield, Laura M and Gao, Yan and de Andrade, Mariza and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Manichaikul, Ani W and Konkle, Barbara A and Johnsen, Jill M and Wheeler, Marsha M and Custer, Brian S and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Curran, Joanne E and Blangero, John and Gui, Hongsheng and Xiao, Shujie and Williams, L Keoki and Meyers, Deborah A and Li, Xingnan and Ortega, Victor and McGarvey, Stephen and Gu, C Charles and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Lee, Wen-Jane and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Darbar, Dawood and Roden, Dan and Albert, Christine and Kooperberg, Charles and Desai, Pinkal and Blackwell, Thomas W and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Smith, Albert V and Kang, Hyun M and Mathias, Rasika and Natarajan, Pradeep and Jaiswal, Siddhartha and Reiner, Alexander P and Bick, Alexander G} } @article {9538, title = {Mosaic chromosomal alterations in blood across ancestries using whole-genome sequencing.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {55}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Nov}, pages = {1912-1919}, abstract = {

Megabase-scale mosaic chromosomal alterations (mCAs) in blood are prognostic markers for a host of human diseases. Here, to gain a better understanding of mCA rates in genetically diverse populations, we analyzed whole-genome sequencing data from 67,390 individuals from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program. We observed higher sensitivity with whole-genome sequencing data, compared with array-based data, in uncovering mCAs at low mutant cell fractions and found that individuals of European ancestry have the highest rates of autosomal mCAs and the lowest rates of chromosome X mCAs, compared with individuals of African or Hispanic ancestry. Although further studies in diverse populations will be needed to replicate our findings, we report three loci associated with loss of chromosome X, associations between autosomal mCAs and rare variants in DCPS, ADM17, PPP1R16B and TET2 and ancestry-specific variants in ATM and MPL with mCAs in cis.

}, keywords = {Black People, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hispanic or Latino, Humans, Mosaicism, Precision Medicine}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-023-01553-1}, author = {Jakubek, Yasminka A and Zhou, Ying and Stilp, Adrienne and Bacon, Jason and Wong, Justin W and Ozcan, Zuhal and Arnett, Donna and Barnes, Kathleen and Bis, Joshua C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brody, Jennifer A and Carson, April P and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Jiawen and Cho, Michael and Conomos, Matthew P and Cox, Nancy and Doyle, Margaret F and Fornage, Myriam and Guo, Xiuqing and Kardia, Sharon L R and Lewis, Joshua P and Loos, Ruth J F and Ma, Xiaolong and Machiela, Mitchell J and Mack, Taralynn M and Mathias, Rasika A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and North, Kari and Pankratz, Nathan and Peyser, Patricia A and Preuss, Michael H and Psaty, Bruce and Raffield, Laura M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Redline, Susan and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Silverman, Edwin K and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Aaron P and Taub, Margaret and Taylor, Kent D and Yun, Jeong and Li, Yun and Desai, Pinkal and Bick, Alexander G and Reiner, Alexander P and Scheet, Paul and Auer, Paul L} } @article {9412, title = {Multi-ancestry transcriptome-wide association analyses yield insights into tobacco use biology and drug repurposing.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {55}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Feb}, pages = {291-300}, abstract = {

Most transcriptome-wide association studies (TWASs) so far focus on European ancestry and lack diversity. To overcome this limitation, we aggregated genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics, whole-genome sequences and expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) data from diverse ancestries. We developed a new approach, TESLA (multi-ancestry integrative study using an optimal linear combination of association statistics), to integrate an eQTL dataset with a multi-ancestry GWAS. By exploiting shared phenotypic effects between ancestries and accommodating potential effect heterogeneities, TESLA improves power over other TWAS methods. When applied to tobacco use phenotypes, TESLA identified 273 new genes, up to 55\% more compared with alternative TWAS methods. These hits and subsequent fine mapping using TESLA point to target genes with biological relevance. In silico drug-repurposing analyses highlight several drugs with known efficacy, including dextromethorphan and galantamine, and new drugs such as muscle relaxants that may be repurposed for treating nicotine addiction.

}, keywords = {Biology, Drug Repositioning, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Tobacco Use, Transcriptome}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-022-01282-x}, author = {Chen, Fang and Wang, Xingyan and Jang, Seon-Kyeong and Quach, Bryan C and Weissenkampen, J Dylan and Khunsriraksakul, Chachrit and Yang, Lina and Sauteraud, Renan and Albert, Christine M and Allred, Nicholette D D and Arnett, Donna K and Ashley-Koch, Allison E and Barnes, Kathleen C and Barr, R Graham and Becker, Diane M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boorgula, Meher Preethi and Chasman, Daniel I and Chavan, Sameer and Chen, Yii-der I and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Correa, Adolfo and Curran, Joanne E and David, Sean P and Fuentes, Lisa de Las and Deka, Ranjan and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Faul, Jessica D and Garrett, Melanie E and Gharib, Sina A and Guo, Xiuqing and Hall, Michael E and Hawley, Nicola L and He, Jiang and Hobbs, Brian D and Hokanson, John E and Hsiung, Chao A and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Hyde, Thomas M and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jaffe, Andrew E and Johnson, Eric O and Kaplan, Robert and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kaufman, Joel D and Kelly, Tanika N and Kleinman, Joel E and Kooperberg, Charles and Lee, I-Te and Levy, Daniel and Lutz, Sharon M and Manichaikul, Ani W and Martin, Lisa W and Marx, Olivia and McGarvey, Stephen T and Minster, Ryan L and Moll, Matthew and Moussa, Karine A and Naseri, Take and North, Kari E and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Peralta, Juan M and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rafaels, Nicholas and Raffield, Laura M and Reupena, Muagututi{\textquoteright}a Sefuiva and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Schwartz, David A and Shadyab, Aladdin H and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Sun, Xiao and Taylor, Kent D and Telen, Marilyn J and Watson, Harold and Weeks, Daniel E and Weir, David R and Yanek, Lisa R and Young, Kendra A and Young, Kristin L and Zhao, Wei and Hancock, Dana B and Jiang, Bibo and Vrieze, Scott and Liu, Dajiang J} } @article {9702, title = {Machine learning models for predicting blood pressure phenotypes by combining multiple polygenic risk scores.}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {14}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 May 30}, pages = {12436}, abstract = {

We construct non-linear machine learning (ML) prediction models for systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) using demographic and clinical variables and polygenic risk scores (PRSs). We developed a two-model ensemble, consisting of a baseline model, where prediction is based on demographic and clinical variables only, and a genetic model, where we also include PRSs. We evaluate the use of a linear versus a non-linear model at both the baseline and the genetic model levels and assess the improvement in performance when incorporating multiple PRSs. We report the ensemble model{\textquoteright}s performance as percentage variance explained (PVE) on a held-out test dataset. A non-linear baseline model improved the PVEs from 28.1 to 30.1\% (SBP) and 14.3\% to 17.4\% (DBP) compared with a linear baseline model. Including seven PRSs in the genetic model computed based on the largest available GWAS of SBP/DBP improved the genetic model PVE from 4.8 to 5.1\% (SBP) and 4.7 to 5\% (DBP) compared to using a single PRS. Adding additional 14 PRSs computed based on two independent GWASs further increased the genetic model PVE to 6.3\% (SBP) and 5.7\% (DBP). PVE differed across self-reported race/ethnicity groups, with primarily all non-White groups benefitting from the inclusion of additional PRSs. In summary, non-linear ML models improves BP prediction in models incorporating diverse populations.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Risk Score, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Machine Learning, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Genetic, Multifactorial Inheritance, Phenotype, Risk Factors}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-024-62945-9}, author = {Hrytsenko, Yana and Shea, Benjamin and Elgart, Michael and Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Lyons, Genevieve and Morrison, Alanna C and Carson, April P and Haring, Bernhard and Mitchell, Braxton D and Psaty, Bruce M and Jaeger, Byron C and Gu, C Charles and Kooperberg, Charles and Levy, Daniel and Lloyd-Jones, Donald and Choi, Eunhee and Brody, Jennifer A and Smith, Jennifer A and Rotter, Jerome I and Moll, Matthew and Fornage, Myriam and Simon, Noah and Castaldi, Peter and Casanova, Ramon and Chung, Ren-Hua and Kaplan, Robert and Loos, Ruth J F and Kardia, Sharon L R and Rich, Stephen S and Redline, Susan and Kelly, Tanika and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Timothy and Zhao, Wei and Kim, Wonji and Guo, Xiuqing and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {9646, title = {Methylation patterns associated with C-reactive protein in racially and ethnically diverse populations.}, journal = {Epigenetics}, volume = {19}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Dec}, pages = {2333668}, abstract = {

Systemic low-grade inflammation is a feature of chronic disease. C-reactive protein (CRP) is a common biomarker of inflammation and used as an indicator of disease risk; however, the role of inflammation in disease is not completely understood. Methylation is an epigenetic modification in the DNA which plays a pivotal role in gene expression. In this study we evaluated differential DNA methylation patterns associated with blood CRP level to elucidate biological pathways and genetic regulatory mechanisms to improve the understanding of chronic inflammation. The racially and ethnically diverse participants in this study were included as 50\% White, 41\% Black or African American, 7\% Hispanic or Latino/a, and 2\% Native Hawaiian, Asian American, American Indian, or Alaska Native (total = 13,433) individuals. We replicated 113 CpG sites from 87 unique loci, of which five were novel (, , and cg03282312), across a discovery set of 1,150 CpG sites associated with CRP level ( < 1.2E-7). The downstream pathways affected by DNA methylation included the identification of and CpG-gene transcript pairs which contributed to the innate immune response gene enrichment pathway along with , , and . Gene enrichment analysis also identified the nuclear factor-kappaB transcription pathway. Using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) we inferred methylation at three CpG sites as causal for CRP levels using both White and Black or African American MR instrument variables. Overall, we identified novel CpG sites and gene transcripts that could be valuable in understanding the specific cellular processes and pathogenic mechanisms involved in inflammation.

}, keywords = {C-Reactive Protein, CpG Islands, DNA, DNA Methylation, Epigenesis, Genetic, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Inflammation, Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins}, issn = {1559-2308}, doi = {10.1080/15592294.2024.2333668}, author = {Lundin, Jessica I and Peters, Ulrike and Hu, Yao and Ammous, Farah and Avery, Christy L and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Carlson, Chris and Cushman, Mary and Gignoux, Chris and Guo, Xiuqing and Haessler, Jeff and Haiman, Chris and Joehanes, Roby and Kasela, Silva and Kenny, Eimear and Lapalainien, Tuuli and Levy, Daniel and Liu, Chunyu and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and Lu, Ake and Matise, Tara and North, Kari E and Park, Sungshim L and Ratliff, Scott M and Reiner, Alex and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Tracy, Russell and Van den Berg, David and Xu, Huichun and Ye, Ting and Zhao, Wei and Raffield, Laura M and Kooperberg, Charles} } @article {9787, title = {Rare variant contribution to the heritability of coronary artery disease.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {15}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Oct 09}, pages = {8741}, abstract = {

Whole genome sequences (WGS) enable discovery of rare variants which may contribute to missing heritability of coronary artery disease (CAD). To measure their contribution, we apply the GREML-LDMS-I approach to WGS of 4949 cases and 17,494 controls of European ancestry from the NHLBI TOPMed program. We estimate CAD heritability at 34.3\% assuming a prevalence of 8.2\%. Ultra-rare (minor allele frequency <= 0.1\%) variants with low linkage disequilibrium (LD) score contribute ~50\% of the heritability. We also investigate CAD heritability enrichment using a diverse set of functional annotations: i) constraint; ii) predicted protein-altering impact; iii) cis-regulatory elements from a cell-specific chromatin atlas of the human coronary; and iv) annotation principal components representing a wide range of functional processes. We observe marked enrichment of CAD heritability for most functional annotations. These results reveal the predominant role of ultra-rare variants in low LD on the heritability of CAD. Moreover, they highlight several functional processes including cell type-specific regulatory mechanisms as key drivers of CAD genetic risk.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, White People, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-024-52939-6}, author = {Rocheleau, Ghislain and Clarke, Shoa L and Auguste, Ga{\"e}lle and Hasbani, Natalie R and Morrison, Alanna C and Heath, Adam S and Bielak, Lawrence F and Iyer, Kruthika R and Young, Erica P and Stitziel, Nathan O and Jun, Goo and Laurie, Cecelia and Broome, Jai G and Khan, Alyna T and Arnett, Donna K and Becker, Lewis C and Bis, Joshua C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Carson, April P and Ellinor, Patrick T and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Freedman, Barry I and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hou, Lifang and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Kenny, Eimear E and Kooperberg, Charles and Kral, Brian G and Loos, Ruth J F and Lutz, Sharon M and Manson, JoAnn E and Martin, Lisa W and Mitchell, Braxton D and Nassir, Rami and Palmer, Nicholette D and Post, Wendy S and Preuss, Michael H and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Regan, Elizabeth A and Rich, Stephen S and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Yanek, Lisa R and Young, Kendra A and Hilliard, Austin T and Tcheandjieu, Catherine and Peyser, Patricia A and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Rotter, Jerome I and Miller, Clint L and Assimes, Themistocles L and de Vries, Paul S and Do, Ron} } @article {9869, title = {Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Genetic Risk in Transthyretin V142I Carriers.}, journal = {JACC Heart Fail}, volume = {13}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Jan}, pages = {91-101}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Nearly 3\% to 4\% of Black individuals in the United States carry the transthyretin V142I variant, which increases their risk of heart failure. However, the role of cardiovascular (CV) risk factors (RFs) in influencing the risk of clinical outcomes among V142I variant carriers is unknown.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the impact of CV RFs on the risk of heart failure in V142I carriers.

METHODS: This study included self-identified Black individuals without prevalent heart failure from 6 TOPMed (Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine) cohorts, the REGARDS (Reasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke) study, and the All of Us Research Program. The cohort was stratified based on the V142I genotype and the number of CV RFs (hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and hypercholesterolemia). Adjusted Cox models were used to assess the association of heart failure with the V142I genotype and CV RF profile, taking noncarriers with a favorable CV RF profile as reference.

RESULTS: The cross-sectional analysis, including 1,625 V142I carriers among 48,365 Black individuals, found that the prevalence of CV RFs did not vary by V142I carrier status. In the longitudinal analysis, there were 587 (3.2\%) V142I carriers among 18,407 Black individuals (median age: 60 years [Q1-Q3: 52-68 years], 63.0\% female). Among carriers, the heart failure risk was attenuated with a favorable (0 or 1 RF) CV RF profile (adjusted HR: 2.26; 95\%~CI: 1.58-3.23) compared with an unfavorable (3 or 4 RFs) CV RF profile (adjusted HR: 4.14; 95\%~CI: 2.79-6.14).

CONCLUSIONS: A favorable CV RF profile lowers but does not abrogate V142I variant-associated heart failure risk. This study highlights the importance of having a favorable CV RF profile among V142I carriers for risk reduction of heart failure.

}, keywords = {Aged, Black or African American, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Genotype, Heart Disease Risk Factors, Heart Failure, Heterozygote, Humans, Hypercholesterolemia, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Prealbumin, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {2213-1787}, doi = {10.1016/j.jchf.2024.08.019}, author = {Shetty, Naman S and Gaonkar, Mokshad and Pampana, Akhil and Patel, Nirav and Morrison, Alanna C and Reiner, Alexander P and Carson, April P and Yu, Bing and Psaty, Bruce M and Kooperberg, Charles and Fatkin, Diane and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Hou, Lifang and Irvin, Marguerite R and Hall, Michael E and Maurer, Mathew and Fornage, Myriam and Armstrong, Nicole D and Bart, Nicole and Goyal, Parag and Rich, Stephen S and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Li, Peng and Arora, Garima and Arora, Pankaj} } @article {9866, title = {Genomic and phenotypic correlates of mosaic loss of chromosome Y in blood.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {112}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Feb 06}, pages = {276-290}, abstract = {

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

}, keywords = {Alleles, Chromosome Deletion, Chromosomes, Human, Y, Genomics, Haplotypes, Humans, Male, Mosaicism, Phenotype, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2024.12.014}, author = {Jakubek, Yasminka A and Ma, Xiaolong and Stilp, Adrienne M and Yu, Fulong and Bacon, Jason and Wong, Justin W and Aguet, Francois and Ardlie, Kristin and Arnett, Donna K and Barnes, Kathleen and Bis, Joshua C and Blackwell, Tom and Becker, Lewis C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowler, Russell P and Budoff, Matthew J and Carson, April P and Chen, Jiawen and Cho, Michael H and Coresh, Josef and Cox, Nancy J and de Vries, Paul S and DeMeo, Dawn L and Fardo, David W and Fornage, Myriam and Guo, Xiuqing and Hall, Michael E and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Hidalgo, Bertha and Irvin, Marguerite Ryan and Johnson, Andrew D and Jorgenson, Eric and Kenny, Eimear E and Kessler, Michael D and Levy, Daniel and Li, Yun and Lima, Jo{\~a}o A C and Liu, Yongmei and Locke, Adam E and Loos, Ruth J F and Machiela, Mitchell J and Mathias, Rasika A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Murabito, Joanne M and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and North, Kari E and Orchard, Peter and Parker, Stephen C J and Pershad, Yash and Peyser, Patricia A and Pratte, Katherine A and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Redline, Susan and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Shah, Sanjiv J and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Aaron P and Smith, Albert and Taub, Margaret A and Tiwari, Hemant K and Tracy, Russell and Tuftin, Bjoernar and Bick, Alexander G and Sankaran, Vijay G and Reiner, Alexander P and Scheet, Paul and Auer, Paul L} } @article {9911, title = {Methylome-wide association analyses of lipids and modifying effects of behavioral factors in diverse race and ethnicity participants.}, journal = {Clin Epigenetics}, volume = {17}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr 02}, pages = {54}, abstract = {

Circulating lipid concentrations are clinically associated with cardiometabolic diseases. The phenotypic variance explained by identified genetic variants remains limited, highlighting the importance of searching for additional factors beyond genetic sequence variants. DNA methylation has been linked to lipid concentrations in previous studies, although most of the studies harbored moderate sample sizes and exhibited underrepresentation of non-European ancestry populations. In addition, knowledge of nongenetic factors on lipid profiles is extremely limited. In the Population Architecture Using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study, we performed methylome-wide association analysis on 9,561 participants from diverse race and ethnicity backgrounds for HDL-c, LDL-c, TC, and TG levels, and also tested interactions between smoking or alcohol intake and methylation in their association with lipid levels. We identified novel CpG sites at 16 loci (P < 1.18E-7) with successful replication on 3,215 participants. One additional novel locus was identified in the self-reported White participants (P = 4.66E-8). Although no additional CpG sites were identified in the genome-wide interaction analysis, 13 reported CpG sites showed significant heterogeneous association across smoking or alcohol intake strata. By mapping novel and reported CpG sites to genes, we identified enriched pathways directly linked to lipid metabolism as well as ones spanning various biological functions. These findings provide new insights into the regulation of lipid concentrations.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Alcohol Drinking, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Ethnicity, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipids, Male, Middle Aged, Racial Groups, Smoking, White People}, issn = {1868-7083}, doi = {10.1186/s13148-025-01859-3}, author = {Hu, Yao and Haessler, Jeff and Lundin, Jessica I and Darst, Burcu F and Whitsel, Eric A and Grove, Megan and Guan, Weihua and Xia, Rui and Szeto, Mindy and Raffield, Laura M and Ratliff, Scott and Wang, Yuxuan and Wang, Xuzhi and Fohner, Alison E and Lynch, Megan T and Patel, Yesha M and Lani Park, S and Xu, Huichun and Mitchell, Braxton D and Bis, Joshua C and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Brody, Jennifer A and Psaty, Bruce M and Peloso, Gina M and Tsai, Michael Y and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Smith, Jennifer A and Kardia, Sharon L R and Reiner, Alex P and Lange, Leslie and Fornage, Myriam and Pankow, James S and Graff, Mariaelisa and North, Kari E and Kooperberg, Charles and Peters, Ulrike} } @article {9898, title = {Rare damaging CCR2 variants are associated with lower lifetime cardiovascular risk.}, journal = {Genome Med}, volume = {17}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Mar 21}, pages = {27}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Previous work has shown a role of CCL2, a key chemokine governing monocyte trafficking, in atherosclerosis. However, it remains unknown whether targeting CCR2, the cognate receptor of CCL2, provides protection against human atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

METHODS: Computationally predicted damaging or loss-of-function (REVEL > 0.5) variants within CCR2 were detected in whole-exome-sequencing data from 454,775 UK Biobank participants and tested for association with cardiovascular endpoints in gene-burden tests. Given the key role of CCR2 in monocyte mobilization, variants associated with lower monocyte count were prioritized for experimental validation. The response to CCL2 of human cells transfected with these variants was tested in migration and cAMP assays. Validated damaging variants were tested for association with cardiovascular endpoints, atherosclerosis burden, and vascular risk factors. Significant associations were replicated in six independent datasets (n = 1,062,595).

RESULTS: Carriers of 45 predicted damaging or loss-of-function CCR2 variants (n = 787 individuals) were at lower risk of myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease. One of these variants (M249K, n = 585, 0.15\% of European ancestry individuals) was associated with lower monocyte count and with both decreased downstream signaling and chemoattraction in response to CCL2. While M249K showed no association with conventional vascular risk factors, it was consistently associated with a lower risk of myocardial infarction (odds ratio [OR]: 0.66, 95\% confidence interval [CI]: 0.54-0.81, p = 6.1 {\texttimes} 10) and coronary artery disease (OR: 0.74, 95\%CI: 0.63-0.87, p = 2.9 {\texttimes} 10) in the UK Biobank and in six replication cohorts. In a phenome-wide association study, there was no evidence of a higher risk of infections among M249K carriers.

CONCLUSIONS: Carriers of an experimentally confirmed damaging CCR2 variant are at a lower lifetime risk of myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease without carrying a higher risk of infections. Our findings provide genetic support for the translational potential of CCR2-targeting as an atheroprotective approach.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Chemokine CCL2, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Monocytes, Receptors, CCR2}, issn = {1756-994X}, doi = {10.1186/s13073-025-01456-2}, author = {Georgakis, Marios K and Malik, Rainer and Bounkari, Omar El and Hasbani, Natalie R and Li, Jiang and Huffman, Jennifer E and Shakt, Gabrielle and Tack, Reinier W P and Kimball, Tamara N and Asare, Yaw and Morrison, Alanna C and Tsao, Noah L and Judy, Renae and Mitchell, Braxton D and Xu, Huichun and Montasser, May E and Do, Ron and Kenny, Eimear E and Loos, Ruth J F and Terry, James G and Carr, John Jeffrey and Bis, Joshua C and Psaty, Bruce M and Longstreth, W T and Young, Kendra A and Lutz, Sharon M and Cho, Michael H and Broome, Jai and Khan, Alyna T and Wang, Fei Fei and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Seshadri, Sudha and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Palmer, Nicholette D and Freedman, Barry I and Bowden, Donald W and Yanek, Lisa R and Kral, Brian G and Becker, Lewis C and Peyser, Patricia A and Bielak, Lawrence F and Ammous, Farah and Carson, April P and Hall, Michael E and Raffield, Laura M and Rich, Stephen S and Post, Wendy S and Tracy, Russel P and Taylor, Kent D and Guo, Xiuqing and Mahaney, Michael C and Curran, Joanne E and Blangero, John and Clarke, Shoa L and Haessler, Jeffrey W and Hu, Yao and Assimes, Themistocles L and Kooperberg, Charles and Bernhagen, J{\"u}rgen and Anderson, Christopher D and Damrauer, Scott M and Zand, Ramin and Rotter, Jerome I and de Vries, Paul S and Dichgans, Martin} } @article {9899, title = {A statistical framework for multi-trait rare variant analysis in large-scale whole-genome sequencing studies.}, journal = {Nat Comput Sci}, volume = {5}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Feb}, pages = {125-143}, abstract = {

Large-scale whole-genome sequencing (WGS) studies have improved our understanding of the contributions of coding and noncoding rare variants to complex human traits. Leveraging association effect sizes across multiple traits in WGS rare variant association analysis can improve statistical power over single-trait analysis, and also detect pleiotropic genes and regions. Existing multi-trait methods have limited ability to perform rare variant analysis of large-scale WGS data. We propose MultiSTAAR, a statistical framework and computationally scalable analytical pipeline for functionally informed multi-trait rare variant analysis in large-scale WGS studies. MultiSTAAR accounts for relatedness, population structure and correlation among phenotypes by jointly analyzing multiple traits, and further empowers rare variant association analysis by incorporating multiple functional annotations. We applied MultiSTAAR to jointly analyze three lipid traits in 61,838 multi-ethnic samples from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program. We discovered and replicated new associations with lipid traits missed by single-trait analysis.

}, keywords = {Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipids, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2662-8457}, doi = {10.1038/s43588-024-00764-8}, author = {Li, Xihao and Chen, Han and Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha and Van Buren, Eric and Zhou, Hufeng and Wang, Yuxuan and Sun, Ryan and McCaw, Zachary R and Yu, Zhi and Jiang, Min-Zhi and DiCorpo, Daniel and Gaynor, Sheila M and Dey, Rounak and Arnett, Donna K and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Brody, Jennifer A and Cade, Brian E and Carson, April P and Carlson, Jenna C and Chami, Nathalie and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Curran, Joanne E and de Vries, Paul S and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Freedman, Barry I and Gu, Charles and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and He, Jiang and Hou, Lifang and Hung, Yi-Jen and Irvin, Marguerite R and Kaplan, Robert C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Tanika N and Konigsberg, Iain and Kooperberg, Charles and Kral, Brian G and Li, Changwei and Li, Yun and Lin, Honghuang and Liu, Ching-Ti and Loos, Ruth J F and Mahaney, Michael C and Martin, Lisa W and Mathias, Rasika A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montasser, May E and Morrison, Alanna C and Naseri, Take and North, Kari E and Palmer, Nicholette D and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Rich, Stephen S and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Tiwari, Hemant K and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Viali, Satupa{\textquoteright}itea and Wang, Zhe and Wessel, Jennifer and Yanek, Lisa R and Yu, Bing and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Meigs, James B and Auer, Paul L and Raffield, Laura M and Manning, Alisa K and Rice, Kenneth M and Rotter, Jerome I and Peloso, Gina M and Natarajan, Pradeep and Li, Zilin and Liu, Zhonghua and Lin, Xihong} } @article {9942, title = {Whole genome sequencing analysis of body mass index identifies novel African ancestry-specific risk allele.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {16}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr 11}, pages = {3470}, abstract = {

Obesity is a major public health crisis associated with high mortality rates. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) investigating body mass index (BMI) have largely relied on imputed data from European individuals. This study leveraged whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from 88,873 participants from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program, of which 51\% were of non-European population groups. We discovered 18 BMI-associated signals (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10), including two secondary signals. Notably, we identified and replicated a novel low-frequency single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in MTMR3 that was common in individuals of African descent. Using a diverse study population, we further identified two novel secondary signals in known BMI loci and pinpointed two likely causal variants in the POC5 and DMD loci. Our work demonstrates the benefits of combining WGS and diverse cohorts in expanding current catalog of variants and genes confer risk for obesity, bringing us one step closer to personalized medicine.

}, keywords = {Adult, African People, Alleles, Body Mass Index, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Population Groups, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-025-58420-2}, author = {Zhang, Xinruo and Brody, Jennifer A and Graff, Mariaelisa and Highland, Heather M and Chami, Nathalie and Xu, Hanfei and Wang, Zhe and Ferrier, Kendra R and Chittoor, Geetha and Josyula, Navya Shilpa and Meyer, Mariah and Gupta, Shreyash and Li, Xihao and Li, Zilin and Allison, Matthew A and Becker, Diane M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Boorgula, Meher Preethi and Bowden, Donald W and Broome, Jai G and Buth, Erin J and Carlson, Christopher S and Chang, Kyong-Mi and Chavan, Sameer and Chiu, Yen-Feng and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Conomos, Matthew P and DeMeo, Dawn L and Du, Mengmeng and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Eng, Celeste and Fohner, Alison E and Freedman, Barry I and Garrett, Melanie E and Guo, Xiuqing and Haiman, Chris and Heavner, Benjamin D and Hidalgo, Bertha and Hixson, James E and Ho, Yuk-Lam and Hobbs, Brian D and Hu, Donglei and Hui, Qin and Hwu, Chii-Min and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jain, Deepti and Kalyani, Rita R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Tanika N and Lange, Ethan M and LeNoir, Michael and Li, Changwei and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and McDonald, Merry-Lynn N and McHugh, Caitlin P and Morrison, Alanna C and Naseri, Take and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pankow, James S and Perry, James A and Peters, Ulrike and Preuss, Michael H and Rao, D C and Regan, Elizabeth A and Reupena, Sefuiva M and Roden, Dan M and Rodriguez-Santana, Jose and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Tiwari, Hemant K and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wang, Zeyuan and Weeks, Daniel E and Wessel, Jennifer and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wilkens, Lynne R and Wilson, Peter W F and Yanek, Lisa R and Yoneda, Zachary T and Zhao, Wei and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and Arnett, Donna K and Ashley-Koch, Allison E and Barnes, Kathleen C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Burchard, Esteban G and Carson, April P and Chasman, Daniel I and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Curran, Joanne E and Fornage, Myriam and Gordeuk, Victor R and He, Jiang and Heckbert, Susan R and Hou, Lifang and Irvin, Marguerite R and Kooperberg, Charles and Minster, Ryan L and Mitchell, Braxton D and Nouraie, Mehdi and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Reiner, Alexander P and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Benjamin Shoemaker, M and Smith, Nicholas L and Taylor, Kent D and Telen, Marilyn J and Weiss, Scott T and Zhang, Yingze and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Sun, Yan V and Lin, Xihong and Cupples, L Adrienne and Lange, Leslie A and Liu, Ching-Ti and Loos, Ruth J F and North, Kari E and Justice, Anne E} }