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

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

}, keywords = {Body Height, Body Mass Index, Body Size, Body Weight, Chromosome Mapping, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.686}, author = {Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Willer, Cristen J and Berndt, Sonja I and Monda, Keri L and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Jackson, Anne U and Lango Allen, Hana and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Randall, Joshua C and Vedantam, Sailaja and Winkler, Thomas W and Qi, Lu and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and Heid, Iris M and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Stringham, Heather M and Weedon, Michael N and Wheeler, Eleanor and Wood, Andrew R and Ferreira, Teresa and Weyant, Robert J and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and Estrada, Karol and Liang, Liming and Nemesh, James and Park, Ju-Hyun and Gustafsson, Stefan and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Yang, Jian and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Feitosa, Mary F and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Mangino, Massimo and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and Scherag, Andre and Smith, Albert Vernon and Welch, Ryan and Zhao, Jing Hua and Aben, Katja K and Absher, Devin M and Amin, Najaf and Dixon, Anna L and Fisher, Eva and Glazer, Nicole L and Goddard, Michael E and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hoesel, Volker and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Ketkar, Shamika and Lamina, Claudia and Li, Shengxu and Moffatt, Miriam F and Myers, Richard H and Narisu, Narisu and Perry, John R B and Peters, Marjolein J and Preuss, Michael and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sandholt, Camilla and Scott, Laura J and Timpson, Nicholas J and Tyrer, Jonathan P and van Wingerden, Sophie and Watanabe, Richard M and White, Charles C and Wiklund, Fredrik and Barlassina, Christina and Chasman, Daniel I and Cooper, Matthew N and Jansson, John-Olov and Lawrence, Robert W and Pellikka, Niina and Prokopenko, Inga and Shi, Jianxin and Thiering, Elisabeth and Alavere, Helene and Alibrandi, Maria T S and Almgren, Peter and Arnold, Alice M and Aspelund, Thor and Atwood, Larry D and Balkau, Beverley and Balmforth, Anthony J and Bennett, Amanda J and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Bergman, Richard N and Bergmann, Sven and Biebermann, Heike and Blakemore, Alexandra I F and Boes, Tanja and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bornstein, Stefan R and Brown, Morris J and Buchanan, Thomas A and Busonero, Fabio and Campbell, Harry and Cappuccio, Francesco P and Cavalcanti-Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chen, Chih-Mei and Chines, Peter S and Clarke, Robert and Coin, Lachlan and Connell, John and Day, Ian N M and den Heijer, Martin and Duan, Jubao and Ebrahim, Shah and Elliott, Paul and Elosua, Roberto and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Erdos, Michael R and Eriksson, Johan G and Facheris, Maurizio F and Felix, Stephan B and Fischer-Posovszky, Pamela and Folsom, Aaron R and Friedrich, Nele and Freimer, Nelson B and Fu, Mao and Gaget, Stefan and Gejman, Pablo V and Geus, Eco J C and Gieger, Christian and Gjesing, Anette P and Goel, Anuj and Goyette, Philippe and Grallert, Harald and Gr{\"a}ssler, J{\"u}rgen and Greenawalt, Danielle M and Groves, Christopher J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Guiducci, Candace and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hassanali, Neelam and Hall, Alistair S and Havulinna, Aki S and Hayward, Caroline and Heath, Andrew C and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hicks, Andrew A and Hinney, Anke and Hofman, Albert and Homuth, Georg and Hui, Jennie and Igl, Wilmar and Iribarren, Carlos and Isomaa, Bo and Jacobs, Kevin B and Jarick, Ivonne and Jewell, Elizabeth and John, Ulrich and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jula, Antti and Kaakinen, Marika and Kajantie, Eero and Kaplan, Lee M and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kettunen, Johannes and Kinnunen, Leena and Knowles, Joshua W and Kolcic, Ivana and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kraft, Peter and Kval{\o}y, Kirsti and Laitinen, Jaana and Lantieri, Olivier and Lanzani, Chiara and Launer, Lenore J and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lettre, Guillaume and Liu, Jianjun and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lorentzon, Mattias and Luben, Robert N and Ludwig, Barbara and Manunta, Paolo and Marek, Diana and Marre, Michel and Martin, Nicholas G and McArdle, Wendy L and McCarthy, Anne and McKnight, Barbara and Meitinger, Thomas and Melander, Olle and Meyre, David and Midthjell, Kristian and Montgomery, Grant W and Morken, Mario A and Morris, Andrew P and Mulic, Rosanda and Ngwa, Julius S and Nelis, Mari and Neville, Matt J and Nyholt, Dale R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and O{\textquoteright}Rahilly, Stephen and Ong, Ken K and Oostra, Ben and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Perola, Markus and Pichler, Irene and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Platou, Carl G P and Polasek, Ozren and Pouta, Anneli and Rafelt, Suzanne and Raitakari, Olli and Rayner, Nigel W and Ridderstr{\r a}le, Martin and Rief, Winfried and Ruokonen, Aimo and Robertson, Neil R and Rzehak, Peter and Salomaa, Veikko and Sanders, Alan R and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Sanna, Serena and Saramies, Jouko and Savolainen, Markku J and Scherag, Susann and Schipf, Sabine and Schreiber, Stefan and Schunkert, Heribert and Silander, Kaisa and Sinisalo, Juha and Siscovick, David S and Smit, Jan H and Soranzo, Nicole and Sovio, Ulla and Stephens, Jonathan and Surakka, Ida and Swift, Amy J and Tammesoo, Mari-Liis and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Teder-Laving, Maris and Teslovich, Tanya M and Thompson, John R and Thomson, Brian and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and van Meurs, Joyce B J and van Ommen, Gert-Jan and Vatin, Vincent and Viikari, Jorma and Visvikis-Siest, Sophie and Vitart, Veronique and Vogel, Carla I G and Voight, Benjamin F and Waite, Lindsay L and Wallaschofski, Henri and Walters, G Bragi and Widen, Elisabeth and Wiegand, Susanna and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witte, Daniel R and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Xu, Jianfeng and Zhang, Qunyuan and Zgaga, Lina and Ziegler, Andreas and Zitting, Paavo and Beilby, John P and Farooqi, I Sadaf and Hebebrand, Johannes and Huikuri, Heikki V and James, Alan L and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Levinson, Douglas F and Macciardi, Fabio and Nieminen, Markku S and Ohlsson, Claes and Palmer, Lyle J and Ridker, Paul M and Stumvoll, Michael and Beckmann, Jacques S and Boeing, Heiner and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boomsma, Dorret I and Caulfield, Mark J and Chanock, Stephen J and Collins, Francis S and Cupples, L Adrienne and Smith, George Davey and Erdmann, Jeanette and Froguel, Philippe and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hall, Per and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Tamara B and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hayes, Richard B and Heinrich, Joachim and Hu, Frank B and Hveem, Kristian and Illig, Thomas and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Kaprio, Jaakko and Karpe, Fredrik and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Krude, Heiko and Laakso, Markku and Lawlor, Debbie A and Metspalu, Andres and Munroe, Patricia B and Ouwehand, Willem H and Pedersen, Oluf and Penninx, Brenda W and Peters, Annette and Pramstaller, Peter P and Quertermous, Thomas and Reinehr, Thomas and Rissanen, Aila and Rudan, Igor and Samani, Nilesh J and Schwarz, Peter E H and Shuldiner, Alan R and Spector, Timothy D and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uda, Manuela and Uitterlinden, Andre and Valle, Timo T and Wabitsch, Martin and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Wilson, James F and Wright, Alan F and Zillikens, M Carola and Chatterjee, Nilanjan and McCarroll, Steven A and Purcell, Shaun and Schadt, Eric E and Visscher, Peter M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and Fox, Caroline S and Groop, Leif C and Haritunians, Talin and Hunter, David J and Kaplan, Robert C and Mohlke, Karen L and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Peltonen, Leena and Schlessinger, David and Strachan, David P and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wichmann, H-Erich and Frayling, Timothy M and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Boehnke, Michael and Stefansson, Kari and North, Kari E and McCarthy, Mark I and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Ingelsson, Erik and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {1234, title = {Hundreds of variants clustered in genomic loci and biological pathways affect human height.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {467}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Oct 14}, pages = {832-8}, abstract = {

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

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

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

}, keywords = {Adipose Tissue, Age Factors, Chromosome Mapping, Female, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sex Characteristics, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.685}, author = {Heid, Iris M and Jackson, Anne U and Randall, Joshua C and Winkler, Thomas W and Qi, Lu and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Zillikens, M Carola and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and White, Charles C and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Harris, Tamara B and Berndt, Sonja I and Ingelsson, Erik and Willer, Cristen J and Weedon, Michael N and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Vedantam, Sailaja and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Li, Shengxu and Monda, Keri L and Dixon, Anna L and Holmes, Christopher C and Kaplan, Lee M and Liang, Liming and Min, Josine L and Moffatt, Miriam F and Molony, Cliona and Nicholson, George and Schadt, Eric E and Zondervan, Krina T and Feitosa, Mary F and Ferreira, Teresa and Lango Allen, Hana and Weyant, Robert J and Wheeler, Eleanor and Wood, Andrew R and Estrada, Karol and Goddard, Michael E and Lettre, Guillaume and Mangino, Massimo and Nyholt, Dale R and Purcell, Shaun and Smith, Albert Vernon and Visscher, Peter M and Yang, Jian and McCarroll, Steven A and Nemesh, James and Voight, Benjamin F and Absher, Devin and Amin, Najaf and Aspelund, Thor and Coin, Lachlan and Glazer, Nicole L and Hayward, Caroline and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Kaakinen, Marika and Kapur, Karen and Ketkar, Shamika and Knowles, Joshua W and Kraft, Peter and Kraja, Aldi T and Lamina, Claudia and Leitzmann, Michael F and McKnight, Barbara and Morris, Andrew P and Ong, Ken K and Perry, John R B and Peters, Marjolein J and Polasek, Ozren and Prokopenko, Inga and Rayner, Nigel W and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Robertson, Neil R and Sanna, Serena and Sovio, Ulla and Surakka, Ida and Teumer, Alexander and van Wingerden, Sophie and Vitart, Veronique and Zhao, Jing Hua and Cavalcanti-Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Chines, Peter S and Fisher, Eva and Kulzer, Jennifer R and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Narisu, Narisu and Sandholt, Camilla and Scott, Laura J and Silander, Kaisa and Stark, Klaus and Tammesoo, Mari-Liis and Teslovich, Tanya M and Timpson, Nicholas John and Watanabe, Richard M and Welch, Ryan and Chasman, Daniel I and Cooper, Matthew N and Jansson, John-Olov and Kettunen, Johannes and Lawrence, Robert W and Pellikka, Niina and Perola, Markus and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Alavere, Helene and Almgren, Peter and Atwood, Larry D and Bennett, Amanda J and Biffar, Reiner and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bornstein, Stefan R and Buchanan, Thomas A and Campbell, Harry and Day, Ian N M and Dei, Mariano and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Elliott, Paul and Erdos, Michael R and Eriksson, Johan G and Freimer, Nelson B and Fu, Mao and Gaget, Stefan and Geus, Eco J C and Gjesing, Anette P and Grallert, Harald and Gr{\"a}ssler, J{\"u}rgen and Groves, Christopher J and Guiducci, Candace and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hassanali, Neelam and Havulinna, Aki S and Herzig, Karl-Heinz and Hicks, Andrew A and Hui, Jennie and Igl, Wilmar and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jula, Antti and Kajantie, Eero and Kinnunen, Leena and Kolcic, Ivana and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kroemer, Heyo K and Krzelj, Vjekoslav and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kvaloy, Kirsti and Laitinen, Jaana and Lantieri, Olivier and Lathrop, G Mark and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Luben, Robert N and Ludwig, Barbara and McArdle, Wendy L and McCarthy, Anne and Morken, Mario A and Nelis, Mari and Neville, Matt J and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Peden, John F and Pichler, Irene and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Platou, Carl G P and Pouta, Anneli and Ridderstr{\r a}le, Martin and Samani, Nilesh J and Saramies, Jouko and Sinisalo, Juha and Smit, Jan H and Strawbridge, Rona J and Stringham, Heather M and Swift, Amy J and Teder-Laving, Maris and Thomson, Brian and Usala, Gianluca and van Meurs, Joyce B J and van Ommen, Gert-Jan and Vatin, Vincent and Volpato, Claudia B and Wallaschofski, Henri and Walters, G Bragi and Widen, Elisabeth and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witte, Daniel R and Zgaga, Lina and Zitting, Paavo and Beilby, John P and James, Alan L and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Nieminen, Markku S and Ohlsson, Claes and Palmer, Lyle J and Raitakari, Olli and Ridker, Paul M and Stumvoll, Michael and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Viikari, Jorma and Balkau, Beverley and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Bergman, Richard N and Boeing, Heiner and Smith, George Davey and Ebrahim, Shah and Froguel, Philippe and Hansen, Torben and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hveem, Kristian and Isomaa, Bo and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Karpe, Fredrik and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Laakso, Markku and Lawlor, Debbie A and Marre, Michel and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Midthjell, Kristian and Pedersen, Oluf and Salomaa, Veikko and Schwarz, Peter E H and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Valle, Timo T and Wareham, Nicholas J and Arnold, Alice M and Beckmann, Jacques S and Bergmann, Sven and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boomsma, Dorret I and Caulfield, Mark J and Collins, Francis S and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hofman, Albert and Hu, Frank B and Illig, Thomas and Iribarren, Carlos and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Kao, W H Linda and Kaprio, Jaakko and Launer, Lenore J and Munroe, Patricia B and Oostra, Ben and Penninx, Brenda W and Pramstaller, Peter P and Psaty, Bruce M and Quertermous, Thomas and Rissanen, Aila and Rudan, Igor and Shuldiner, Alan R and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Timothy D and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Uda, Manuela and Uitterlinden, Andre and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Vollenweider, Peter and Wilson, James F and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Wright, Alan F and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehnke, Michael and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and Frayling, Timothy M and Groop, Leif C and Haritunians, Talin and Hunter, David J and Kaplan, Robert C and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Peltonen, Leena and Schlessinger, David and Strachan, David P and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Assimes, Themistocles L and Wichmann, H-Erich and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Stefansson, Kari and Cupples, L Adrienne and Loos, Ruth J F and Barroso, In{\^e}s and McCarthy, Mark I and Fox, Caroline S and Mohlke, Karen L and Lindgren, Cecilia M} } @article {6175, title = {FTO genotype is associated with phenotypic variability of body mass index.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {490}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Oct 11}, pages = {267-72}, abstract = {

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

}, keywords = {Alpha-Ketoglutarate-Dependent Dioxygenase FTO, Body Height, Body Mass Index, Co-Repressor Proteins, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins, Repressor Proteins}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature11401}, author = {Yang, Jian and Loos, Ruth J F and Powell, Joseph E and Medland, Sarah E and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Chasman, Daniel I and Rose, Lynda M and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Waite, Lindsay and Smith, Albert Vernon and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Monda, Keri L and Hadley, David and Mahajan, Anubha and Li, Guo and Kapur, Karen and Vitart, Veronique and Huffman, Jennifer E and Wang, Sophie R and Palmer, Cameron and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fischer, Krista and Zhao, Jing Hua and Demirkan, Ayse and Isaacs, Aaron and Feitosa, Mary F and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and White, Charles and Jackson, Anne U and Preuss, Michael and Ziegler, Andreas and Eriksson, Joel and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Frau, Francesca and Nolte, Ilja M and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Jacobs, Kevin B and Verweij, Niek and Goel, Anuj and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Estrada, Karol and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer Lynn and Sanna, Serena and Sidore, Carlo and Tyrer, Jonathan and Teumer, Alexander and Prokopenko, Inga and Mangino, Massimo and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Shuldiner, Alan R and Hui, Jennie and Beilby, John P and McArdle, Wendy L and Hall, Per and Haritunians, Talin and Zgaga, Lina and Kolcic, Ivana and Polasek, Ozren and Zemunik, Tatijana and Oostra, Ben A and Junttila, M Juhani and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Schreiber, Stefan and Peters, Annette and Hicks, Andrew A and Stephens, Jonathan and Foad, Nicola S and Laitinen, Jaana and Pouta, Anneli and Kaakinen, Marika and Willemsen, Gonneke and Vink, Jacqueline M and Wild, Sarah H and Navis, Gerjan and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Homuth, Georg and John, Ulrich and Iribarren, Carlos and Harris, Tamara and Launer, Lenore and Gudnason, Vilmundur and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cadby, Gemma and Palmer, Lyle J and James, Alan L and Musk, Arthur W and Ingelsson, Erik and Psaty, Bruce M and Beckmann, Jacques S and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Vollenweider, Peter and Hayward, Caroline and Wright, Alan F and Rudan, Igor and Groop, Leif C and Metspalu, Andres and Khaw, Kay Tee and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Province, Michael A and Wareham, Nicholas J and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Huikuri, Heikki V and Cupples, L Adrienne and Atwood, Larry D and Fox, Caroline S and Boehnke, Michael and Collins, Francis S and Mohlke, Karen L and Erdmann, Jeanette and Schunkert, Heribert and Hengstenberg, Christian and Stark, Klaus and Lorentzon, Mattias and Ohlsson, Claes and Cusi, Daniele and Staessen, Jan A and van der Klauw, Melanie M and Pramstaller, Peter P and Kathiresan, Sekar and Jolley, Jennifer D and Ripatti, Samuli and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and de Geus, Eco J C and Boomsma, Dorret I and Penninx, Brenda and Wilson, James F and Campbell, Harry and Chanock, Stephen J and van der Harst, Pim and Hamsten, Anders and Watkins, Hugh and Hofman, Albert and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Zillikens, M Carola and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Zillikens, M Carola and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Vermeulen, Sita H and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Schlessinger, David and Schipf, Sabine and Stumvoll, Michael and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Spector, Tim D and North, Kari E and Lettre, Guillaume and McCarthy, Mark I and Berndt, Sonja I and Heath, Andrew C and Madden, Pamela A F and Nyholt, Dale R and Montgomery, Grant W and Martin, Nicholas G and McKnight, Barbara and Strachan, David P and Hill, William G and Snieder, Harold and Ridker, Paul M and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Stefansson, Kari and Frayling, Timothy M and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Goddard, Michael E and Visscher, Peter M} } @article {6152, title = {Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies 11 new loci for anthropometric traits and provides insights into genetic architecture.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 May}, pages = {501-12}, abstract = {

Approaches exploiting trait distribution extremes may be used to identify loci associated with common traits, but it is unknown whether these loci are generalizable to the broader population. In a genome-wide search for loci associated with the upper versus the lower 5th percentiles of body mass index, height and waist-to-hip ratio, as well as clinical classes of obesity, including up to 263,407 individuals of European ancestry, we identified 4 new loci (IGFBP4, H6PD, RSRC1 and PPP2R2A) influencing height detected in the distribution tails and 7 new loci (HNF4G, RPTOR, GNAT2, MRPS33P4, ADCY9, HS6ST3 and ZZZ3) for clinical classes of obesity. Further, we find a large overlap in genetic structure and the distribution of variants between traits based on extremes and the general population and little etiological heterogeneity between obesity subgroups.

}, keywords = {Anthropometry, Body Height, Body Mass Index, Case-Control Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Obesity, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2606}, author = {Berndt, Sonja I and Gustafsson, Stefan and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Ganna, Andrea and Wheeler, Eleanor and Feitosa, Mary F and Justice, Anne E and Monda, Keri L and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Day, Felix R and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fall, Tove and Ferreira, Teresa and Gentilini, Davide and Jackson, Anne U and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Randall, Joshua C and Vedantam, Sailaja and Willer, Cristen J and Winkler, Thomas W and Wood, Andrew R and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and Hu, Yi-Juan and Lee, Sang Hong and Liang, Liming and Lin, Dan-Yu and Min, Josine L and Neale, Benjamin M and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Yang, Jian and Albrecht, Eva and Amin, Najaf and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Cadby, Gemma and den Heijer, Martin and Eklund, Niina and Fischer, Krista and Goel, Anuj and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Jarick, Ivonne and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Kanoni, Stavroula and Kleber, Marcus E and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Kristiansson, Kati and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lamina, Claudia and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Li, Guo and Mangino, Massimo and McArdle, Wendy L and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Ngwa, Julius S and Nolte, Ilja M and Paternoster, Lavinia and Pechlivanis, Sonali and Perola, Markus and Peters, Marjolein J and Preuss, Michael and Rose, Lynda M and Shi, Jianxin and Shungin, Dmitry and Smith, Albert Vernon and Strawbridge, Rona J and Surakka, Ida and Teumer, Alexander and Trip, Mieke D and Tyrer, Jonathan and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Waite, Lindsay L and Zhao, Jing Hua and Absher, Devin and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Atalay, Mustafa and Attwood, Antony P and Balmforth, Anthony J and Basart, Hanneke and Beilby, John and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Brambilla, Paolo and Bruinenberg, Marcel and Campbell, Harry and Chasman, Daniel I and Chines, Peter S and Collins, Francis S and Connell, John M and Cookson, William O and de Faire, Ulf and de Vegt, Femmie and Dei, Mariano and Dimitriou, Maria and Edkins, Sarah and Estrada, Karol and Evans, David M and Farrall, Martin and Ferrario, Marco M and Ferrieres, Jean and Franke, Lude and Frau, Francesca and Gejman, Pablo V and Grallert, Harald and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hall, Alistair S and Hall, Per and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hayward, Caroline and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Heath, Andrew C and Hebebrand, Johannes and Homuth, Georg and Hu, Frank B and Hunt, Sarah E and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Iribarren, Carlos and Jacobs, Kevin B and Jansson, John-Olov and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kee, Frank and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kivimaki, Mika and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kraja, Aldi T and Kumari, Meena and Kuulasmaa, Kari and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laitinen, Jaana H and Lakka, Timo A and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lind, Lars and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Liu, Jianjun and Liuzzi, Antonio and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lorentzon, Mattias and Madden, Pamela A and Magnusson, Patrik K and Manunta, Paolo and Marek, Diana and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Mateo Leach, Irene and McKnight, Barbara and Medland, Sarah E and Mihailov, Evelin and Milani, Lili and Montgomery, Grant W and Mooser, Vincent and M{\"u}hleisen, Thomas W and Munroe, Patricia B and Musk, Arthur W and Narisu, Narisu and Navis, Gerjan and Nicholson, George and Nohr, Ellen A and Ong, Ken K and Oostra, Ben A and Palmer, Colin N A and Palotie, Aarno and Peden, John F and Pedersen, Nancy and Peters, Annette and Polasek, Ozren and Pouta, Anneli and Pramstaller, Peter P and Prokopenko, Inga and P{\"u}tter, Carolin and Radhakrishnan, Aparna and Raitakari, Olli and Rendon, Augusto and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rudan, Igor and Saaristo, Timo E and Sambrook, Jennifer G and Sanders, Alan R and Sanna, Serena and Saramies, Jouko and Schipf, Sabine and Schreiber, Stefan and Schunkert, Heribert and Shin, So-Youn and Signorini, Stefano and Sinisalo, Juha and Skrobek, Boris and Soranzo, Nicole and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stark, Klaus and Stephens, Jonathan C and Stirrups, Kathleen and Stolk, Ronald P and Stumvoll, Michael and Swift, Amy J and Theodoraki, Eirini V and Thorand, Barbara and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Tremoli, Elena and van der Klauw, Melanie M and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Vermeulen, Sita H and Viikari, Jorma and Virtamo, Jarmo and Vitart, Veronique and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wang, Zhaoming and Widen, Elisabeth and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Winkelmann, Bernhard R and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Wong, Andrew and Wright, Alan F and Zillikens, M Carola and Amouyel, Philippe and Boehm, Bernhard O and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boomsma, Dorret I and Caulfield, Mark J and Chanock, Stephen J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Cusi, Daniele and Dedoussis, George V and Erdmann, Jeanette and Eriksson, Johan G and Franks, Paul W and Froguel, Philippe and Gieger, Christian and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hicks, Andrew A and Hingorani, Aroon and Hinney, Anke and Hofman, Albert and Hovingh, Kees G and Hveem, Kristian and Illig, Thomas and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and J{\"o}ckel, Karl-Heinz and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, Sirkka M and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Kuh, Diana and Laakso, Markku and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Levinson, Douglas F and Martin, Nicholas G and Metspalu, Andres and Morris, Andrew D and Nieminen, Markku S and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Ohlsson, Claes and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Ouwehand, Willem H and Palmer, Lyle J and Penninx, Brenda and Power, Chris and Province, Michael A and Psaty, Bruce M and Qi, Lu and Rauramaa, Rainer and Ridker, Paul M and Ripatti, Samuli and Salomaa, Veikko and Samani, Nilesh J and Snieder, Harold and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Spector, Timothy D and Stefansson, Kari and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Uusitupa, Matti and van der Harst, Pim and Vollenweider, Peter and Wallaschofski, Henri and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wilson, James F and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Assimes, Themistocles L and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Boehnke, Michael and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and Fox, Caroline S and Frayling, Timothy and Groop, Leif C and Haritunian, Talin and Heid, Iris M and Hunter, David and Kaplan, Robert C and Karpe, Fredrik and Moffatt, Miriam F and Mohlke, Karen L and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Pawitan, Yudi and Schadt, Eric E and Schlessinger, David and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Strachan, David P and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Visscher, Peter M and Di Blasio, Anna Maria and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Morris, Andrew P and Meyre, David and Scherag, Andre and McCarthy, Mark I and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and North, Kari E and Loos, Ruth J F and Ingelsson, Erik} } @article {8015, title = {Identification of heart rate-associated loci and their effects on cardiac conduction and rhythm disorders.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jun}, pages = {621-31}, abstract = {

Elevated resting heart rate is associated with greater risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. In a 2-stage meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in up to 181,171 individuals, we identified 14 new loci associated with heart rate and confirmed associations with all 7 previously established loci. Experimental downregulation of gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster and Danio rerio identified 20 genes at 11 loci that are relevant for heart rate regulation and highlight a role for genes involved in signal transmission, embryonic cardiac development and the pathophysiology of dilated cardiomyopathy, congenital heart failure and/or sudden cardiac death. In addition, genetic susceptibility to increased heart rate is associated with altered cardiac conduction and reduced risk of sick sinus syndrome, and both heart rate-increasing and heart rate-decreasing variants associate with risk of atrial fibrillation. Our findings provide fresh insights into the mechanisms regulating heart rate and identify new therapeutic targets.

}, keywords = {Animals, Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Conduction System, Heart Rate, Humans, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2610}, author = {den Hoed, Marcel and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Brundel, Bianca J J M and Peal, David S and Evans, David M and Nolte, Ilja M and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and Holm, Hilma and Handsaker, Robert E and Westra, Harm-Jan and Johnson, Toby and Isaacs, Aaron and Yang, Jian and Lundby, Alicia and Zhao, Jing Hua and Kim, Young Jin and Go, Min Jin and Almgren, Peter and Bochud, Murielle and Boucher, Gabrielle and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Gudbjartsson, Daniel and Hadley, David and van der Harst, Pim and Hayward, Caroline and den Heijer, Martin and Igl, Wilmar and Jackson, Anne U and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Kemp, John P and Kristiansson, Kati and Ladenvall, Claes and Lorentzon, Mattias and Montasser, May E and Njajou, Omer T and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and St Pourcain, Beate and Rankinen, Tuomo and Salo, Perttu and Tanaka, Toshiko and Timpson, Nicholas J and Vitart, Veronique and Waite, Lindsay and Wheeler, William and Zhang, Weihua and Draisma, Harmen H M and Feitosa, Mary F and Kerr, Kathleen F and Lind, Penelope A and Mihailov, Evelin and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Song, Ci and Weedon, Michael N and Xie, Weijia and Yengo, Loic and Absher, Devin and Albert, Christine M and Alonso, Alvaro and Arking, Dan E and de Bakker, Paul I W and Balkau, Beverley and Barlassina, Cristina and Benaglio, Paola and Bis, Joshua C and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Brage, S{\o}ren and Chanock, Stephen J and Chines, Peter S and Chung, Mina and Darbar, Dawood and Dina, Christian and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Elliott, Paul and Felix, Stephan B and Fischer, Krista and Fuchsberger, Christian and de Geus, Eco J C and Goyette, Philippe and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Havulinna, Aki S and Heckbert, Susan R and Hicks, Andrew A and Hofman, Albert and Holewijn, Suzanne and Hoogstra-Berends, Femke and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Jensen, Majken K and Johansson, Asa and Junttila, Juhani and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Kanon, Bart and Ketkar, Shamika and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Knowles, Joshua W and Kooner, Angrad S and Kors, Jan A and Kumari, Meena and Milani, Lili and Laiho, P{\"a}ivi and Lakatta, Edward G and Langenberg, Claudia and Leusink, Maarten and Liu, Yongmei and Luben, Robert N and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Lynch, Stacey N and Markus, Marcello R P and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Mateo Leach, Irene and McArdle, Wendy L and McCarroll, Steven A and Medland, Sarah E and Miller, Kathryn A and Montgomery, Grant W and Morrison, Alanna C and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Navarro, Pau and Nelis, Mari and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Ong, Ken K and Newman, Anne B and Peters, Annette and Polasek, Ozren and Pouta, Anneli and Pramstaller, Peter P and Psaty, Bruce M and Rao, Dabeeru C and Ring, Susan M and Rossin, Elizabeth J and Rudan, Diana and Sanna, Serena and Scott, Robert A and Sehmi, Jaban S and Sharp, Stephen and Shin, Jordan T and Singleton, Andrew B and Smith, Albert V and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Tim D and Stewart, Chip and Stringham, Heather M and Tarasov, Kirill V and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Whitfield, John B and Wijmenga, Cisca and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, James F and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Wong, Andrew and Wong, Quenna and Jamshidi, Yalda and Zitting, Paavo and Boer, Jolanda M A and Boomsma, Dorret I and Borecki, Ingrid B and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Ekelund, Ulf and Forouhi, Nita G and Froguel, Philippe and Hingorani, Aroon and Ingelsson, Erik and Kivimaki, Mika and Kronmal, Richard A and Kuh, Diana and Lind, Lars and Martin, Nicholas G and Oostra, Ben A and Pedersen, Nancy L and Quertermous, Thomas and Rotter, Jerome I and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Verschuren, W M Monique and Walker, Mark and Albanes, Demetrius and Arnar, David O and Assimes, Themistocles L and Bandinelli, Stefania and Boehnke, Michael and de Boer, Rudolf A and Bouchard, Claude and Caulfield, W L Mark and Chambers, John C and Curhan, Gary and Cusi, Daniele and Eriksson, Johan and Ferrucci, Luigi and van Gilst, Wiek H and Glorioso, Nicola and de Graaf, Jacqueline and Groop, Leif and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hsueh, Wen-Chi and Hu, Frank B and Huikuri, Heikki V and Hunter, David J and Iribarren, Carlos and Isomaa, Bo and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and van der Klauw, Melanie M and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kraft, Peter and Iacoviello, Licia and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lokki, Marja-Liisa L and Mitchell, Braxton D and Navis, Gerjan and Nieminen, Markku S and Ohlsson, Claes and Poulter, Neil R and Qi, Lu and Raitakari, Olli T and Rimm, Eric B and Rioux, John D and Rizzi, Federica and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Sever, Peter S and Shields, Denis C and Shuldiner, Alan R and Sinisalo, Juha and Stanton, Alice V and Stolk, Ronald P and Strachan, David P and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tuomilehto, Jaako and van Veldhuisen, Dirk J and Virtamo, Jarmo and Viikari, Jorma and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Widen, Elisabeth and Cho, Yoon Shin and Olsen, Jesper V and Visscher, Peter M and Willer, Cristen and Franke, Lude and Erdmann, Jeanette and Thompson, John R and Pfeufer, Arne and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Ellinor, Patrick T and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Metspalu, Andres and Perola, Markus and Beckmann, Jacques S and Smith, George Davey and Stefansson, Kari and Wareham, Nicholas J and Munroe, Patricia B and Sibon, Ody C M and Milan, David J and Snieder, Harold and Samani, Nilesh J and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {6028, title = {Sex-stratified genome-wide association studies including 270,000 individuals show sexual dimorphism in genetic loci for anthropometric traits.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jun}, pages = {e1003500}, abstract = {

Given the anthropometric differences between men and women and previous evidence of sex-difference in genetic effects, we conducted a genome-wide search for sexually dimorphic associations with height, weight, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, and waist-to-hip-ratio (133,723 individuals) and took forward 348 SNPs into follow-up (additional 137,052 individuals) in a total of 94 studies. Seven loci displayed significant sex-difference (FDR<5\%), including four previously established (near GRB14/COBLL1, LYPLAL1/SLC30A10, VEGFA, ADAMTS9) and three novel anthropometric trait loci (near MAP3K1, HSD17B4, PPARG), all of which were genome-wide significant in women (P<5{\texttimes}10(-8)), but not in men. Sex-differences were apparent only for waist phenotypes, not for height, weight, BMI, or hip circumference. Moreover, we found no evidence for genetic effects with opposite directions in men versus women. The PPARG locus is of specific interest due to its role in diabetes genetics and therapy. Our results demonstrate the value of sex-specific GWAS to unravel the sexually dimorphic genetic underpinning of complex traits.

}, keywords = {Anthropometry, Body Height, Body Mass Index, Body Weight, Body Weights and Measures, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sex Characteristics, Waist Circumference, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003500}, author = {Randall, Joshua C and Winkler, Thomas W and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Berndt, Sonja I and Jackson, Anne U and Monda, Keri L and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Esko, T{\~o}nu and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Li, Shengxu and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and Feitosa, Mary F and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Day, Felix R and Fall, Tove and Ferreira, Teresa and Gustafsson, Stefan and Locke, Adam E and Mathieson, Iain and Scherag, Andre and Vedantam, Sailaja and Wood, Andrew R and Liang, Liming and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Dermitzakis, Emmanouil T and Dimas, Antigone S and Karpe, Fredrik and Min, Josine L and Nicholson, George and Clegg, Deborah J and Person, Thomas and Krohn, Jon P and Bauer, Sabrina and Buechler, Christa and Eisinger, Kristina and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Froguel, Philippe and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Prokopenko, Inga and Waite, Lindsay L and Harris, Tamara B and Smith, Albert Vernon and Shuldiner, Alan R and McArdle, Wendy L and Caulfield, Mark J and Munroe, Patricia B and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Li, Guo and Beckmann, Jacques S and Johnson, Toby and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Teder-Laving, Maris and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Wareham, Nicholas J and Zhao, Jing Hua and Amin, Najaf and Oostra, Ben A and Kraja, Aldi T and Province, Michael A and Cupples, L Adrienne and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Kaprio, Jaakko and Ripatti, Samuli and Surakka, Ida and Collins, Francis S and Saramies, Jouko and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Jula, Antti and Salomaa, Veikko and Erdmann, Jeanette and Hengstenberg, Christian and Loley, Christina and Schunkert, Heribert and Lamina, Claudia and Wichmann, H Erich and Albrecht, Eva and Gieger, Christian and Hicks, Andrew A and Johansson, Asa and Pramstaller, Peter P and Kathiresan, Sekar and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Penninx, Brenda and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Gyllensten, Ulf and Boomsma, Dorret I and Campbell, Harry and Wilson, James F and Chanock, Stephen J and Farrall, Martin and Goel, Anuj and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Estrada, Karol and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Zillikens, M Carola and den Heijer, Martin and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Maschio, Andrea and Hall, Per and Tyrer, Jonathan and Teumer, Alexander and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kovacs, Peter and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Mangino, Massimo and Spector, Tim D and Hayward, Caroline and Rudan, Igor and Hall, Alistair S and Samani, Nilesh J and Attwood, Antony Paul and Sambrook, Jennifer G and Hung, Joseph and Palmer, Lyle J and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Sinisalo, Juha and Boucher, Gabrielle and Huikuri, Heikki and Lorentzon, Mattias and Ohlsson, Claes and Eklund, Niina and Eriksson, Johan G and Barlassina, Cristina and Rivolta, Carlo and Nolte, Ilja M and Snieder, Harold and van der Klauw, Melanie M and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Gejman, Pablo V and Shi, Jianxin and Jacobs, Kevin B and Wang, Zhaoming and Bakker, Stephan J L and Mateo Leach, Irene and Navis, Gerjan and van der Harst, Pim and Martin, Nicholas G and Medland, Sarah E and Montgomery, Grant W and Yang, Jian and Chasman, Daniel I and Ridker, Paul M and Rose, Lynda M and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Raitakari, Olli and Absher, Devin and Iribarren, Carlos and Basart, Hanneke and Hovingh, Kees G and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Power, Chris and Anderson, Denise and Beilby, John P and Hui, Jennie and Jolley, Jennifer and Sager, Hendrik and Bornstein, Stefan R and Schwarz, Peter E H and Kristiansson, Kati and Perola, Markus and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Swift, Amy J and Uusitupa, Matti and Atalay, Mustafa and Lakka, Timo A and Rauramaa, Rainer and Bolton, Jennifer L and Fowkes, Gerry and Fraser, Ross M and Price, Jackie F and Fischer, Krista and Krjut{\r a} Kov, Kaarel and Metspalu, Andres and Mihailov, Evelin and Langenberg, Claudia and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Ong, Ken K and Chines, Peter S and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, Sirkka M and Saaristo, Timo E and Edkins, Sarah and Franks, Paul W and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Shungin, Dmitry and Morris, Andrew David and Palmer, Colin N A and Erbel, Raimund and Moebus, Susanne and N{\"o}then, Markus M and Pechlivanis, Sonali and Hveem, Kristian and Narisu, Narisu and Hamsten, Anders and Humphries, Steve E and Strawbridge, Rona J and Tremoli, Elena and Grallert, Harald and Thorand, Barbara and Illig, Thomas and Koenig, Wolfgang and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Peters, Annette and Boehm, Bernhard O and Kleber, Marcus E and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Winkelmann, Bernhard R and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Arveiler, Dominique and Cesana, Giancarlo and Kuulasmaa, Kari and Virtamo, Jarmo and Yarnell, John W G and Kuh, Diana and Wong, Andrew and Lind, Lars and de Faire, Ulf and Gigante, Bruna and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Pedersen, Nancy L and Dedoussis, George and Dimitriou, Maria and Kolovou, Genovefa and Kanoni, Stavroula and Stirrups, Kathleen and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Wilsgaard, Tom and Ganna, Andrea and Rehnberg, Emil and Hingorani, Aroon and Kivimaki, Mika and Kumari, Meena and Assimes, Themistocles L and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Boehnke, Michael and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and Fox, Caroline S and Frayling, Timothy and Groop, Leif C and Haritunians, Talin and Hunter, David and Ingelsson, Erik and Kaplan, Robert and Mohlke, Karen L and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Schlessinger, David and Strachan, David P and Stefansson, Kari and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and McCarthy, Mark I and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Qi, Lu and Loos, Ruth J F and Lindgren, Cecilia M and North, Kari E and Heid, Iris M} } @article {7262, title = {52 Genetic Loci Influencing Myocardial~Mass.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {68}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Sep 27}, pages = {1435-48}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Myocardial mass is a key determinant of cardiac muscle function and hypertrophy. Myocardial depolarization leading to cardiac muscle contraction is reflected by the amplitude and duration of the QRS complex on the electrocardiogram (ECG). Abnormal QRS amplitude or duration reflect changes in myocardial mass and conduction, and are associated with increased risk of heart failure and death.

OBJECTIVES: This meta-analysis sought to gain insights into the genetic determinants of myocardial mass.

METHODS: We carried out a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 4 QRS traits in up to 73,518 individuals of European ancestry, followed by extensive biological and functional assessment.

RESULTS: We identified 52 genomic loci, of which 32 are novel, that are reliably associated with 1 or more QRS phenotypes at p~< 1~{\texttimes} 10(-8). These loci are enriched in regions of open chromatin, histone modifications, and transcription factor binding, suggesting that they represent regions of the genome that are actively transcribed in the human heart. Pathway analyses provided evidence that these loci play a role in cardiac hypertrophy. We further highlighted 67~candidate genes at the identified loci that are preferentially expressed in cardiac tissue and associated with cardiac abnormalities in Drosophila melanogaster and Mus musculus. We validated the regulatory function of a novel variant in the SCN5A/SCN10A locus in~vitro and in~vivo.

CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our findings provide new insights into genes and biological pathways controlling myocardial mass and may help identify novel therapeutic targets.

}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2016.07.729}, author = {van der Harst, Pim and van Setten, Jessica and Verweij, Niek and Vogler, Georg and Franke, Lude and Maurano, Matthew T and Wang, Xinchen and Mateo Leach, Irene and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Hayward, Caroline and Sorice, Rossella and Meirelles, Osorio and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Polasek, Ozren and Tanaka, Toshiko and Arking, Dan E and Ulivi, Sheila and Trompet, Stella and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Smith, Albert V and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Kerr, Kathleen F and Magnani, Jared W and del Greco M, Fabiola and Zhang, Weihua and Nolte, Ilja M and Silva, Claudia T and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Tragante, Vinicius and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Adriaens, Michiel E and Andersen, Karl and Barnett, Phil and Bis, Joshua C and Bodmer, Rolf and Buckley, Brendan M and Campbell, Harry and Cannon, Megan V and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chen, Lin Y and Delitala, Alessandro and Devereux, Richard B and Doevendans, Pieter A and Dominiczak, Anna F and Ferrucci, Luigi and Ford, Ian and Gieger, Christian and Harris, Tamara B and Haugen, Eric and Heinig, Matthias and Hernandez, Dena G and Hillege, Hans L and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Hofman, Albert and Hubner, Norbert and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Iorio, Annamaria and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kellis, Manolis and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooner, Ishminder K and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kors, Jan A and Lakatta, Edward G and Lage, Kasper and Launer, Lenore J and Levy, Daniel and Lundby, Alicia and Macfarlane, Peter W and May, Dalit and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Nappo, Stefania and Naitza, Silvia and Neph, Shane and Nord, Alex S and Nutile, Teresa and Okin, Peter M and Olsen, Jesper V and Oostra, Ben A and Penninger, Josef M and Pennacchio, Len A and Pers, Tune H and Perz, Siegfried and Peters, Annette and Pinto, Yigal M and Pfeufer, Arne and Pilia, Maria Grazia and Pramstaller, Peter P and Prins, Bram P and Raitakari, Olli T and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and Rice, Ken M and Rossin, Elizabeth J and Rotter, Jerome I and Schafer, Sebastian and Schlessinger, David and Schmidt, Carsten O and Sehmi, Jobanpreet and Sillj{\'e}, Herman H W and Sinagra, Gianfranco and Sinner, Moritz F and Slowikowski, Kamil and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Spector, Timothy D and Spiering, Wilko and Stamatoyannopoulos, John A and Stolk, Ronald P and Strauch, Konstantin and Tan, Sian-Tsung and Tarasov, Kirill V and Trinh, Bosco and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van den Boogaard, Malou and van Duijn, Cornelia M and van Gilst, Wiek H and Viikari, Jorma S and Visscher, Peter M and Vitart, Veronique and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Waldenberger, Melanie and Weichenberger, Christian X and Westra, Harm-Jan and Wijmenga, Cisca and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H and Yang, Jian and Bezzina, Connie R and Munroe, Patricia B and Snieder, Harold and Wright, Alan F and Rudan, Igor and Boyer, Laurie A and Asselbergs, Folkert W and van Veldhuisen, Dirk J and Stricker, Bruno H and Psaty, Bruce M and Ciullo, Marina and Sanna, Serena and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Wilson, James F and Bandinelli, Stefania and Alonso, Alvaro and Gasparini, Paolo and Jukema, J Wouter and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Felix, Stephan B and Heckbert, Susan R and de Boer, Rudolf A and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Hicks, Andrew A and Chambers, John C and Jamshidi, Yalda and Visel, Axel and Christoffels, Vincent M and Isaacs, Aaron and Samani, Nilesh J and de Bakker, Paul I W} } @article {9042, title = {Assessing the contribution of rare variants to complex trait heritability from whole-genome sequence data.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {54}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Mar}, pages = {263-273}, abstract = {

Analyses of data from genome-wide association studies on unrelated individuals have shown that, for human traits and diseases, approximately one-third to two-thirds of heritability is captured by common SNPs. However, it is not known whether the remaining heritability is due to the imperfect tagging of causal variants by common SNPs, in particular whether the causal variants are rare, or whether it is overestimated due to bias in inference from pedigree data. Here we estimated heritability for height and body mass index (BMI) from whole-genome sequence data on 25,465 unrelated individuals of European ancestry. The estimated heritability was 0.68 (standard error 0.10) for height and 0.30 (standard error 0.10) for body mass index. Low minor allele frequency variants in low linkage disequilibrium (LD) with neighboring variants were enriched for heritability, to a greater extent for protein-altering variants, consistent with negative selection. Our results imply that rare variants, in particular those in regions of low linkage disequilibrium, are a major source of the still missing heritability of complex traits and disease.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-021-00997-7}, author = {Wainschtein, Pierrick and Jain, Deepti and Zheng, Zhili and Cupples, L Adrienne and Shadyab, Aladdin H and McKnight, Barbara and Shoemaker, Benjamin M and Mitchell, Braxton D and Psaty, Bruce M and Kooperberg, Charles and Liu, Ching-Ti and Albert, Christine M and Roden, Dan and Chasman, Daniel I and Darbar, Dawood and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Arnett, Donna K and Regan, Elizabeth A and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Yanek, Lisa R and de Andrade, Mariza and Allison, Matthew A and McDonald, Merry-Lynn N and Chung, Mina K and Fornage, Myriam and Chami, Nathalie and Smith, Nicholas L and Ellinor, Patrick T and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Mathias, Rasika A and Loos, Ruth J F and Rich, Stephen S and Lubitz, Steven A and Heckbert, Susan R and Redline, Susan and Guo, Xiuqing and Chen, Y -D Ida and Laurie, Cecelia A and Hernandez, Ryan D and McGarvey, Stephen T and Goddard, Michael E and Laurie, Cathy C and North, Kari E and Lange, Leslie A and Weir, Bruce S and Yengo, Loic and Yang, Jian and Visscher, Peter M} } @article {9580, title = {Association analysis of mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmic variants: methods and application.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jan 13}, abstract = {

We rigorously assessed a comprehensive association testing framework for heteroplasmy, employing both simulated and real-world data. This framework employed a variant allele fraction (VAF) threshold and harnessed multiple gene-based tests for robust identification and association testing of heteroplasmy. Our simulation studies demonstrated that gene-based tests maintained an appropriate type I error rate at α=0.001. Notably, when 5\% or more heteroplasmic variants within a target region were linked to an outcome, burden-extension tests (including the adaptive burden test, variable threshold burden test, and z-score weighting burden test) outperformed the sequence kernel association test (SKAT) and the original burden test. Applying this framework, we conducted association analyses on whole-blood derived heteroplasmy in 17,507 individuals of African and European ancestries (31\% of African Ancestry, mean age of 62, with 58\% women) with whole genome sequencing data. We performed both cohort- and ancestry-specific association analyses, followed by meta-analysis on bothpooled samples and within each ancestry group. Our results suggest that mtDNA-Enco ded genes/regions are likely to exhibit varying rates in somatic aging, with the notably strong associations observed between heteroplasmy in the and genes ( <0.001) and advance aging by the Original Burden test. In contrast, SKAT identified significant associations ( <0.001) between diabetes and the aggregated effects of heteroplasmy in several protein-coding genes. Further research is warranted to validate these findings. In summary, our proposed statistical framework represents a valuable tool for facilitating association testing of heteroplasmy with disease traits in large human populations.

}, doi = {10.1101/2024.01.12.24301233}, author = {Sun, Xianbang and Bulekova, Katia and Yang, Jian and Lai, Meng and Pitsillides, Achilleas N and Liu, Xue and Zhang, Yuankai and Guo, Xiuqing and Yong, Qian and Raffield, Laura M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Abecasis, Goncalo and Carson, April P and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Bis, Joshua C and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Satizabal, Claudia L and Arking, Dan E and Ding, Jun and Levy, Daniel and Liu, Chunyu} }