@article {6633, title = {Consistent directions of effect for established type 2 diabetes risk variants across populations: the population architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Consortium.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {61}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Jun}, pages = {1642-7}, abstract = {

Common genetic risk variants for type 2 diabetes (T2D) have primarily been identified in populations of European and Asian ancestry. We tested whether the direction of association with 20 T2D risk variants generalizes across six major racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. as part of the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology Consortium (16,235 diabetes case and 46,122 control subjects of European American, African American, Hispanic, East Asian, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian ancestry). The percentage of positive (odds ratio [OR] >1 for putative risk allele) associations ranged from 69\% in American Indians to 100\% in European Americans. Of the nine variants where we observed significant heterogeneity of effect by racial/ethnic group (P(heterogeneity) < 0.05), eight were positively associated with risk (OR >1) in at least five groups. The marked directional consistency of association observed for most genetic variants across populations implies a shared functional common variant in each region. Fine-mapping of all loci will be required to reveal markers of risk that are important within and across populations.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alleles, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, Metagenomics, Middle Aged, Population Groups, Risk, Risk Factors}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db11-1296}, author = {Haiman, Christopher A and Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Spencer, Kylee L and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Voruganti, V Saroja and Wan, Peggy and Haessler, Jeff and Franceschini, Nora and Monroe, Kristine R and Howard, Barbara V and Jackson, Rebecca D and Florez, Jose C and Kolonel, Laurence N and Buyske, Steven and Goodloe, Robert J and Liu, Simin and Manson, JoAnn E and Meigs, James B and Waters, Kevin and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Shrader, Peter and Wilkens, Lynne R and Hindorff, Lucia A and Ambite, Jose Luis and North, Kari E and Peters, Ulrike and Crawford, Dana C and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Pankow, James S} } @article {6083, title = {Fine-mapping and initial characterization of QT interval loci in African Americans.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e1002870}, abstract = {

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

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Computational Biology, Electrocardiography, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Metagenomics, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Quantitative Trait, Heritable, Risk Factors, Tachycardia, United States}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002870}, author = {Avery, Christy L and Sethupathy, Praveen and Buyske, Steven and He, Qianchuan and Lin, Dan-Yu and Arking, Dan E and Carty, Cara L and Duggan, David and Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Hindorff, Lucia A and Jeff, Janina M and Klein, Liviu and Patton, Kristen K and Peters, Ulrike and Shohet, Ralph V and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Young, Alicia M and Kooperberg, Charles and Haiman, Christopher A and Mohlke, Karen L and Whitsel, Eric A and North, Kari E} } @article {6065, title = {Effects of smoking on the genetic risk of obesity: the population architecture using genomics and epidemiology study.}, journal = {BMC Med Genet}, volume = {14}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jan 11}, pages = {6}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Although smoking behavior is known to affect body mass index (BMI), the potential for smoking to influence genetic associations with BMI is largely unexplored.

METHODS: As part of the {\textquoteright}Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE){\textquoteright} Consortium, we investigated interaction between genetic risk factors associated with BMI and smoking for 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously identified in genome-wide association studies. We included 6 studies with a total of 56,466 subjects (16,750 African Americans (AA) and 39,716 European Americans (EA)). We assessed effect modification by testing an interaction term for each SNP and smoking (current vs. former/never) in the linear regression and by stratified analyses.

RESULTS: We did not observe strong evidence for interactions and only observed two interactions with p-values <0.1: for rs6548238/TMEM18, the risk allele (C) was associated with BMI only among AA females who were former/never smokers (β = 0.018, p = 0.002), vs. current smokers (β = 0.001, p = 0.95, p(interaction) = 0.10). For rs9939609/FTO, the A allele was more strongly associated with BMI among current smoker EA females (β = 0.017, p = 3.5 x 10(-5)), vs. former/never smokers (β = 0.006, p = 0.05, p(interaction) = 0.08).

CONCLUSIONS: These analyses provide limited evidence that smoking status may modify genetic effects of previously identified genetic risk factors for BMI. Larger studies are needed to follow up our results.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT00000611.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, African Americans, Aged, Alpha-Ketoglutarate-Dependent Dioxygenase FTO, Body Mass Index, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Male, Membrane Proteins, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins, Risk Factors, Smoking, Young Adult}, issn = {1471-2350}, doi = {10.1186/1471-2350-14-6}, author = {Fesinmeyer, Megan D and North, Kari E and Lim, Unhee and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Crawford, Dana C and Haessler, Jeffrey and Gross, Myron D and Fowke, Jay H and Goodloe, Robert and Love, Shelley-Ann and Graff, Misa and Carlson, Christopher S and Kuller, Lewis H and Matise, Tara C and Hong, Ching-Ping and Henderson, Brian E and Allen, Melissa and Rohde, Rebecca R and Mayo, Ping and Schnetz-Boutaud, Nathalie and Monroe, Kristine R and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Prentice, Ross L and Kolonel, Lawrence N and Manson, JoAnn E and Pankow, James and Hindorff, Lucia A and Franceschini, Nora and Wilkens, Lynne R and Haiman, Christopher A and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Peters, Ulrike} } @article {6626, title = {Fine Mapping and Identification of BMI Loci in African Americans.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {93}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Oct 3}, pages = {661-71}, abstract = {

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

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Young Adult}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2013.08.012}, author = {Gong, Jian and Schumacher, Fredrick and Lim, Unhee and Hindorff, Lucia A and Haessler, Jeff and Buyske, Steven and Carlson, Christopher S and Rosse, Stephanie and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Fornage, Myriam and Gross, Myron and Pankratz, Nathan and Pankow, James S and Schreiner, Pamela J and Cooper, Richard and Ehret, Georg and Gu, C Charles and Houston, Denise and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jackson, Rebecca and Kuller, Lew and Henderson, Brian and Cheng, Iona and Wilkens, Lynne and Leppert, Mark and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Rongling and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung H and Goodloe, Robert and Farber-Eger, Eric and Boston, Jonathan and Dilks, Holli H and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Fowke, Jay and Pooler, Loreall and Graff, Misa and Fernandez-Rhodes, Lindsay and Cochrane, Barbara and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kooperberg, Charles and Matise, Tara C and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Crawford, Dana C and Haiman, Christopher A and North, Kari E and Peters, Ulrike} } @article {6290, title = {Genetic variants associated with fasting glucose and insulin concentrations in an ethnically diverse population: results from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.}, journal = {BMC Med Genet}, volume = {14}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Sep 25}, pages = {98}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Multiple genome-wide association studies (GWAS) within European populations have implicated common genetic variants associated with insulin and glucose concentrations. In contrast, few studies have been conducted within minority groups, which carry the highest burden of impaired glucose homeostasis and type 2 diabetes in the U.S.

METHODS: As part of the {\textquoteright}Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Consortium, we investigated the association of up to 10 GWAS-identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 8 genetic regions with glucose or insulin concentrations in up to 36,579 non-diabetic subjects including 23,323 European Americans (EA) and 7,526 African Americans (AA), 3,140 Hispanics, 1,779 American Indians (AI), and 811 Asians. We estimated the association between each SNP and fasting glucose or log-transformed fasting insulin, followed by meta-analysis to combine results across PAGE sites.

RESULTS: Overall, our results show that 9/9 GWAS SNPs are associated with glucose in EA (p = 0.04 to 9 {\texttimes} 10-15), versus 3/9 in AA (p= 0.03 to 6 {\texttimes} 10-5), 3/4 SNPs in Hispanics, 2/4 SNPs in AI, and 1/2 SNPs in Asians. For insulin we observed a significant association with rs780094/GCKR in EA, Hispanics and AI only.

CONCLUSIONS: Generalization of results across multiple racial/ethnic groups helps confirm the relevance of some of these loci for glucose and insulin metabolism. Lack of association in non-EA groups may be due to insufficient power, or to unique patterns of linkage disequilibrium.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Adult, African Americans, Aged, Alleles, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Blood Glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Hispanic Americans, Humans, Indians, North American, Insulin, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 Protein}, issn = {1471-2350}, doi = {10.1186/1471-2350-14-98}, author = {Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Meigs, James B and North, Kari E and Schumacher, Fredrick R and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Franceschini, Nora and Haessler, Jeffrey and Goodloe, Robert and Spencer, Kylee L and Voruganti, Venkata Saroja and Howard, Barbara V and Jackson, Rebecca and Kolonel, Laurence N and Liu, Simin and Manson, JoAnn E and Monroe, Kristine R and Mukamal, Kenneth and Dilks, Holli H and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Nato, Andrew and Wan, Peggy and Wilkens, Lynne R and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Ambite, Jose Luis and Buyske, Steven and Florez, Jose C and Crawford, Dana C and Hindorff, Lucia A and Haiman, Christopher A and Peters, Ulrike and Pankow, James S} } @article {6630, title = {The influence of obesity-related single nucleotide polymorphisms on BMI across the life course: the PAGE study.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {62}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 May}, pages = {1763-7}, abstract = {

Evidence is limited as to whether heritable risk of obesity varies throughout adulthood. Among >34,000 European Americans, aged 18-100 years, from multiple U.S. studies in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Consortium, we examined evidence for heterogeneity in the associations of five established obesity risk variants (near FTO, GNPDA2, MTCH2, TMEM18, and NEGR1) with BMI across four distinct epochs of adulthood: 1) young adulthood (ages 18-25 years), adulthood (ages 26-49 years), middle-age adulthood (ages 50-69 years), and older adulthood (ages >=70 years); or 2) by menopausal status in women and stratification by age 50 years in men. Summary-effect estimates from each meta-analysis were compared for heterogeneity across the life epochs. We found heterogeneity in the association of the FTO (rs8050136) variant with BMI across the four adulthood epochs (P = 0.0006), with larger effects in young adults relative to older adults (β [SE] = 1.17 [0.45] vs. 0.09 [0.09] kg/m{\texttwosuperior}, respectively, per A allele) and smaller intermediate effects. We found no evidence for heterogeneity in the association of GNPDA2, MTCH2, TMEM18, and NEGR1 with BMI across adulthood. Genetic predisposition to obesity may have greater effects on body weight in young compared with older adulthood for FTO, suggesting changes by age, generation, or secular trends. Future research should compare and contrast our findings with results using longitudinal data.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Association Studies, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins, United States, Young Adult}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db12-0863}, author = {Graff, Mariaelisa and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Lim, Unhee and Fowke, Jay H and Love, Shelly-Ann and Fesinmeyer, Megan and Wilkens, Lynne R and Vertilus, Shawyntee and Ritchie, Marilyn D and Prentice, Ross L and Pankow, Jim and Monroe, Kristine and Manson, JoAnn E and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Kuller, Lewis H and Kolonel, Laurence N and Hong, Ching P and Henderson, Brian E and Haessler, Jeff and Gross, Myron D and Goodloe, Robert and Franceschini, Nora and Carlson, Christopher S and Buyske, Steven and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Hindorff, Lucia A and Matise, Tara C and Crawford, Dana C and Haiman, Christopher A and Peters, Ulrike and North, Kari E} } @article {6628, title = {A systematic mapping approach of 16q12.2/FTO and BMI in more than 20,000 African Americans narrows in on the underlying functional variation: results from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e1003171}, abstract = {

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

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Adult, African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alleles, Body Mass Index, Chromosome Mapping, Continental Population Groups, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Metagenomics, Middle Aged, Obesity, Proteins}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003171}, author = {Peters, Ulrike and North, Kari E and Sethupathy, Praveen and Buyske, Steve and Haessler, Jeff and Jiao, Shuo and Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kuller, Lew H and Rajkovic, Aleksandar and Lim, Unhee and Cheng, Iona and Schumacher, Fred and Wilkens, Lynne and Li, Rongling and Monda, Keri and Ehret, Georg and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung H and Cooper, Richard and Lewis, Cora E and Leppert, Mark and Irvin, Marguerite R and Gu, C Charles and Houston, Denise and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Ritchie, Marylyn and Matise, Tara C and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Hindorff, Lucia A and Crawford, Dana C and Haiman, Christopher A and Kooperberg, Charles} } @article {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 {6360, title = {Multiancestral analysis of inflammation-related genetic variants and C-reactive protein in the population architecture using genomics and epidemiology study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Apr}, pages = {178-88}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: C-reactive protein (CRP) is a biomarker of inflammation. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with CRP concentrations and inflammation-related traits such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obesity. We aimed to replicate previous CRP-SNP associations, assess whether these associations generalize to additional race/ethnicity groups, and evaluate inflammation-related SNPs for a potentially pleiotropic association with CRP.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We selected and analyzed 16 CRP-associated and 250 inflammation-related GWAS SNPs among 40 473 African American, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, European American, and Hispanic participants from 7 studies collaborating in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study. Fixed-effect meta-analyses combined study-specific race/ethnicity-stratified linear regression estimates to evaluate the association between each SNP and high-sensitivity CRP. Overall, 18 SNPs in 8 loci were significantly associated with CRP (Bonferroni-corrected P<3.1{\texttimes}10(-3) for replication, P<2.0{\texttimes}10(-4) for pleiotropy): Seven of these were specific to European Americans, while 9 additionally generalized to African Americans (1), Hispanics (5), or both (3); 1 SNP was seen only in African Americans and Hispanics. Two SNPs in the CELSR2/PSRC1/SORT1 locus showed a potentially novel association with CRP: rs599839 (P=2.0{\texttimes}10(-6)) and rs646776 (P=3.1{\texttimes}10(-5)).

CONCLUSIONS: We replicated 16 SNP-CRP associations, 10 of which generalized to African Americans and/or Hispanics. We also identified potentially novel pleiotropic associations with CRP for two SNPs previously associated with coronary artery disease and/or low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol. These findings demonstrate the benefit of evaluating genotype-phenotype associations in multiple race/ethnicity groups and looking for pleiotropic relationships among SNPs previously associated with related phenotypes.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, C-Reactive Protein, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hispanic Americans, Humans, Indians, North American, Inflammation, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, United States, Young Adult}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000173}, author = {Kocarnik, Jonathan M and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Carty, Cara L and Pankow, James S and Schumacher, Fredrick R and Cheng, Iona and Durda, Peter and Ambite, Jose Luis and Deelman, Ewa and Cook, Nancy R and Liu, Simin and Wactawski-Wende, Jean and Hutter, Carolyn and Brown-Gentry, Kristin and Wilson, Sarah and Best, Lyle G and Pankratz, Nathan and Hong, Ching-Ping and Cole, Shelley A and Voruganti, V Saroja and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Jorgensen, Neal W and Jenny, Nancy S and Wilkens, Lynne R and Haiman, Christopher A and Kolonel, Laurence N and LaCroix, Andrea and North, Kari and Jackson, Rebecca and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Hindorff, Lucia A and Crawford, Dana C and Gross, Myron and Peters, Ulrike} } @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 {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 {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 {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} }