@article {1098, title = {Genome-wide association study of blood pressure and hypertension.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {41}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Jun}, pages = {677-87}, abstract = {

Blood pressure is a major cardiovascular disease risk factor. To date, few variants associated with interindividual blood pressure variation have been identified and replicated. Here we report results of a genome-wide association study of systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure and hypertension in the CHARGE Consortium (n = 29,136), identifying 13 SNPs for SBP, 20 for DBP and 10 for hypertension at P < 4 {\texttimes} 10(-7). The top ten loci for SBP and DBP were incorporated into a risk score; mean BP and prevalence of hypertension increased in relation to the number of risk alleles carried. When ten CHARGE SNPs for each trait were included in a joint meta-analysis with the Global BPgen Consortium (n = 34,433), four CHARGE loci attained genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) for SBP (ATP2B1, CYP17A1, PLEKHA7, SH2B3), six for DBP (ATP2B1, CACNB2, CSK-ULK3, SH2B3, TBX3-TBX5, ULK4) and one for hypertension (ATP2B1). Identifying genes associated with blood pressure advances our understanding of blood pressure regulation and highlights potential drug targets for the prevention or treatment of hypertension.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Cell Line, Chromosome Mapping, Chromosomes, Human, Diastole, Gene Expression Regulation, Genetic Association Studies, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Liver, Lymphocytes, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Odds Ratio, Phenotype, Prevalence, Risk Assessment, Systole}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.384}, author = {Levy, Daniel and Ehret, Georg B and Rice, Kenneth and Verwoert, Germaine C and Launer, Lenore J and Dehghan, Abbas and Glazer, Nicole L and Morrison, Alanna C and Johnson, Andrew D and Aspelund, Thor and Aulchenko, Yurii and Lumley, Thomas and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Guo, Xiuqing and Arking, Dan E and Mitchell, Gary F and Mattace-Raso, Francesco U S and Smith, Albert V and Taylor, Kent and Scharpf, Robert B and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Bis, Joshua and Harris, Tamara B and Ganesh, Santhi K and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Hofman, Albert and Rotter, Jerome I and Coresh, Josef and Benjamin, Emelia J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Heiss, Gerardo and Fox, Caroline S and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Wang, Thomas J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Larson, Martin G and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {1141, title = {Multiple loci influence erythrocyte phenotypes in the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {41}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Nov}, pages = {1191-8}, abstract = {

Measurements of erythrocytes within the blood are important clinical traits and can indicate various hematological disorders. We report here genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for six erythrocyte traits, including hemoglobin concentration (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and red blood cell count (RBC). We performed an initial GWAS in cohorts of the CHARGE Consortium totaling 24,167 individuals of European ancestry and replication in additional independent cohorts of the HaemGen Consortium totaling 9,456 individuals. We identified 23 loci significantly associated with these traits in a meta-analysis of the discovery and replication cohorts (combined P values ranging from 5 x 10(-8) to 7 x 10(-86)). Our findings include loci previously associated with these traits (HBS1L-MYB, HFE, TMPRSS6, TFR2, SPTA1) as well as new associations (EPO, TFRC, SH2B3 and 15 other loci). This study has identified new determinants of erythrocyte traits, offering insight into common variants underlying variation in erythrocyte measures.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Cell Line, Cohort Studies, Endothelial Cells, Erythrocytes, Gene Expression, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.466}, author = {Ganesh, Santhi K and Zakai, Neil A and van Rooij, Frank J A and Soranzo, Nicole and Smith, Albert V and Nalls, Michael A and Chen, Ming-Huei and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Glazer, Nicole L and Dehghan, Abbas and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Aspelund, Thor and Yang, Qiong and Tanaka, Toshiko and Jaffe, Andrew and Bis, Joshua C M and Verwoert, Germaine C and Teumer, Alexander and Fox, Caroline S and Guralnik, Jack M and Ehret, Georg B and Rice, Kenneth and Felix, Janine F and Rendon, Augusto and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Levy, Daniel and Patel, Kushang V and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Hofman, Albert and Sambrook, Jennifer G and Hernandez, Dena G and Zheng, Gang and Bandinelli, Stefania and Singleton, Andrew B and Coresh, Josef and Lumley, Thomas and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vangils, Janine M and Launer, Lenore J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Oostra, Ben A and Zwaginga, Jaap-Jan and Ouwehand, Willem H and Thein, Swee-Lay and Meisinger, Christa and Deloukas, Panos and Nauck, Matthias and Spector, Tim D and Gieger, Christian and Gudnason, Vilmundur and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Psaty, Bruce M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Greinacher, Andreas and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Furth, Susan and Cushman, Mary and Harris, Tamara B and Lin, Jing-Ping} } @article {1325, title = {Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {478}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 11}, pages = {103-9}, abstract = {

Blood pressure is a heritable trait influenced by several biological pathways and responsive to environmental stimuli. Over one billion people worldwide have hypertension (>=140 mm Hg systolic blood pressure or >=90 mm Hg diastolic blood pressure). Even small increments in blood pressure are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. This genome-wide association study of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which used a multi-stage design in 200,000 individuals of European descent, identified sixteen novel loci: six of these loci contain genes previously known or suspected to regulate blood pressure (GUCY1A3-GUCY1B3, NPR3-C5orf23, ADM, FURIN-FES, GOSR2, GNAS-EDN3); the other ten provide new clues to blood pressure physiology. A genetic risk score based on 29 genome-wide significant variants was associated with hypertension, left ventricular wall thickness, stroke and coronary artery disease, but not kidney disease or kidney function. We also observed associations with blood pressure in East Asian, South Asian and African ancestry individuals. Our findings provide new insights into the genetics and biology of blood pressure, and suggest potential novel therapeutic pathways for cardiovascular disease prevention.

}, keywords = {Africa, Asia, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, Coronary Artery Disease, Europe, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Kidney Diseases, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Stroke}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature10405}, author = {Ehret, Georg B and Munroe, Patricia B and Rice, Kenneth M and Bochud, Murielle and Johnson, Andrew D and Chasman, Daniel I and Smith, Albert V and Tobin, Martin D and Verwoert, Germaine C and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Pihur, Vasyl and Vollenweider, Peter and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Amin, Najaf and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Teumer, Alexander and Glazer, Nicole L and Launer, Lenore and Zhao, Jing Hua and Aulchenko, Yurii and Heath, Simon and S{\~o}ber, Siim and Parsa, Afshin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Arora, Pankaj and Dehghan, Abbas and Zhang, Feng and Lucas, Gavin and Hicks, Andrew A and Jackson, Anne U and Peden, John F and Tanaka, Toshiko and Wild, Sarah H and Rudan, Igor and Igl, Wilmar and Milaneschi, Yuri and Parker, Alex N and Fava, Cristiano and Chambers, John C and Fox, Ervin R and Kumari, Meena and Go, Min Jin and van der Harst, Pim and Kao, Wen Hong Linda and Sj{\"o}gren, Marketa and Vinay, D G and Alexander, Myriam and Tabara, Yasuharu and Shaw-Hawkins, Sue and Whincup, Peter H and Liu, Yongmei and Shi, Gang and Kuusisto, Johanna and Tayo, Bamidele and Seielstad, Mark and Sim, Xueling and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung Hoang and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Matullo, Giuseppe and Wu, Ying and Gaunt, Tom R and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Cooper, Matthew N and Platou, Carl G P and Org, Elin and Hardy, Rebecca and Dahgam, Santosh and Palmen, Jutta and Vitart, Veronique and Braund, Peter S and Kuznetsova, Tatiana and Uiterwaal, Cuno S P M and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Palmas, Walter and Campbell, Harry and Ludwig, Barbara and Tomaszewski, Maciej and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Palmer, Nicholette D and Aspelund, Thor and Garcia, Melissa and Chang, Yen-Pei C and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Steinle, Nanette I and Grobbee, Diederick E and Arking, Dan E and Kardia, Sharon L and Morrison, Alanna C and Hernandez, Dena and Najjar, Samer and McArdle, Wendy L and Hadley, David and Brown, Morris J and Connell, John M and Hingorani, Aroon D and Day, Ian N M and Lawlor, Debbie A and Beilby, John P and Lawrence, Robert W and Clarke, Robert and Hopewell, Jemma C and Ongen, Halit and Dreisbach, Albert W and Li, Yali and Young, J Hunter and Bis, Joshua C and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Adair, Linda S and Lee, Nanette R and Chen, Ming-Huei and Olden, Matthias and Pattaro, Cristian and Bolton, Judith A Hoffman and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Bergmann, Sven and Mooser, Vincent and Chaturvedi, Nish and Frayling, Timothy M and Islam, Muhammad and Jafar, Tazeen H and Erdmann, Jeanette and Kulkarni, Smita R and Bornstein, Stefan R and Gr{\"a}ssler, J{\"u}rgen and Groop, Leif and Voight, Benjamin F and Kettunen, Johannes and Howard, Philip and Taylor, Andrew and Guarrera, Simonetta and Ricceri, Fulvio and Emilsson, Valur and Plump, Andrew and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Weder, Alan B and Hunt, Steven C and Sun, Yan V and Bergman, Richard N and Collins, Francis S and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Scott, Laura J and Stringham, Heather M and Peltonen, Leena and Perola, Markus and Vartiainen, Erkki and Brand, Stefan-Martin and Staessen, Jan A and Wang, Thomas J and Burton, Paul R and Soler Artigas, Maria and Dong, Yanbin and Snieder, Harold and Wang, Xiaoling and Zhu, Haidong and Lohman, Kurt K and Rudock, Megan E and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Doumatey, Ayo and Shriner, Daniel and Veldre, Gudrun and Viigimaa, Margus and Kinra, Sanjay and Prabhakaran, Dorairaj and Tripathy, Vikal and Langefeld, Carl D and Rosengren, Annika and Thelle, Dag S and Corsi, Anna Maria and Singleton, Andrew and Forrester, Terrence and Hilton, Gina and McKenzie, Colin A and Salako, Tunde and Iwai, Naoharu and Kita, Yoshikuni and Ogihara, Toshio and Ohkubo, Takayoshi and Okamura, Tomonori and Ueshima, Hirotsugu and Umemura, Satoshi and Eyheramendy, Susana and Meitinger, Thomas and Wichmann, H-Erich and Cho, Yoon Shin and Kim, Hyung-Lae and Lee, Jong-Young and Scott, James and Sehmi, Joban S and Zhang, Weihua and Hedblad, Bo and Nilsson, Peter and Smith, George Davey and Wong, Andrew and Narisu, Narisu and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Raffel, Leslie J and Yao, Jie and Kathiresan, Sekar and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Schwartz, Stephen M and Ikram, M Arfan and Longstreth, W T and Mosley, Thomas H and Seshadri, Sudha and Shrine, Nick R G and Wain, Louise V and Morken, Mario A and Swift, Amy J and Laitinen, Jaana and Prokopenko, Inga and Zitting, Paavo and Cooper, Jackie A and Humphries, Steve E and Danesh, John and Rasheed, Asif and Goel, Anuj and Hamsten, Anders and Watkins, Hugh and Bakker, Stephan J L and van Gilst, Wiek H and Janipalli, Charles S and Mani, K Radha and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Hofman, Albert and Mattace-Raso, Francesco U S and Oostra, Ben A and Demirkan, Ayse and Isaacs, Aaron and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Lakatta, Edward G and Orr{\`u}, Marco and Scuteri, Angelo and Ala-Korpela, Mika and Kangas, Antti J and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Soininen, Pasi and Tukiainen, Taru and W{\"u}rtz, Peter and Ong, Rick Twee-Hee and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Kroemer, Heyo K and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Galan, Pilar and Hercberg, Serge and Lathrop, Mark and Zelenika, Diana and Deloukas, Panos and Mangino, Massimo and Spector, Tim D and Zhai, Guangju and Meschia, James F and Nalls, Michael A and Sharma, Pankaj and Terzic, Janos and Kumar, M V Kranthi and Denniff, Matthew and Zukowska-Szczechowska, Ewa and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Fowkes, F Gerald R and Charchar, Fadi J and Schwarz, Peter E H and Hayward, Caroline and Guo, Xiuqing and Rotimi, Charles and Bots, Michiel L and Brand, Eva and Samani, Nilesh J and Polasek, Ozren and Talmud, Philippa J and Nyberg, Fredrik and Kuh, Diana and Laan, Maris and Hveem, Kristian and Palmer, Lyle J and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Casas, Juan P and Mohlke, Karen L and Vineis, Paolo and Raitakari, Olli and Ganesh, Santhi K and Wong, Tien Y and Tai, E Shyong and Cooper, Richard S and Laakso, Markku and Rao, Dabeeru C and Harris, Tamara B and Morris, Richard W and Dominiczak, Anna F and Kivimaki, Mika and Marmot, Michael G and Miki, Tetsuro and Saleheen, Danish and Chandak, Giriraj R and Coresh, Josef and Navis, Gerjan and Salomaa, Veikko and Han, Bok-Ghee and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Kooner, Jaspal S and Melander, Olle and Ridker, Paul M and Bandinelli, Stefania and Gyllensten, Ulf B and Wright, Alan F and Wilson, James F and Ferrucci, Luigi and Farrall, Martin and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Pramstaller, Peter P and Elosua, Roberto and Soranzo, Nicole and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Altshuler, David and Loos, Ruth J F and Shuldiner, Alan R and Gieger, Christian and Meneton, Pierre and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wareham, Nicholas J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Rotter, Jerome I and Rettig, Rainer and Uda, Manuela and Strachan, David P and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Beckmann, Jacques S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Boehnke, Michael and Larson, Martin G and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Psaty, Bruce M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Elliott, Paul and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Levy, Daniel and Caulfield, Mark J and Johnson, Toby} } @article {1324, title = {Genome-wide association study identifies six new loci influencing pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {43}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 11}, pages = {1005-11}, abstract = {

Numerous genetic loci have been associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in Europeans. We now report genome-wide association studies of pulse pressure (PP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP). In discovery (N = 74,064) and follow-up studies (N = 48,607), we identified at genome-wide significance (P = 2.7 {\texttimes} 10(-8) to P = 2.3 {\texttimes} 10(-13)) four new PP loci (at 4q12 near CHIC2, 7q22.3 near PIK3CG, 8q24.12 in NOV and 11q24.3 near ADAMTS8), two new MAP loci (3p21.31 in MAP4 and 10q25.3 near ADRB1) and one locus associated with both of these traits (2q24.3 near FIGN) that has also recently been associated with SBP in east Asians. For three of the new PP loci, the estimated effect for SBP was opposite of that for DBP, in contrast to the majority of common SBP- and DBP-associated variants, which show concordant effects on both traits. These findings suggest new genetic pathways underlying blood pressure variation, some of which may differentially influence SBP and DBP.

}, keywords = {Arteries, Blood Pressure, Case-Control Studies, Follow-Up Studies, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Linkage Disequilibrium, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.922}, author = {Wain, Louise V and Verwoert, Germaine C and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Shi, Gang and Johnson, Toby and Johnson, Andrew D and Bochud, Murielle and Rice, Kenneth M and Henneman, Peter and Smith, Albert V and Ehret, Georg B and Amin, Najaf and Larson, Martin G and Mooser, Vincent and Hadley, David and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Bis, Joshua C and Aspelund, Thor and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Zhao, Jing Hua and Heath, Simon and Laan, Maris and Fu, Jingyuan and Pistis, Giorgio and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Arora, Pankaj and Lucas, Gavin and Pirastu, Nicola and Pichler, Irene and Jackson, Anne U and Webster, Rebecca J and Zhang, Feng and Peden, John F and Schmidt, Helena and Tanaka, Toshiko and Campbell, Harry and Igl, Wilmar and Milaneschi, Yuri and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Vitart, Veronique and Chasman, Daniel I and Trompet, Stella and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Chambers, John C and Guo, Xiuqing and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Lopez, Lorna M and Polasek, Ozren and Boban, Mladen and Nelson, Christopher P and Morrison, Alanna C and Pihur, Vasyl and Ganesh, Santhi K and Hofman, Albert and Kundu, Suman and Mattace-Raso, Francesco U S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wang, Thomas J and Bergmann, Sven and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Laitinen, Jaana and Pouta, Anneli and Zitting, Paavo and McArdle, Wendy L and Kroemer, Heyo K and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Glazer, Nicole L and Taylor, Kent D and Harris, Tamara B and Alavere, Helene and Haller, Toomas and Keis, Aime and Tammesoo, Mari-Liis and Aulchenko, Yurii and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Galan, Pilar and Hercberg, Serge and Lathrop, Mark and Eyheramendy, Susana and Org, Elin and S{\~o}ber, Siim and Lu, Xiaowen and Nolte, Ilja M and Penninx, Brenda W and Corre, Tanguy and Masciullo, Corrado and Sala, Cinzia and Groop, Leif and Voight, Benjamin F and Melander, Olle and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Salomaa, Veikko and d{\textquoteright}Adamo, Adamo Pio and Fabretto, Antonella and Faletra, Flavio and Ulivi, Sheila and Del Greco, Fabiola M and Facheris, Maurizio and Collins, Francis S and Bergman, Richard N and Beilby, John P and Hung, Joseph and Musk, A William and Mangino, Massimo and Shin, So-Youn and Soranzo, Nicole and Watkins, Hugh and Goel, Anuj and Hamsten, Anders and Gider, Pierre and Loitfelder, Marisa and Zeginigg, Marion and Hernandez, Dena and Najjar, Samer S and Navarro, Pau and Wild, Sarah H and Corsi, Anna Maria and Singleton, Andrew and de Geus, Eco J C and Willemsen, Gonneke and Parker, Alex N and Rose, Lynda M and Buckley, Brendan and Stott, David and Orr{\`u}, Marco and Uda, Manuela and van der Klauw, Melanie M and Zhang, Weihua and Li, Xinzhong and Scott, James and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Burke, Gregory L and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Meitinger, Thomas and Davies, Gail and Starr, John M and Emilsson, Valur and Plump, Andrew and Lindeman, Jan H and Hoen, Peter A C {\textquoteright}t and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Felix, Janine F and Clarke, Robert and Hopewell, Jemma C and Ongen, Halit and Breteler, Monique and Debette, Stephanie and DeStefano, Anita L and Fornage, Myriam and Mitchell, Gary F and Smith, Nicholas L and Holm, Hilma and Stefansson, Kari and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Samani, Nilesh J and Preuss, Michael and Rudan, Igor and Hayward, Caroline and Deary, Ian J and Wichmann, H-Erich and Raitakari, Olli T and Palmas, Walter and Kooner, Jaspal S and Stolk, Ronald P and Jukema, J Wouter and Wright, Alan F and Boomsma, Dorret I and Bandinelli, Stefania and Gyllensten, Ulf B and Wilson, James F and Ferrucci, Luigi and Schmidt, Reinhold and Farrall, Martin and Spector, Tim D and Palmer, Lyle J and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Pfeufer, Arne and Gasparini, Paolo and Siscovick, David and Altshuler, David and Loos, Ruth J F and Toniolo, Daniela and Snieder, Harold and Gieger, Christian and Meneton, Pierre and Wareham, Nicholas J and Oostra, Ben A and Metspalu, Andres and Launer, Lenore and Rettig, Rainer and Strachan, David P and Beckmann, Jacques S and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Erdmann, Jeanette and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boehnke, Michael and Ridker, Paul M and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Levy, Daniel and Munroe, Patricia B and Psaty, Bruce M and Caulfield, Mark J and Rao, Dabeeru C and Tobin, Martin D and Elliott, Paul and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {1355, title = {New gene functions in megakaryopoiesis and platelet formation.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {480}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Nov 30}, pages = {201-8}, abstract = {

Platelets are the second most abundant cell type in blood and are essential for maintaining haemostasis. Their count and volume are tightly controlled within narrow physiological ranges, but there is only limited understanding of the molecular processes controlling both traits. Here we carried out a high-powered meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in up to 66,867 individuals of European ancestry, followed by extensive biological and functional assessment. We identified 68 genomic loci reliably associated with platelet count and volume mapping to established and putative novel regulators of megakaryopoiesis and platelet formation. These genes show megakaryocyte-specific gene expression patterns and extensive network connectivity. Using gene silencing in Danio rerio and Drosophila melanogaster, we identified 11 of the genes as novel regulators of blood cell formation. Taken together, our findings advance understanding of novel gene functions controlling fate-determining events during megakaryopoiesis and platelet formation, providing a new example of successful translation of GWAS to function.

}, keywords = {Animals, Blood Platelets, Cell Size, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila Proteins, Europe, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Silencing, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hematopoiesis, Humans, Megakaryocytes, Platelet Count, Protein Interaction Maps, Transcription, Genetic, Zebrafish, Zebrafish Proteins}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature10659}, author = {Gieger, Christian and Radhakrishnan, Aparna and Cvejic, Ana and Tang, Weihong and Porcu, Eleonora and Pistis, Giorgio and Serbanovic-Canic, Jovana and Elling, Ulrich and Goodall, Alison H and Labrune, Yann and Lopez, Lorna M and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Meacham, Stuart and Okada, Yukinori and Pirastu, Nicola and Sorice, Rossella and Teumer, Alexander and Voss, Katrin and Zhang, Weihua and Ramirez-Solis, Ramiro and Bis, Joshua C and Ellinghaus, David and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Langenberg, Claudia and Kovacs, Peter and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Shin, So-Youn and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Hartiala, Jaana and Kanoni, Stavroula and Murgia, Federico and Parsa, Afshin and Stephens, Jonathan and van der Harst, Pim and Ellen van der Schoot, C and Allayee, Hooman and Attwood, Antony and Balkau, Beverley and Bastardot, Fran{\c c}ois and Basu, Saonli and Baumeister, Sebastian E and Biino, Ginevra and Bomba, Lorenzo and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Cambien, Francois and Chambers, John C and Cucca, Francesco and D{\textquoteright}Adamo, Pio and Davies, Gail and de Boer, Rudolf A and de Geus, Eco J C and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Elliott, Paul and Erdmann, Jeanette and Evans, David M and Falchi, Mario and Feng, Wei and Folsom, Aaron R and Frazer, Ian H and Gibson, Quince D and Glazer, Nicole L and Hammond, Chris and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Heckbert, Susan R and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hersch, Micha and Illig, Thomas and Loos, Ruth J F and Jolley, Jennifer and Khaw, Kay Tee and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Kyrtsonis, Marie-Christine and Lagou, Vasiliki and Lloyd-Jones, Heather and Lumley, Thomas and Mangino, Massimo and Maschio, Andrea and Mateo Leach, Irene and McKnight, Barbara and Memari, Yasin and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montgomery, Grant W and Nakamura, Yusuke and Nauck, Matthias and Navis, Gerjan and N{\"o}thlings, Ute and Nolte, Ilja M and Porteous, David J and Pouta, Anneli and Pramstaller, Peter P and Pullat, Janne and Ring, Susan M and Rotter, Jerome I and Ruggiero, Daniela and Ruokonen, Aimo and Sala, Cinzia and Samani, Nilesh J and Sambrook, Jennifer and Schlessinger, David and Schreiber, Stefan and Schunkert, Heribert and Scott, James and Smith, Nicholas L and Snieder, Harold and Starr, John M and Stumvoll, Michael and Takahashi, Atsushi and Tang, W H Wilson and Taylor, Kent and Tenesa, Albert and Lay Thein, Swee and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Uda, Manuela and Ulivi, Sheila and van Veldhuisen, Dirk J and Visscher, Peter M and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wiggins, Kerri L and Willemsen, Gonneke and Yang, Tsun-Po and Hua Zhao, Jing and Zitting, Paavo and Bradley, John R and Dedoussis, George V and Gasparini, Paolo and Hazen, Stanley L and Metspalu, Andres and Pirastu, Mario and Shuldiner, Alan R and Joost van Pelt, L and Zwaginga, Jaap-Jan and Boomsma, Dorret I and Deary, Ian J and Franke, Andre and Froguel, Philippe and Ganesh, Santhi K and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Martin, Nicholas G and Meisinger, Christa and Psaty, Bruce M and Spector, Timothy D and Wareham, Nicholas J and Akkerman, Jan-Willem N and Ciullo, Marina and Deloukas, Panos and Greinacher, Andreas and Jupe, Steve and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Khadake, Jyoti and Kooner, Jaspal S and Penninger, Josef and Prokopenko, Inga and Stemple, Derek and Toniolo, Daniela and Wernisch, Lorenz and Sanna, Serena and Hicks, Andrew A and Rendon, Augusto and Ferreira, Manuel A and Ouwehand, Willem H and Soranzo, Nicole} } @article {5864, title = {Genetic determinants of the ankle-brachial index: a meta-analysis of a cardiovascular candidate gene 50K SNP panel in the candidate gene association resource (CARe) consortium.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {222}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 May}, pages = {138-47}, abstract = {

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

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

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

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

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Ankle Brachial Index, Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases, Cytochrome P-450 CYP2B6, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Oxidoreductases, N-Demethylating, Peripheral Arterial Disease, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 Protein}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2012.01.039}, author = {Wassel, Christina L and Lamina, Claudia and Nambi, Vijay and Coassin, Stefan and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Ganesh, Santhi K and Jacobs, David R and Franceschini, Nora and Papanicolaou, George J and Gibson, Quince and Yanek, Lisa R and van der Harst, Pim and Ferguson, Jane F and Crawford, Dana C and Waite, Lindsay L and Allison, Matthew A and Criqui, Michael H and McDermott, Mary M and Mehra, Reena and Cupples, L Adrienne and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Redline, Susan and Kaplan, Robert C and Heiss, Gerardo and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and Taylor, Herman A and Eraso, Luis H and Haun, Margot and Li, Mingyao and Meisinger, Christa and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Shuldiner, Alan R and Tybj{\ae}rg-Hansen, Anne and Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth and Kollerits, Barbara and Rantner, Barbara and Dieplinger, Benjamin and Stadler, Marietta and Mueller, Thomas and Haltmayer, Meinhard and Klein-Weigel, Peter and Summerer, Monika and Wichmann, H-Erich and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Navis, Gerjan and Mateo Leach, Irene and Brown-Gentry, Kristin and Goodloe, Robert and Assimes, Themistocles L and Becker, Diane M and Cooke, John P and Absher, Devin M and Olin, Jeffrey W and Mitchell, Braxton D and Reilly, Muredach P and Mohler, Emile R and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alexander P and Kronenberg, Florian and Murabito, Joanne M} } @article {6072, title = {Genome-wide association study of retinopathy in individuals without diabetes.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e54232}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Mild retinopathy (microaneurysms or dot-blot hemorrhages) is observed in persons without diabetes or hypertension and may reflect microvascular disease in other organs. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of mild retinopathy in persons without diabetes.

METHODS: A working group agreed on phenotype harmonization, covariate selection and analytic plans for within-cohort GWAS. An inverse-variance weighted fixed effects meta-analysis was performed with GWAS results from six cohorts of 19,411 Caucasians. The primary analysis included individuals without diabetes and secondary analyses were stratified by hypertension status. We also singled out the results from single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously shown to be associated with diabetes and hypertension, the two most common causes of retinopathy.

RESULTS: No SNPs reached genome-wide significance in the primary analysis or the secondary analysis of participants with hypertension. SNP, rs12155400, in the histone deacetylase 9 gene (HDAC9) on chromosome 7, was associated with retinopathy in analysis of participants without hypertension, -1.3{\textpm}0.23 (beta {\textpm} standard error), p = 6.6{\texttimes}10(-9). Evidence suggests this was a false positive finding. The minor allele frequency was low (\~{}2\%), the quality of the imputation was moderate (r(2) \~{}0.7), and no other common variants in the HDAC9 gene were associated with the outcome. SNPs found to be associated with diabetes and hypertension in other GWAS were not associated with retinopathy in persons without diabetes or in subgroups with or without hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS: This GWAS of retinopathy in individuals without diabetes showed little evidence of genetic associations. Further studies are needed to identify genes associated with these signs in order to help unravel novel pathways and determinants of microvascular diseases.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Histone Deacetylases, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Repressor Proteins, Retinal Diseases}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0054232}, author = {Jensen, Richard A and Sim, Xueling and Li, Xiaohui and Cotch, Mary Frances and Ikram, M Kamran and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Jonasson, Fridbert and Klein, Barbara E K and Launer, Lenore J and Smith, Albert Vernon and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cheung, Ning and Hewitt, Alex W and Liew, Gerald and Mitchell, Paul and Wang, Jie Jin and Attia, John and Scott, Rodney and Glazer, Nicole L and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Taylor, Kent and Hofman, Albert and de Jong, Paulus T V M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Tay, Wan-Ting and Teo, Yik Ying and Seielstad, Mark and Liu, Jianjun and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Saw, Seang-Mei and Aung, Tin and Ganesh, Santhi K and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nalls, Mike A and Wiggins, Kerri L and Kuo, Jane Z and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Klein, Ronald and Siscovick, David S and Rotter, Jerome I and Tai, E Shong and Vingerling, Johannes and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {6563, title = {Effects of long-term averaging of quantitative blood pressure traits on the detection of genetic associations.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {95}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul 03}, pages = {49-65}, abstract = {

Blood pressure (BP) is a heritable, quantitative trait with intraindividual variability and susceptibility to measurement error. Genetic studies of BP generally use single-visit measurements and thus cannot remove variability occurring over months or years. We leveraged the idea that averaging BP measured across time would improve phenotypic accuracy and thereby increase statistical power to detect genetic associations. We studied systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and pulse pressure (PP) averaged over multiple years in 46,629 individuals of European ancestry. We identified 39 trait-variant associations across 19 independent loci (p < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)); five associations (in four loci) uniquely identified by our LTA analyses included those of SBP and MAP at 2p23 (rs1275988, near KCNK3), DBP at 2q11.2 (rs7599598, in FER1L5), and PP at 6p21 (rs10948071, near CRIP3) and 7p13 (rs2949837, near IGFBP3). Replication analyses conducted in cohorts with single-visit BP data showed positive replication of associations and a nominal association (p < 0.05). We estimated a 20\% gain in statistical power with long-term average (LTA) as compared to single-visit BP association studies. Using LTA analysis, we identified genetic loci influencing BP. LTA might be one way of increasing the power of genetic associations for continuous traits in extant samples for other phenotypes that are measured serially over time.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.06.002}, author = {Ganesh, Santhi K and Chasman, Daniel I and Larson, Martin G and Guo, Xiuqing and Verwoert, Germain and Bis, Joshua C and Gu, Xiangjun and Smith, Albert V and Yang, Min-Lee and Zhang, Yan and Ehret, Georg and Rose, Lynda M and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Papanicolau, George J and Sijbrands, Eric J and Rice, Kenneth and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Pihur, Vasyl and Ridker, Paul M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Raffel, Leslie J and Amin, Najaf and Rotter, Jerome I and Liu, Kiang and Launer, Lenore J and Xu, Ming and Caulfield, Mark and Morrison, Alanna C and Johnson, Andrew D and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Dehghan, Abbas and Li, Guo and Bouchard, Claude and Harris, Tamara B and Zhang, He and Boerwinkle, Eric and Siscovick, David S and Gao, Wei and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and Willer, Cristen J and Franco, Oscar H and Huo, Yong and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Munroe, Patricia B and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Palmas, Walter and van Duijn, Cornelia and Fornage, Myriam and Levy, Daniel and Psaty, Bruce M and Chakravarti, Aravinda} } @article {6573, title = {Trans-ethnic meta-analysis of white blood cell phenotypes.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Dec 20}, pages = {6944-60}, abstract = {

White blood cell (WBC) count is a common clinical measure used as a predictor of certain aspects of human health, including immunity and infection status. WBC count is also a complex trait that varies among individuals and ancestry groups. Differences in linkage disequilibrium structure and heterogeneity in allelic effects are expected to play a role in the associations observed between populations. Prior genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses have identified genomic loci associated with WBC and its subtypes, but much of the heritability of these phenotypes remains unexplained. Using GWAS summary statistics for over 50 000 individuals from three diverse populations (Japanese, African-American and European ancestry), a Bayesian model methodology was employed to account for heterogeneity between ancestry groups. This approach was used to perform a trans-ethnic meta-analysis of total WBC, neutrophil and monocyte counts. Ten previously known associations were replicated and six new loci were identified, including several regions harboring genes related to inflammation and immune cell function. Ninety-five percent credible interval regions were calculated to narrow the association signals and fine-map the putatively causal variants within loci. Finally, a conditional analysis was performed on the most significant SNPs identified by the trans-ethnic meta-analysis (MA), and nine secondary signals within loci previously associated with WBC or its subtypes were identified. This work illustrates the potential of trans-ethnic analysis and ascribes a critical role to multi-ethnic cohorts and consortia in exploring complex phenotypes with respect to variants that lie outside the European-biased GWAS pool.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Bayes Theorem, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Leukocyte Count, Leukocytes, Linkage Disequilibrium, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddu401}, author = {Keller, Margaux F and Reiner, Alexander P and Okada, Yukinori and van Rooij, Frank J A and Johnson, Andrew D and Chen, Ming-Huei and Smith, Albert V and Morris, Andrew P and Tanaka, Toshiko and Ferrucci, Luigi and Zonderman, Alan B and Lettre, Guillaume and Harris, Tamara and Garcia, Melissa and Bandinelli, Stefania and Qayyum, Rehan and Yanek, Lisa R and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Kooperberg, Charles and Keating, Brendan and Reis, Jared and Tang, Hua and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Matsuda, Koichi and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Nakamura, Yusuke and Kubo, Michiaki and Liu, Simin and Dehghan, Abbas and Felix, Janine F and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Franco, Oscar H and Longo, Dan L and Singleton, Andrew B and Psaty, Bruce M and Evans, Michelle K and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rotter, Jerome I and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Takahashi, Atsushi and Wilson, James G and Ganesh, Santhi K and Nalls, Mike A} } @article {7138, title = {Exome Genotyping Identifies Pleiotropic Variants Associated with Red Blood Cell Traits.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {99}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul 7}, pages = {8-21}, abstract = {

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

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

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

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

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

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.05.005}, author = {Eicher, John D and Chami, Nathalie and Kacprowski, Tim and Nomura, Akihiro and Chen, Ming-Huei and Yanek, Lisa R and Tajuddin, Salman M and Schick, Ursula M and Slater, Andrew J and Pankratz, Nathan and Polfus, Linda and Schurmann, Claudia and Giri, Ayush and Brody, Jennifer A and Lange, Leslie A and Manichaikul, Ani and Hill, W David and Pazoki, Raha and Elliot, Paul and Evangelou, Evangelos and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Gao, He and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Mathias, Rasika A and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Burt, Amber and Crosslin, David R and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nikus, Kjell and Hernesniemi, Jussi and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Raitoharju, Emma and Mononen, Nina and Raitakari, Olli T and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Cushman, Mary and Zakai, Neil A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Raffield, Laura M and Quarells, Rakale and Willer, Cristen J and Peloso, Gina M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Liu, Dajiang J and Deloukas, Panos and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Erdmann, Jeanette and Fornage, Myriam and Richard, Melissa and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Rioux, John D and Dub{\'e}, Marie-Pierre and de Denus, Simon and Lu, Yingchang and Bottinger, Erwin P and Loos, Ruth J F and Smith, Albert Vernon and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Velez Edwards, Digna R and Torstenson, Eric S and Liu, Yongmei and Tracy, Russell P and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Highland, Heather M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Li, Jin and Lange, Ethan and Wilson, James G and Mihailov, Evelin and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Hirschhorn, Joel and Metspalu, Andres and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Vacchi-Suzzi, Caterina and Nalls, Mike A and Zonderman, Alan B and Evans, Michele K and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Orho-Melander, Marju and Melander, Olle and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and Waterworth, Dawn M and Wallentin, Lars and White, Harvey D and Floyd, James S and Bartz, Traci M and Rice, Kenneth M and Psaty, Bruce M and Starr, J M and Liewald, David C M and Hayward, Caroline and Deary, Ian J and Greinacher, Andreas and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Thiele, Thomas and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and van Rooij, Frank J A and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Dehghan, Abbas and Edwards, Todd L and Ganesh, Santhi K and Kathiresan, Sekar and Faraday, Nauder and Auer, Paul L and Reiner, Alex P and Lettre, Guillaume and Johnson, Andrew D} } @article {7263, title = {Whole-Exome Sequencing Identifies Loci Associated with Blood Cell Traits and Reveals a Role for Alternative GFI1B Splice Variants in Human Hematopoiesis.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {99}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Sep 01}, pages = {785}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.08.002}, author = {Polfus, Linda M and Khajuria, Rajiv K and Schick, Ursula M and Pankratz, Nathan and Pazoki, Raha and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Ming-Huei and Auer, Paul L and Floyd, James S and Huang, Jie and Lange, Leslie and van Rooij, Frank J A and Gibbs, Richard A and Metcalf, Ginger and Muzny, Donna and Veeraraghavan, Narayanan and Walter, Klaudia and Chen, Lu and Yanek, Lisa and Becker, Lewis C and Peloso, Gina M and Wakabayashi, Aoi and Kals, Mart and Metspalu, Andres and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fox, Keolu and Wallace, Robert and Franceschini, Nora and Matijevic, Nena and Rice, Kenneth M and Bartz, Traci M and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Raitakari, Olli T and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Lettre, Guillaume and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Franco, Oscar H and Rich, Stephen S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wilson, James G and Psaty, Bruce M and Soranzo, Nicole and Dehghan, Abbas and Boerwinkle, Eric and Zhang, Xiaoling and Johnson, Andrew D and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Johnsen, Jill M and Reiner, Alexander P and Ganesh, Santhi K and Sankaran, Vijay G} } @article {7573, title = {Exome-wide association study of plasma lipids in >300,000 individuals.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {49}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Dec}, pages = {1758-1766}, abstract = {

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

}, keywords = {Coronary Artery Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Exome, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genotype, Humans, Lipids, Macular Degeneration, Phenotype, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3977}, author = {Liu, Dajiang J and Peloso, Gina M and Yu, Haojie and Butterworth, Adam S and Wang, Xiao and Mahajan, Anubha and Saleheen, Danish and Emdin, Connor and Alam, Dewan and Alves, Alexessander Couto and Amouyel, Philippe and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Arveiler, Dominique and Assimes, Themistocles L and Auer, Paul L and Baber, Usman and Ballantyne, Christie M and Bang, Lia E and Benn, Marianne and Bis, Joshua C and Boehnke, Michael and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bottinger, Erwin P and Brandslund, Ivan and Brown, Morris and Busonero, Fabio and Caulfield, Mark J and Chambers, John C and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Y Eugene and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chowdhury, Rajiv and Christensen, Cramer and Chu, Audrey Y and Connell, John M and Cucca, Francesco and Cupples, L Adrienne and Damrauer, Scott M and Davies, Gail and Deary, Ian J and Dedoussis, George and Denny, Joshua C and Dominiczak, Anna and Dub{\'e}, Marie-Pierre and Ebeling, Tapani and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Feitosa, Mary F and Ferrario, Marco and Ferrieres, Jean and Ford, Ian and Fornage, Myriam and Franks, Paul W and Frayling, Timothy M and Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth and Fritsche, Lars G and Frossard, Philippe and Fuster, Valentin and Ganesh, Santhi K and Gao, Wei and Garcia, Melissa E and Gieger, Christian and Giulianini, Franco and Goodarzi, Mark O and Grallert, Harald and Grarup, Niels and Groop, Leif and Grove, Megan L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Holmen, Oddgeir L and Huffman, Jennifer and Huo, Yong and Hveem, Kristian and Jabeen, Sehrish and Jackson, Anne U and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jensen, Gorm B and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and Jukema, J Wouter and Justesen, Johanne M and Kamstrup, Pia R and Kanoni, Stavroula and Karpe, Fredrik and Kee, Frank and Khera, Amit V and Klarin, Derek and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kooperberg, Charles and Kuulasmaa, Kari and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo and Langenberg, Claudia and Langsted, Anne and Launer, Lenore J and Lauritzen, Torsten and Liewald, David C M and Lin, Li An and Linneberg, Allan and Loos, Ruth J F and Lu, Yingchang and Lu, Xiangfeng and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and M{\"a}larstig, Anders and Manichaikul, Ani and Manning, Alisa K and M{\"a}ntyselk{\"a}, Pekka and Marouli, Eirini and Masca, Nicholas G D and Maschio, Andrea and Meigs, James B and Melander, Olle and Metspalu, Andres and Morris, Andrew P and Morrison, Alanna C and Mulas, Antonella and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Munroe, Patricia B and Neville, Matt J and Nielsen, Jonas B and Nielsen, Sune F and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Ordovas, Jose M and Mehran, Roxana and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christoper J and Orho-Melander, Marju and Molony, Cliona M and Muntendam, Pieter and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmer, Colin N A and Pasko, Dorota and Patel, Aniruddh P and Pedersen, Oluf and Perola, Markus and Peters, Annette and Pisinger, Charlotta and Pistis, Giorgio and Polasek, Ozren and Poulter, Neil and Psaty, Bruce M and Rader, Daniel J and Rasheed, Asif and Rauramaa, Rainer and Reilly, Dermot F and Reiner, Alex P and Renstrom, Frida and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rioux, John D and Robertson, Neil R and Roden, Dan M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Samani, Nilesh J and Sanna, Serena and Sattar, Naveed and Schmidt, Ellen M and Scott, Robert A and Sever, Peter and Sevilla, Raquel S and Shaffer, Christian M and Sim, Xueling and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Small, Kerrin S and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Blair H and Somayajula, Sangeetha and Southam, Lorraine and Spector, Timothy D and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Starr, John M and Stirrups, Kathleen E and Stitziel, Nathan and Strauch, Konstantin and Stringham, Heather M and Surendran, Praveen and Tada, Hayato and Tall, Alan R and Tang, Hua and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Taylor, Kent D and Trompet, Stella and Tsao, Philip S and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and van Zuydam, Natalie R and Varbo, Anette and Varga, Tibor V and Virtamo, Jarmo and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Nan and Wareham, Nick J and Warren, Helen R and Weeke, Peter E and Weinstock, Joshua and Wessel, Jennifer and Wilson, James G and Wilson, Peter W F and Xu, Ming and Yaghootkar, Hanieh and Young, Robin and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Zhang, He and Zheng, Neil S and Zhang, Weihua and Zhang, Yan and Zhou, Wei and Zhou, Yanhua and Zoledziewska, Magdalena and Howson, Joanna M M and Danesh, John and McCarthy, Mark I and Cowan, Chad A and Abecasis, Goncalo and Deloukas, Panos and Musunuru, Kiran and Willer, Cristen J and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {7571, title = {Genome-Wide Association Study Meta-Analysis of Long-Term Average Blood Pressure in East Asians.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Apr}, pages = {e001527}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide single marker and gene-based meta-analyses of long-term average (LTA) blood pressure (BP) phenotypes may reveal novel findings for BP.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted genome-wide analysis among 18 422 East Asian participants (stage 1) followed by replication study of <=46 629 participants of European ancestry (stage 2). Significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms and genes were determined by a P<5.0{\texttimes}10-8 and 2.5{\texttimes}10-6, respectively, in joint analyses of stage-1 and stage-2 data. We identified 1 novel ARL3 variant, rs4919669 at 10q24.32, influencing LTA systolic BP (stage-1 P=5.03{\texttimes}10-8, stage-2 P=8.64{\texttimes}10-3, joint P=2.63{\texttimes}10-8) and mean arterial pressure (stage-1 P=3.59{\texttimes}10-9, stage-2 P=2.35{\texttimes}10-2, joint P=2.64{\texttimes}10-8). Three previously reported BP loci (WBP1L, NT5C2, and ATP2B1) were also identified for all BP phenotypes. Gene-based analysis provided the first robust evidence for association of KCNJ11 with LTA systolic BP (stage-1 P=8.55{\texttimes}10-6, stage-2 P=1.62{\texttimes}10-5, joint P=3.28{\texttimes}10-9) and mean arterial pressure (stage-1 P=9.19{\texttimes}10-7, stage-2 P=9.69{\texttimes}10-5, joint P=2.15{\texttimes}10-9) phenotypes. Fourteen genes (TMEM180, ACTR1A, SUFU, ARL3, SFXN2, WBP1L, CYP17A1, C10orf32, C10orf32-ASMT, AS3MT, CNNM2, and NT5C2 at 10q24.32; ATP2B1 at 12q21.33; and NCR3LG1 at 11p15.1) implicated by previous genome-wide association study meta-analyses were also identified. Among the loci identified by the previous genome-wide association study meta-analysis of LTA BP, we transethnically replicated associations of the KCNK3 marker rs1275988 at 2p23.3 with LTA systolic BP and mean arterial pressure phenotypes (P=1.27{\texttimes}10-4 and 3.30{\texttimes}10-4, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 1 novel variant and 1 novel gene and present the first direct evidence of relevance of the KCNK3 locus for LTA BP among East Asians.

}, keywords = {Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Blood Pressure, Far East, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001527}, author = {Li, Changwei and Kim, Yun Kyoung and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Li, Huaixing and Lee, I-Te and Cheng, Ching-Yu and He, Meian and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Guo, Xiuqing and Ganesh, Santhi K and He, Jiang and Lee, Juyoung and Liu, Jianjun and Hu, Yao and Rao, Dabeeru C and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Koh, Jia Yu and Hu, Hua and Liang, Kae-Woei and Palmas, Walter and Hixson, James E and Han, Sohee and Teo, Yik-Ying and Wang, Yiqin and Chen, Jing and Lu, Chieh Hsiang and Zheng, Yingfeng and Gui, Lixuan and Lee, Wen-Jane and Yao, Jie and Gu, Dongfeng and Han, Bok-Ghee and Sim, Xueling and Sun, Liang and Zhao, Jinying and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Kumari, Neelam and He, Yunfeng and Taylor, Kent D and Raffel, Leslie J and Moon, Sanghoon and Rotter, Jerome I and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Wu, Tangchun and Wong, Tien Yin and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Lin, Xu and Tai, E-Shyong and Kim, Bong-Jo and Kelly, Tanika N} } @article {7364, title = {Genome-wide Trans-ethnic Meta-analysis Identifies Seven Genetic Loci Influencing Erythrocyte Traits and a Role for RBPMS in Erythropoiesis.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {100}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jan 05}, pages = {51-63}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified loci for erythrocyte traits in primarily European ancestry populations. We conducted GWAS meta-analyses of six erythrocyte traits in 71,638 individuals from European, East Asian, and African ancestries using a Bayesian approach to account for heterogeneity in allelic effects and variation in the structure of linkage disequilibrium between ethnicities. We identified seven loci for erythrocyte traits including a locus (RBPMS/GTF2E2) associated with mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume. Statistical fine-mapping at this locus pointed to RBPMS at this locus and excluded nearby GTF2E2. Using zebrafish morpholino to evaluate loss of function, we observed a strong in~vivo erythropoietic effect for RBPMS but not for GTF2E2, supporting the statistical fine-mapping at this locus and demonstrating that RBPMS is a regulator of erythropoiesis. Our findings show the utility of trans-ethnic GWASs for discovery and characterization of genetic loci influencing hematologic traits.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.11.016}, author = {van Rooij, Frank J A and Qayyum, Rehan and Smith, Albert V and Zhou, Yi and Trompet, Stella and Tanaka, Toshiko and Keller, Margaux F and Chang, Li-Ching and Schmidt, Helena and Yang, Min-Lee and Chen, Ming-Huei and Hayes, James and Johnson, Andrew D and Yanek, Lisa R and Mueller, Christian and Lange, Leslie and Floyd, James S and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Zonderman, Alan B and Jukema, J Wouter and Hofman, Albert and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Desch, Karl C and Saba, Yasaman and Ozel, Ayse B and Snively, Beverly M and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Schmidt, Reinhold and Fornage, Myriam and Klein, Robert J and Fox, Caroline S and Matsuda, Koichi and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Wild, Philipp S and Stott, David J and Ford, Ian and Slagboom, P Eline and Yang, Jaden and Chu, Audrey Y and Lambert, Amy J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Hofer, Edith and Ginsburg, David and Hu, Bella and Keating, Brendan and Schick, Ursula M and Brody, Jennifer A and Li, Jun Z and Chen, Zhao and Zeller, Tanja and Guralnik, Jack M and Chasman, Daniel I and Peters, Luanne L and Kubo, Michiaki and Becker, Diane M and Li, Jin and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Rotter, Jerome I and Levy, Daniel and Grossmann, Vera and Patel, Kushang V and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Ridker, Paul M and Tang, Hua and Launer, Lenore J and Rice, Kenneth M and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Ferrucci, Luigi and Evans, Michelle K and Choudhuri, Avik and Trompouki, Eirini and Abraham, Brian J and Yang, Song and Takahashi, Atsushi and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kooperberg, Charles and Harris, Tamara B and Jee, Sun Ha and Coresh, Josef and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Longo, Dan L and Chen, Yuan-Tsong and Felix, Janine F and Yang, Qiong and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Becker, Lewis C and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Wilson, James G and Gudnason, Vilmundur and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Dehghan, Abbas and Cupples, L Adrienne and Nalls, Michael A and Morris, Andrew P and Okada, Yukinori and Reiner, Alexander P and Zon, Leonard I and Ganesh, Santhi K} } @article {7793, title = {Generalization and fine mapping of red blood cell trait genetic associations to multi-ethnic populations: The PAGE Study.}, journal = {Am J Hematol}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jun 15}, abstract = {

Red blood cell (RBC) traits provide insight into a wide range of physiological states and exhibit moderate to high heritability, making them excellent candidates for genetic studies to inform underlying biologic mechanisms. Previous RBC trait genome-wide association studies were performed primarily in European- or Asian-ancestry populations, missing opportunities to inform understanding of RBC genetic architecture in diverse populations and reduce intervals surrounding putative functional SNPs through fine-mapping. Here, we report the first fine-mapping of six correlated (Pearson{\textquoteright}s r range: |0.04 - 0.92|) RBC traits in up to 19,036 African Americans and 19,562 Hispanic/Latinos participants of the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) consortium. Trans-ethnic meta-analysis of race/ethnic- and study-specific estimates for approximately 11,000 SNPs flanking 13 previously identified association signals as well as 150,000 additional array-wide SNPs was performed using inverse-variance meta-analysis after adjusting for study and clinical covariates. Approximately half of previously reported index SNP-RBC trait associations generalized to the trans-ethnic study population (p<1.7x10 ); previously unreported independent association signals within the ABO region reinforce the potential for multiple functional variants affecting the same locus. Trans-ethnic fine-mapping did not reveal additional signals at the HFE locus independent of the known functional variants. Finally, we identified a potential novel association in the Hispanic/Latino study population at the HECTD4/RPL6 locus for RBC count (p=1.9x10 ). The identification of a previously unknown association, generalization of a large proportion of known association signals, and refinement of known association signals all exemplify the benefits of genetic studies in diverse populations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

}, issn = {1096-8652}, doi = {10.1002/ajh.25161}, author = {Jo Hodonsky, Chani and Schurmann, Claudia and Schick, Ursula M and Kocarnik, Jonathan and Tao, Ran and van Rooij, Frank Ja and Wassel, Christina and Buyske, Steve and Fornage, Myriam and Hindorff, Lucia A and Floyd, James S and Ganesh, Santhi K and Lin, Dan-Yu and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alex P and Loos, Ruth Jf and Kooperberg, Charles and Avery, Christy L} } @article {8713, title = {A System for Phenotype Harmonization in the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Apr 16}, abstract = {

Genotype-phenotype association studies often combine phenotype data from multiple studies to increase power. Harmonization of the data usually requires substantial effort due to heterogeneity in phenotype definitions, study design, data collection procedures, and data set organization. Here we describe a centralized system for phenotype harmonization that includes input from phenotype domain and study experts, quality control, documentation, reproducible results, and data sharing mechanisms. This system was developed for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute{\textquoteright}s Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program, which is generating genomic and other omics data for >80 studies with extensive phenotype data. To date, 63 phenotypes have been harmonized across thousands of participants from up to 17 studies per phenotype (participants recruited 1948-2012). We discuss challenges in this undertaking and how they were addressed. The harmonized phenotype data and associated documentation have been submitted to National Institutes of Health data repositories for controlled-access by the scientific community. We also provide materials to facilitate future harmonization efforts by the community, which include (1) the code used to generate the 63 harmonized phenotypes, enabling others to reproduce, modify or extend these harmonizations to additional studies; and (2) results of labeling thousands of phenotype variables with controlled vocabulary terms.

}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwab115}, author = {Stilp, Adrienne M and Emery, Leslie S and Broome, Jai G and Buth, Erin J and Khan, Alyna T and Laurie, Cecelia A and Wang, Fei Fei and Wong, Quenna and Chen, Dongquan and D{\textquoteright}Augustine, Catherine M and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hohensee, Chancellor R and Johnson, William Craig and Juarez, Lucia D and Liu, Jingmin and Mutalik, Karen M and Raffield, Laura M and Wiggins, Kerri L and de Vries, Paul S and Kelly, Tanika N and Kooperberg, Charles and Natarajan, Pradeep and Peloso, Gina M and Peyser, Patricia A and Reiner, Alex P and Arnett, Donna K and Aslibekyan, Stella and Barnes, Kathleen C and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Cade, Brian E and Chen, Ming-Huei and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and de Andrade, Mariza and Ellinor, Patrick T and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Gan, Weiniu and Ganesh, Santhi K and Graffelman, Jan and Grove, Megan L and Guo, Xiuqing and Hawley, Nicola L and Hsu, Wan-Ling and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jaquish, Cashell E and Johnson, Andrew D and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Shannon and Lee, Jiwon and Mathias, Rasika A and McGarvey, Stephen T and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montasser, May E and Morrison, Alanna C and North, Kari E and Nouraie, Seyed Mehdi and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Pankratz, Nathan and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Weeks, Daniel E and Weiss, Scott T and Wilson, Carla G and Yanek, Lisa R and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Laurie, Cathy C} }