@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 {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} }