@article {6814, title = {Population genomic analysis of 962 whole genome sequences of humans reveals natural selection in non-coding regions.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {10}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {e0121644}, abstract = {

Whole genome analysis in large samples from a single population is needed to provide adequate power to assess relative strengths of natural selection across different functional components of the genome. In this study, we analyzed next-generation sequencing data from 962 European Americans, and found that as expected approximately 60\% of the top 1\% of positive selection signals lie in intergenic regions, 33\% in intronic regions, and slightly over 1\% in coding regions. Several detailed functional annotation categories in intergenic regions showed statistically significant enrichment in positively selected loci when compared to the null distribution of the genomic span of ENCODE categories. There was a significant enrichment of purifying selection signals detected in enhancers, transcription factor binding sites, microRNAs and target sites, but not on lincRNA or piRNAs, suggesting different evolutionary constraints for these domains. Loci in "repressed or low activity regions" and loci near or overlapping the transcription start site were the most significantly over-represented annotations among the top 1\% of signals for positive selection.

}, keywords = {DNA, Intergenic, Genetic Loci, Humans, Metagenomics, Open Reading Frames, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0121644}, author = {Yu, Fuli and Lu, Jian and Liu, Xiaoming and Gazave, Elodie and Chang, Diana and Raj, Srilakshmi and Hunter-Zinck, Haley and Blekhman, Ran and Arbiza, Leonardo and Van Hout, Cris and Morrison, Alanna and Johnson, Andrew D and Bis, Joshua and Cupples, L Adrienne and Psaty, Bruce M and Muzny, Donna and Yu, Jin and Gibbs, Richard A and Keinan, Alon and Clark, Andrew G and Boerwinkle, Eric} } @article {8570, title = {A principal component meta-analysis on multiple anthropometric traits identifies novel loci for body shape.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {7}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 11 23}, pages = {13357}, abstract = {

Large consortia have revealed hundreds of genetic loci associated with anthropometric traits, one trait at a time. We examined whether genetic variants affect body shape as a composite phenotype that is represented by a combination of anthropometric traits. We developed an approach that calculates averaged PCs (AvPCs) representing body shape derived from six anthropometric traits (body mass index, height, weight, waist and hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio). The first four AvPCs explain >99\% of the variability, are heritable, and associate with cardiometabolic outcomes. We performed genome-wide association analyses for each body shape composite phenotype across 65 studies and meta-analysed summary statistics. We identify six novel loci: LEMD2 and CD47 for AvPC1, RPS6KA5/C14orf159 and GANAB for AvPC3, and ARL15 and ANP32 for AvPC4. Our findings highlight the value of using multiple traits to define complex phenotypes for discovery, which are not captured by single-trait analyses, and may shed light onto new pathways.

}, keywords = {Anthropometry, Body Size, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Models, Genetic, Principal Component Analysis}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms13357}, author = {Ried, Janina S and Jeff M, Janina and Chu, Audrey Y and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and van Dongen, Jenny and Huffman, Jennifer E and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Cadby, Gemma and Eklund, Niina and Eriksson, Joel and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Feitosa, Mary F and Goel, Anuj and Gorski, Mathias and Hayward, Caroline and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Jackson, Anne U and Jokinen, Eero and Kanoni, Stavroula and Kristiansson, Kati and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lahti, Jari and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mahajan, Anubha and Mangino, Massimo and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Monda, Keri L and Nolte, Ilja M and Perusse, Louis and Prokopenko, Inga and Qi, Lu and Rose, Lynda M and Salvi, Erika and Smith, Megan T and Snieder, Harold and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Ju Sung, Yun and Tachmazidou, Ioanna and Teumer, Alexander and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and van der Harst, Pim and Walker, Ryan W and Wang, Sophie R and Wild, Sarah H and Willems, Sara M and Wong, Andrew and Zhang, Weihua and Albrecht, Eva and Couto Alves, Alexessander and Bakker, Stephan J L and Barlassina, Cristina and Bartz, Traci M and Beilby, John and Bellis, Claire and Bergman, Richard N and Bergmann, Sven and Blangero, John and Bl{\"u}her, Matthias and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bornstein, Stefan R and Bruinenberg, Marcel and Campbell, Harry and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chiang, Charleston W K and Chines, Peter S and Collins, Francis S and Cucca, Fracensco and Cupples, L Adrienne and D{\textquoteright}Avila, Francesca and de Geus, Eco J C and Dedoussis, George and Dimitriou, Maria and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Eriksson, Johan G and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Farrall, Martin and Ferreira, Teresa and Fischer, Krista and Forouhi, Nita G and Friedrich, Nele and Gjesing, Anette Prior and Glorioso, Nicola and Graff, Mariaelisa and Grallert, Harald and Grarup, Niels and Gr{\"a}{\ss}ler, J{\"u}rgen and Grewal, Jagvir and Hamsten, Anders and Harder, Marie Neergaard and Hartman, Catharina A and Hassinen, Maija and Hastie, Nicholas and Hattersley, Andrew Tym and Havulinna, Aki S and Heli{\"o}vaara, Markku and Hillege, Hans and Hofman, Albert and Holmen, Oddgeir and Homuth, Georg and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Hui, Jennie and Husemoen, Lise Lotte and Hysi, Pirro G and Isaacs, Aaron and Ittermann, Till and Jalilzadeh, Shapour and James, Alan L and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jula, Antti and Marie Justesen, Johanne and Justice, Anne E and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Karaleftheri, Maria and Tee Khaw, Kay and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, Sirkka M and Kinnunen, Leena and Knekt, Paul B and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooner, Ishminder K and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kyriakou, Theodosios and Laitinen, Tomi and Langenberg, Claudia and Lewin, Alexandra M and Lichtner, Peter and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Linneberg, Allan and Lorbeer, Roberto and Lorentzon, Mattias and Luben, Robert and Lyssenko, Valeriya and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Manunta, Paolo and Leach, Irene Mateo and McArdle, Wendy L and McKnight, Barbara and Mohlke, Karen L and Mihailov, Evelin and Milani, Lili and Mills, Rebecca and Montasser, May E and Morris, Andrew P and M{\"u}ller, Gabriele and Musk, Arthur W and Narisu, Narisu and Ong, Ken K and Oostra, Ben A and Osmond, Clive and Palotie, Aarno and Pankow, James S and Paternoster, Lavinia and Penninx, Brenda W and Pichler, Irene and Pilia, Maria G and Polasek, Ozren and Pramstaller, Peter P and Raitakari, Olli T and Rankinen, Tuomo and Rao, D C and Rayner, Nigel W and Ribel-Madsen, Rasmus and Rice, Treva K and Richards, Marcus and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Ryan, Kathy A and Sanna, Serena and Sarzynski, Mark A and Scholtens, Salome and Scott, Robert A and Sebert, Sylvain and Southam, Lorraine and Spars{\o}, Thomas Hempel and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Stirrups, Kathleen and Stolk, Ronald P and Strauch, Konstantin and Stringham, Heather M and Swertz, Morris A and Swift, Amy J and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tsafantakis, Emmanouil and van der Most, Peter J and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Vartiainen, Erkki and Venturini, Cristina and Verweij, Niek and Viikari, Jorma S and Vitart, Veronique and Vohl, Marie-Claude and Vonk, Judith M and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Widen, Elisabeth and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilsgaard, Tom and Winkler, Thomas W and Wright, Alan F and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Hua Zhao, Jing and Zillikens, M Carola and Boomsma, Dorret I and Bouchard, Claude and Chambers, John C and Chasman, Daniel I and Cusi, Daniele and Gansevoort, Ron T and Gieger, Christian and Hansen, Torben and Hicks, Andrew A and Hu, Frank and Hveem, Kristian and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Kajantie, Eero and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kuh, Diana and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Metspalu, Andres and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Ohlsson, Claes and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Palmer, Lyle J and Pedersen, Oluf and Perola, Markus and Peters, Annette and Psaty, Bruce M and Puolijoki, Hannu and Rauramaa, Rainer and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Schwarz, Peter E H and Shudiner, Alan R and Smit, Jan H and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Spector, Timothy D and Stefansson, Kari and Stumvoll, Michael and Tremblay, Angelo and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Uusitupa, Matti and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Wilson, James F and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehnke, Michael and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Fox, Caroline and Groop, Leif C and Heid, Iris M and Hunter, David J and Kaplan, Robert C and McCarthy, Mark I and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Schlessinger, David and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Strachan, David P and Frayling, Timothy and Hirschhorn, Joel N and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {7448, title = {PCSK9 Loss-of-Function Variants, Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol, and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke: Data From 9 Studies of Blacks and Whites.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Aug}, pages = {e001632}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: PCSK9 loss-of-function (LOF) variants allow for the examination of the effects of lifetime reduced low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) on cardiovascular events. We examined the association of PCSK9 LOF variants with LDL-C and incident coronary heart disease and stroke through a meta-analysis of data from 8 observational cohorts and 1 randomized trial of statin therapy.

METHODS AND RESULTS: These 9 studies together included 17 459 blacks with 403 (2.3\%) having at least 1 Y142X or C679X variant and 31 306 whites with 955 (3.1\%) having at least 1 R46L variant. Unadjusted odds ratios for associations between PCSK9 LOF variants and incident coronary heart disease (851 events in blacks and 2662 events in whites) and stroke (523 events in blacks and 1660 events in whites) were calculated using pooled Mantel-Haenszel estimates with continuity correction factors. Pooling results across studies using fixed-effects inverse-variance-weighted models, PCSK9 LOF variants were associated with 35 mg/dL (95\% confidence interval [CI], 32-39) lower LDL-C in blacks and 13 mg/dL (95\% CI, 11-16) lower LDL-C in whites. PCSK9 LOF variants were associated with a pooled odds ratio for coronary heart disease of 0.51 (95\% CI, 0.28-0.92) in blacks and 0.82 (95\% CI, 0.63-1.06) in whites. PCSK9 LOF variants were not associated with incident stroke (odds ratio, 0.84; 95\% CI, 0.48-1.47 in blacks and odds ratio, 1.06; 95\% CI, 0.80-1.41 in whites).

CONCLUSIONS: PCSK9 LOF variants were associated with lower LDL-C and coronary heart disease incidence. PCSK9 LOF variants were not associated with stroke risk.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001632}, author = {Kent, Shia T and Rosenson, Robert S and Avery, Christy L and Chen, Yii-der I and Correa, Adolfo and Cummings, Steven R and Cupples, L Adrienne and Cushman, Mary and Evans, Daniel S and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Howard, George and Irvin, Marguerite R and Judd, Suzanne E and Jukema, J Wouter and Lange, Leslie and Levitan, Emily B and Li, Xiaohui and Liu, Yongmei and Post, Wendy S and Postmus, Iris and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Safford, Monika M and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Albert V and Stewart, James D and Trompet, Stella and Sun, Fangui and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Woolley, J Michael and Whitsel, Eric A and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wilson, James G and Muntner, Paul} } @article {9037, title = {Polygenic transcriptome risk scores for COPD and lung function improve cross-ethnic portability of prediction in the NHLBI TOPMed program.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Mar 31}, abstract = {

While polygenic risk scores (PRSs) enable early identification of genetic risk for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), predictive performance is limited when the discovery and target populations are not well matched. Hypothesizing that the biological mechanisms of disease are shared across ancestry groups, we introduce a PrediXcan-derived polygenic transcriptome risk score (PTRS) to improve cross-ethnic portability of risk prediction. We constructed the PTRS using summary statistics from application of PrediXcan on large-scale GWASs of lung function (forced expiratory volume in 1~s [FEV] and its ratio to forced vital capacity [FEV/FVC]) in the UK Biobank. We examined prediction performance and cross-ethnic portability of PTRS through smoking-stratified analyses both on 29,381 multi-ethnic participants from TOPMed population/family-based cohorts and on 11,771 multi-ethnic participants from TOPMed COPD-enriched studies. Analyses were carried out for two dichotomous COPD traits (moderate-to-severe and severe COPD) and two quantitative lung function traits (FEV and FEV/FVC). While the proposed PTRS showed weaker associations with disease than PRS for European ancestry, the PTRS showed stronger association with COPD than PRS for African Americans (e.g., odds ratio [OR]~= 1.24 [95\% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-1.43] for PTRS versus 1.10 [0.96-1.26] for PRS among heavy smokers with >= 40 pack-years of smoking) for moderate-to-severe COPD. Cross-ethnic portability of the PTRS was significantly higher than the PRS (paired t test p~<~2.2~{\texttimes}~10 with portability gains ranging from 5\% to 28\%) for both dichotomous COPD traits and across all smoking strata. Our study demonstrates the value of PTRS for improved cross-ethnic portability compared to PRS in predicting COPD risk.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.03.007}, author = {Hu, Xiaowei and Qiao, Dandi and Kim, Wonji and Moll, Matthew and Balte, Pallavi P and Lange, Leslie A and Bartz, Traci M and Kumar, Rajesh and Li, Xingnan and Yu, Bing and Cade, Brian E and Laurie, Cecelia A and Sofer, Tamar and Ruczinski, Ingo and Nickerson, Deborah A and Muzny, Donna M and Metcalf, Ginger A and Doddapaneni, Harshavardhan and Gabriel, Stacy and Gupta, Namrata and Dugan-Perez, Shannon and Cupples, L Adrienne and Loehr, Laura R and Jain, Deepti and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and Psaty, Bruce M and Fornage, Myriam and Morrison, Alanna C and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Washko, George and Rich, Stephen S and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Bleecker, Eugene and Kaplan, Robert C and Kalhan, Ravi and Redline, Susan and Gharib, Sina A and Meyers, Deborah and Ortega, Victor and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and London, Stephanie J and Lappalainen, Tuuli and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Silverman, Edwin K and Barr, R Graham and Thornton, Timothy A and Wheeler, Heather E and Cho, Michael H and Im, Hae Kyung and Manichaikul, Ani} } @article {9239, title = {Powerful, scalable and resource-efficient meta-analysis of rare variant associations in large whole genome sequencing studies.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {55}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jan}, pages = {154-164}, abstract = {

Meta-analysis of whole genome sequencing/whole exome sequencing (WGS/WES) studies provides an attractive solution to the problem of collecting large sample sizes for discovering rare variants associated with complex phenotypes. Existing rare variant meta-analysis approaches are not scalable to biobank-scale WGS data. Here we present MetaSTAAR, a powerful and resource-efficient rare variant meta-analysis framework for large-scale WGS/WES studies. MetaSTAAR accounts for relatedness and population structure, can analyze both quantitative and dichotomous traits and boosts the power of rare variant tests by incorporating multiple variant functional annotations. Through meta-analysis of four lipid traits in 30,138 ancestrally diverse samples from 14 studies of the Trans Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program, we show that MetaSTAAR performs rare variant meta-analysis at scale and produces results comparable to using pooled data. Additionally, we identified several conditionally significant rare variant associations with lipid traits. We further demonstrate that MetaSTAAR is scalable to biobank-scale cohorts through meta-analysis of TOPMed WGS data and UK Biobank WES data of ~200,000 samples.

}, keywords = {Exome Sequencing, Genome-Wide Association Study, Lipids, Phenotype, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-022-01225-6}, author = {Li, Xihao and Quick, Corbin and Zhou, Hufeng and Gaynor, Sheila M and Liu, Yaowu and Chen, Han and Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha and Sun, Ryan and Dey, Rounak and Arnett, Donna K and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Brody, Jennifer A and Cade, Brian E and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Curran, Joanne E and de Vries, Paul S and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Freedman, Barry I and G{\"o}ring, Harald H H and Guo, Xiuqing and Haessler, Jeffrey and Kalyani, Rita R and Kooperberg, Charles and Kral, Brian G and Lange, Leslie A and Manichaikul, Ani and Martin, Lisa W and McGarvey, Stephen T and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montasser, May E and Morrison, Alanna C and Naseri, Take and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Reupena, Muagututi{\textquoteright}a Sefuiva and Rice, Kenneth M and Rich, Stephen S and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Willer, Cristen J and Wilson, James G and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhao, Wei and Rotter, Jerome I and Natarajan, Pradeep and Peloso, Gina M and Li, Zilin and Lin, Xihong} }