@article {7557, title = {Fifteen Genetic Loci Associated With the Electrocardiographic P Wave.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Aug}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The P wave on an ECG is a measure of atrial electric function, and its characteristics may serve as predictors for atrial arrhythmias. Increased mean P-wave duration and P-wave terminal force traditionally have been used as markers for left atrial enlargement, and both have been associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation. Here, we explore the genetic basis of P-wave morphology through meta-analysis of genome-wide association study results for P-wave duration and P-wave terminal force from 12 cohort studies.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We included 44 456 individuals, of which 6778 (16\%) were of African ancestry. Genotyping, imputation, and genome-wide association study were performed at each study site. Summary-level results were meta-analyzed centrally using inverse-variance weighting. In meta-analyses of P-wave duration, we identified 6 significant (P<5{\texttimes}10-8) novel loci and replicated a prior association with SCN10A. We identified 3 loci at SCN5A, TBX5, and CAV1/CAV2 that were jointly associated with the PR interval, PR segment, and P-wave duration. We identified 6 novel loci in meta-analysis of P-wave terminal force. Four of the identified genetic loci were significantly associated with gene expression in 329 left atrial samples. Finally, we observed that some of the loci associated with the P wave were linked to overall atrial conduction, whereas others identified distinct phases of atrial conduction.

CONCLUSIONS: We have identified 6 novel genetic loci associated with P-wave duration and 6 novel loci associated with P-wave terminal force. Future studies of these loci may aid in identifying new targets for drugs that may modify atrial conduction or treat atrial arrhythmias.

}, keywords = {Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Caveolin 1, Caveolin 2, Electrocardiography, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart Atria, Humans, NAV1.5 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, NAV1.8 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, T-Box Domain Proteins}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001667}, author = {Christophersen, Ingrid E and Magnani, Jared W and Yin, Xiaoyan and Barnard, John and Weng, Lu-Chen and Arking, Dan E and Niemeijer, Maartje N and Lubitz, Steven A and Avery, Christy L and Duan, Qing and Felix, Stephan B and Bis, Joshua C and Kerr, Kathleen F and Isaacs, Aaron and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and M{\"u}ller, Christian and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alex P and Tinker, Lesley F and Kors, Jan A and Teumer, Alexander and Petersmann, Astrid and Sinner, Moritz F and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Smith, Jonathan D and Van Wagoner, David R and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Waldenberger, Melanie and Peters, Annette and Meitinger, Thomas and Limacher, Marian C and Wilhelmsen, Kirk C and Psaty, Bruce M and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andre and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Zhang, Zhu-Ming and Schnabel, Renate B and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and van Duijn, Cornelia and Rotter, Jerome I and Sotoodehnia, Nona and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Li, Yun and Chung, Mina K and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Alonso, Alvaro and Whitsel, Eric A and Stricker, Bruno H and Benjamin, Emelia J and Heckbert, Susan R and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {7669, title = {Genome-wide association study and meta-analysis identify loci associated with ventricular and supraventricular ectopy.}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {8}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Apr 04}, pages = {5675}, abstract = {

The genetic basis of supraventricular and ventricular ectopy (SVE, VE) remains largely uncharacterized, despite established genetic mechanisms of arrhythmogenesis. To identify novel genetic variants associated with SVE/VE in ancestrally diverse human populations, we conducted a genome-wide association study of electrocardiographically~identified SVE and VE in five cohorts including approximately 43,000 participants of African, European and Hispanic/Latino ancestry. In thirteen ancestry-stratified subgroups, we tested multivariable-adjusted associations of SVE and VE with single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) dosage. We combined subgroup-specific association estimates in inverse variance-weighted, fixed-effects and Bayesian meta-analyses. We also combined fixed-effects meta-analytic t-test statistics for SVE and VE in multi-trait SNP association analyses. No loci reached genome-wide significance in trans-ethnic meta-analyses. However, we found genome-wide significant SNPs intronic to an apoptosis-enhancing gene previously associated with QRS interval duration (FAF1; lead SNP rs7545860; effect allele frequency = 0.02; P = 2.0 {\texttimes} 10) in multi-trait analysis among European ancestry participants and near a locus encoding calcium-dependent glycoproteins (DSC3; lead SNP rs8086068; effect allele frequency = 0.17) in meta-analysis of SVE (P = 4.0 {\texttimes} 10) and multi-trait analysis (P = 2.9 {\texttimes} 10) among African ancestry participants. The novel findings suggest several mechanisms by which genetic variation may predispose to ectopy in humans and highlight the potential value of leveraging pleiotropy in future studies of ectopy-related phenotypes.

}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-23843-z}, author = {Napier, Melanie D and Franceschini, Nora and Gondalia, Rahul and Stewart, James D and M{\'e}ndez-Gir{\'a}ldez, R{\'a}ul and Sitlani, Colleen M and Seyerle, Amanda A and Highland, Heather M and Li, Yun and Wilhelmsen, Kirk C and Yan, Song and Duan, Qing and Roach, Jeffrey and Yao, Jie and Guo, Xiuqing and Taylor, Kent D and Heckbert, Susan R and Rotter, Jerome I and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alexander P and Zhang, Zhu-Ming and Tinker, Lesley F and Liao, Duanping and Laurie, Cathy C and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Lin, Henry J and Brody, Jennifer A and Bartz, Traci M and Psaty, Bruce M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Avery, Christy L and Whitsel, Eric A} }