@article {7696, title = {Directional dominance on stature and cognition in~diverse human populations.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {523}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jul 23}, pages = {459-62}, abstract = {

Homozygosity has long been associated with rare, often devastating, Mendelian disorders, and Darwin was one of the first to recognize that inbreeding reduces evolutionary fitness. However, the effect of the more distant parental relatedness that is common in modern human populations is less well understood. Genomic data now allow us to investigate the effects of homozygosity on traits of public health importance by observing contiguous homozygous segments (runs of homozygosity), which are inferred to be homozygous along their complete length. Given the low levels of genome-wide homozygosity prevalent in most human populations, information is required on very large numbers of people to provide sufficient power. Here we use runs of homozygosity to study 16 health-related quantitative traits in 354,224 individuals from 102 cohorts, and find statistically significant associations between summed runs~of homozygosity and four complex traits: height, forced expiratory lung volume in one second, general cognitive ability and educational attainment (P < 1 {\texttimes} 10(-300), 2.1 {\texttimes} 10(-6), 2.5 {\texttimes} 10(-10) and 1.8 {\texttimes} 10(-10), respectively). In each case, increased homozygosity was associated with decreased trait value, equivalent to the offspring of first cousins being 1.2 cm shorter and having 10 months{\textquoteright} less education. Similar effect sizes were found across four continental groups and populations with different degrees of genome-wide homozygosity, providing evidence that homozygosity, rather than confounding, directly contributes to phenotypic variance. Contrary to earlier reports in substantially smaller samples, no evidence was seen of an influence of genome-wide homozygosity on blood pressure and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, or ten other cardio-metabolic traits. Since directional dominance is predicted for traits under directional evolutionary selection, this study provides evidence that increased stature and cognitive function have been positively selected in human evolution, whereas many important risk factors for late-onset complex diseases may not have been.

}, keywords = {Biological Evolution, Blood Pressure, Body Height, Cholesterol, LDL, Cognition, Cohort Studies, Educational Status, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Genome, Human, Homozygote, Humans, Lung Volume Measurements, Male, Phenotype}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature14618}, author = {Joshi, Peter K and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Mattsson, Hannele and Eklund, Niina and Gandin, Ilaria and Nutile, Teresa and Jackson, Anne U and Schurmann, Claudia and Smith, Albert V and Zhang, Weihua and Okada, Yukinori and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Faul, Jessica D and Zhao, Wei and Bartz, Traci M and Concas, Maria Pina and Franceschini, Nora and Enroth, Stefan and Vitart, Veronique and Trompet, Stella and Guo, Xiuqing and Chasman, Daniel I and O{\textquoteright}Connel, Jeffrey R and Corre, Tanguy and Nongmaithem, Suraj S and Chen, Yuning and Mangino, Massimo and Ruggiero, Daniela and Traglia, Michela and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Kacprowski, Tim and Bjonnes, Andrew and van der Spek, Ashley and Wu, Ying and Giri, Anil K and Yanek, Lisa R and Wang, Lihua and Hofer, Edith and Rietveld, Cornelius A and McLeod, Olga and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Pattaro, Cristian and Verweij, Niek and Baumbach, Clemens and Abdellaoui, Abdel and Warren, Helen R and Vuckovic, Dragana and Mei, Hao and Bouchard, Claude and Perry, John R B and Cappellani, Stefania and Mirza, Saira S and Benton, Miles C and Broeckel, Ulrich and Medland, Sarah E and Lind, Penelope A and Malerba, Giovanni and Drong, Alexander and Yengo, Loic and Bielak, Lawrence F and Zhi, Degui and van der Most, Peter J and Shriner, Daniel and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Hemani, Gibran and Karaderi, Tugce and Wang, Zhaoming and Liu, Tian and Demuth, Ilja and Zhao, Jing Hua and Meng, Weihua and Lataniotis, Lazaros and van der Laan, Sander W and Bradfield, Jonathan P and Wood, Andrew R and Bonnefond, Amelie and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Hall, Leanne M and Salvi, Erika and Yazar, Seyhan and Carstensen, Lisbeth and de Haan, Hugoline G and Abney, Mark and Afzal, Uzma and Allison, Matthew A and Amin, Najaf and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Bakker, Stephan J L and Barr, R Graham and Baumeister, Sebastian E and Benjamin, Daniel J and Bergmann, Sven and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Campbell, Archie and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chan, Yingleong and Chanock, Stephen J and Chen, Constance and Chen, Y-D Ida and Collins, Francis S and Connell, John and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Smith, George Davey and Davies, Gail and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Ehret, Georg and Ellis, Stephen B and Feenstra, Bjarke and Feitosa, Mary F and Ford, Ian and Fox, Caroline S and Frayling, Timothy M and Friedrich, Nele and Geller, Frank and Scotland, Generation and Gillham-Nasenya, Irina and Gottesman, Omri and Graff, Misa and Grodstein, Francine and Gu, Charles and Haley, Chris and Hammond, Christopher J and Harris, Sarah E and Harris, Tamara B and Hastie, Nicholas D and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Heikkil{\"a}, Kauko and Hocking, Lynne J and Homuth, Georg and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Huang, Jinyan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Hysi, Pirro G and Ikram, M Arfan and Ingelsson, Erik and Joensuu, Anni and Johansson, {\r A}sa and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jukema, J Wouter and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kanoni, Stavroula and Kerr, Shona M and Khan, Nazir M and Koellinger, Philipp and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kooner, Manraj K and Kubo, Michiaki and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lahti, Jari and Launer, Lenore J and Lea, Rodney A and Lehne, Benjamin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Liewald, David C M and Lind, Lars and Loh, Marie and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and London, Stephanie J and Loomis, Stephanie J and Loukola, Anu and Lu, Yingchang and Lumley, Thomas and Lundqvist, Annamari and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Masciullo, Corrado and Matchan, Angela and Mathias, Rasika A and Matsuda, Koichi and Meigs, James B and Meisinger, Christa and Meitinger, Thomas and Menni, Cristina and Mentch, Frank D and Mihailov, Evelin and Milani, Lili and Montasser, May E and Montgomery, Grant W and Morrison, Alanna and Myers, Richard H and Nadukuru, Rajiv and Navarro, Pau and Nelis, Mari and Nieminen, Markku S and Nolte, Ilja M and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Ogunniyi, Adesola and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmas, Walter R and Pankow, James S and Patarcic, Inga and Pavani, Francesca and Peyser, Patricia A and Pietilainen, Kirsi and Poulter, Neil and Prokopenko, Inga and Ralhan, Sarju and Redmond, Paul and Rich, Stephen S and Rissanen, Harri and Robino, Antonietta and Rose, Lynda M and Rose, Richard and Sala, Cinzia and Salako, Babatunde and Salomaa, Veikko and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Saxena, Richa and Schmidt, Helena and Scott, Laura J and Scott, William R and Sennblad, Bengt and Seshadri, Sudha and Sever, Peter and Shrestha, Smeeta and Smith, Blair H and Smith, Jennifer A and Soranzo, Nicole and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Southam, Lorraine and Stanton, Alice V and Stathopoulou, Maria G and Strauch, Konstantin and Strawbridge, Rona J and Suderman, Matthew J and Tandon, Nikhil and Tang, Sian-Tsun and Taylor, Kent D and Tayo, Bamidele O and T{\"o}glhofer, Anna Maria and Tomaszewski, Maciej and T{\v s}ernikova, Natalia and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaidya, Dhananjay and van Hylckama Vlieg, Astrid and van Setten, Jessica and Vasankari, Tuula and Vedantam, Sailaja and Vlachopoulou, Efthymia and Vozzi, Diego and Vuoksimaa, Eero and Waldenberger, Melanie and Ware, Erin B and Wentworth-Shields, William and Whitfield, John B and Wild, Sarah and Willemsen, Gonneke and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Yao, Jie and Zaza, Gianluigi and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Salem, Rany M and Melbye, Mads and Bisgaard, Hans and Samani, Nilesh J and Cusi, Daniele and Mackey, David A and Cooper, Richard S and Froguel, Philippe and Pasterkamp, Gerard and Grant, Struan F A and Hakonarson, Hakon and Ferrucci, Luigi and Scott, Robert A and Morris, Andrew D and Palmer, Colin N A and Dedoussis, George and Deloukas, Panos and Bertram, Lars and Lindenberger, Ulman and Berndt, Sonja I and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Timpson, Nicholas J and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Munroe, Patricia B and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Rotimi, Charles N and Arnett, Donna K and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Kardia, Sharon L R and Balkau, Beverley and Gambaro, Giovanni and Morris, Andrew P and Eriksson, Johan G and Wright, Margie J and Martin, Nicholas G and Hunt, Steven C and Starr, John M and Deary, Ian J and Griffiths, Lyn R and Tiemeier, Henning and Pirastu, Nicola and Kaprio, Jaakko and Wareham, Nicholas J and P{\'e}russe, Louis and Wilson, James G and Girotto, Giorgia and Caulfield, Mark J and Raitakari, Olli and Boomsma, Dorret I and Gieger, Christian and van der Harst, Pim and Hicks, Andrew A and Kraft, Peter and Sinisalo, Juha and Knekt, Paul and Johannesson, Magnus and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Hamsten, Anders and Schmidt, Reinhold and Borecki, Ingrid B and Vartiainen, Erkki and Becker, Diane M and Bharadwaj, Dwaipayan and Mohlke, Karen L and Boehnke, Michael and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Teumer, Alexander and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Metspalu, Andres and Gasparini, Paolo and Ulivi, Sheila and Ober, Carole and Toniolo, Daniela and Rudan, Igor and Porteous, David J and Ciullo, Marina and Spector, Tim D and Hayward, Caroline and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Loos, Ruth J F and Wright, Alan F and Chandak, Giriraj R and Vollenweider, Peter and Shuldiner, Alan R and Ridker, Paul M and Rotter, Jerome I and Sattar, Naveed and Gyllensten, Ulf and North, Kari E and Pirastu, Mario and Psaty, Bruce M and Weir, David R and Laakso, Markku and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Takahashi, Atsushi and Chambers, John C and Kooner, Jaspal S and Strachan, David P and Campbell, Harry and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Perola, Markus and Polasek, Ozren and Wilson, James F} } @article {7691, title = {Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {518}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Feb 12}, pages = {197-206}, abstract = {

Obesity is heritable and predisposes to many diseases. To understand the genetic basis of obesity better, here we conduct a genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI), a measure commonly used to define obesity and assess adiposity, in up to 339,224 individuals. This analysis identifies 97 BMI-associated loci (P~<~5~{\texttimes}~10(-8)), 56 of which are novel. Five loci demonstrate clear evidence of several independent association signals, and many loci have significant effects on other metabolic phenotypes. The 97 loci account for \~{}2.7\% of BMI variation, and genome-wide estimates suggest that common variation accounts for >20\% of BMI variation. Pathway analyses provide strong support for a role of the central nervous system in obesity susceptibility and implicate new genes and pathways, including those related to synaptic function, glutamate signalling, insulin secretion/action, energy metabolism, lipid biology and adipogenesis.

}, keywords = {Adipogenesis, Adiposity, Age Factors, Body Mass Index, Continental Population Groups, Energy Metabolism, Europe, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glutamic Acid, Humans, Insulin, Male, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Synapses}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature14177}, author = {Locke, Adam E and Kahali, Bratati and Berndt, Sonja I and Justice, Anne E and Pers, Tune H and Day, Felix R and Powell, Corey and Vedantam, Sailaja and Buchkovich, Martin L and Yang, Jian and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fall, Tove and Ferreira, Teresa and Gustafsson, Stefan and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Randall, Joshua C and Winkler, Thomas W and Wood, Andrew R and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and Faul, Jessica D and Smith, Jennifer A and Hua Zhao, Jing and Zhao, Wei and Chen, Jin and Fehrmann, Rudolf and Hedman, {\r A}sa K and Karjalainen, Juha and Schmidt, Ellen M and Absher, Devin and Amin, Najaf and Anderson, Denise and Beekman, Marian and Bolton, Jennifer L and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Buyske, Steven and Demirkan, Ayse and Deng, Guohong and Ehret, Georg B and Feenstra, Bjarke and Feitosa, Mary F and Fischer, Krista and Goel, Anuj and Gong, Jian and Jackson, Anne U and Kanoni, Stavroula and Kleber, Marcus E and Kristiansson, Kati and Lim, Unhee and Lotay, Vaneet and Mangino, Massimo and Mateo Leach, Irene and Medina-Gomez, Carolina and Medland, Sarah E and Nalls, Michael A and Palmer, Cameron D and Pasko, Dorota and Pechlivanis, Sonali and Peters, Marjolein J and Prokopenko, Inga and Shungin, Dmitry and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Strawbridge, Rona J and Ju Sung, Yun and Tanaka, Toshiko and Teumer, Alexander and Trompet, Stella and van der Laan, Sander W and van Setten, Jessica and Van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Wang, Zhaoming and Yengo, Loic and Zhang, Weihua and Isaacs, Aaron and Albrecht, Eva and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Arscott, Gillian M and Attwood, Antony P and Bandinelli, Stefania and Barrett, Amy and Bas, Isabelita N and Bellis, Claire and Bennett, Amanda J and Berne, Christian and Blagieva, Roza and Bl{\"u}her, Matthias and B{\"o}hringer, Stefan and Bonnycastle, Lori L and B{\"o}ttcher, Yvonne and Boyd, Heather A and Bruinenberg, Marcel and Caspersen, Ida H and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Clarke, Robert and Daw, E Warwick and de Craen, Anton J M and Delgado, Graciela and Dimitriou, Maria and Doney, Alex S F and Eklund, Niina and Estrada, Karol and Eury, Elodie and Folkersen, Lasse and Fraser, Ross M and Garcia, Melissa E and Geller, Frank and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gigante, Bruna and Go, Alan S and Golay, Alain and Goodall, Alison H and Gordon, Scott D and Gorski, Mathias and Grabe, Hans-J{\"o}rgen and Grallert, Harald and Grammer, Tanja B and Gr{\"a}{\ss}ler, J{\"u}rgen and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Groves, Christopher J and Gusto, Ga{\"e}lle and Haessler, Jeffrey and Hall, Per and Haller, Toomas and Hallmans, Goran and Hartman, Catharina A and Hassinen, Maija and Hayward, Caroline and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Helmer, Quinta and Hengstenberg, Christian and Holmen, Oddgeir and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and James, Alan L and Jeff, Janina M and Johansson, {\r A}sa and Jolley, Jennifer and Juliusdottir, Thorhildur and Kinnunen, Leena and Koenig, Wolfgang and Koskenvuo, Markku and Kratzer, Wolfgang and Laitinen, Jaana and Lamina, Claudia and Leander, Karin and Lee, Nanette R and Lichtner, Peter and Lind, Lars and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Sin Lo, Ken and Lobbens, St{\'e}phane and Lorbeer, Roberto and Lu, Yingchang and Mach, Fran{\c c}ois and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Mahajan, Anubha and McArdle, Wendy L and McLachlan, Stela and Menni, Cristina and Merger, Sigrun and Mihailov, Evelin and Milani, Lili and Moayyeri, Alireza and Monda, Keri L and Morken, Mario A and Mulas, Antonella and M{\"u}ller, Gabriele and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Musk, Arthur W and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and N{\"o}then, Markus M and Nolte, Ilja M and Pilz, Stefan and Rayner, Nigel W and Renstrom, Frida and Rettig, Rainer and Ried, Janina S and Ripke, Stephan and Robertson, Neil R and Rose, Lynda M and Sanna, Serena and Scharnagl, Hubert and Scholtens, Salome and Schumacher, Fredrick R and Scott, William R and Seufferlein, Thomas and Shi, Jianxin and Vernon Smith, Albert and Smolonska, Joanna and Stanton, Alice V and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Stirrups, Kathleen and Stringham, Heather M and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Swertz, Morris A and Swift, Amy J and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Tan, Sian-Tsung and Tayo, Bamidele O and Thorand, Barbara and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Tyrer, Jonathan P and Uh, Hae-Won and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Verhulst, Frank C and Vermeulen, Sita H and Verweij, Niek and Vonk, Judith M and Waite, Lindsay L and Warren, Helen R and Waterworth, Dawn and Weedon, Michael N and Wilkens, Lynne R and Willenborg, Christina and Wilsgaard, Tom and Wojczynski, Mary K and Wong, Andrew and Wright, Alan F and Zhang, Qunyuan and Brennan, Eoin P and Choi, Murim and Dastani, Zari and Drong, Alexander W and Eriksson, Per and Franco-Cereceda, Anders and G{\r a}din, Jesper R and Gharavi, Ali G and Goddard, Michael E and Handsaker, Robert E and Huang, Jinyan and Karpe, Fredrik and Kathiresan, Sekar and Keildson, Sarah and Kiryluk, Krzysztof and Kubo, Michiaki and Lee, Jong-Young and Liang, Liming and Lifton, Richard P and Ma, Baoshan and McCarroll, Steven A and McKnight, Amy J and Min, Josine L and Moffatt, Miriam F and Montgomery, Grant W and Murabito, Joanne M and Nicholson, George and Nyholt, Dale R and Okada, Yukinori and Perry, John R B and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Reinmaa, Eva and Salem, Rany M and Sandholm, Niina and Scott, Robert A and Stolk, Lisette and Takahashi, Atsushi and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Van{\textquoteright}t Hooft, Ferdinand M and Vinkhuyzen, Anna A E and Westra, Harm-Jan and Zheng, Wei and Zondervan, Krina T and Heath, Andrew C and Arveiler, Dominique and Bakker, Stephan J L and Beilby, John and Bergman, Richard N and Blangero, John and Bovet, Pascal and Campbell, Harry and Caulfield, Mark J and Cesana, Giancarlo and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chasman, Daniel I and Chines, Peter S and Collins, Francis S and Crawford, Dana C and Cupples, L Adrienne and Cusi, Daniele and Danesh, John and de Faire, Ulf and den Ruijter, Hester M and Dominiczak, Anna F and Erbel, Raimund and Erdmann, Jeanette and Eriksson, Johan G and Farrall, Martin and Felix, Stephan B and Ferrannini, Ele and Ferri{\`e}res, Jean and Ford, Ian and Forouhi, Nita G and Forrester, Terrence and Franco, Oscar H and Gansevoort, Ron T and Gejman, Pablo V and Gieger, Christian and Gottesman, Omri and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hall, Alistair S and Harris, Tamara B and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hicks, Andrew A and Hindorff, Lucia A and Hingorani, Aroon D and Hofman, Albert and Homuth, Georg and Hovingh, G Kees and Humphries, Steve E and Hunt, Steven C and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Illig, Thomas and Jacobs, Kevin B and J{\"a}rvelin, Marjo-Riitta and J{\"o}ckel, Karl-Heinz and Johansen, Berit and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jukema, J Wouter and Jula, Antti M and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kastelein, John J P and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, Sirkka M and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Knekt, Paul and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kooperberg, Charles and Kovacs, Peter and Kraja, Aldi T and Kumari, Meena and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lakka, Timo A and Langenberg, Claudia and Le Marchand, Loic and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lyssenko, Valeriya and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Marette, Andr{\'e} and Matise, Tara C and McKenzie, Colin A and McKnight, Barbara and Moll, Frans L and Morris, Andrew D and Morris, Andrew P and Murray, Jeffrey C and Nelis, Mari and Ohlsson, Claes and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Ong, Ken K and Madden, Pamela A F and Pasterkamp, Gerard and Peden, John F and Peters, Annette and Postma, Dirkje S and Pramstaller, Peter P and Price, Jackie F and Qi, Lu and Raitakari, Olli T and Rankinen, Tuomo and Rao, D C and Rice, Treva K and Ridker, Paul M and Rioux, John D and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Samani, Nilesh J and Saramies, Jouko and Sarzynski, Mark A and Schunkert, Heribert and Schwarz, Peter E H and Sever, Peter and Shuldiner, Alan R and Sinisalo, Juha and Stolk, Ronald P and Strauch, Konstantin and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Tremblay, Angelo and Tremoli, Elena and Virtamo, Jarmo and Vohl, Marie-Claude and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Waeber, Gerard and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Zillikens, M Carola and Adair, Linda S and Amouyel, Philippe and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Assimes, Themistocles L and Bochud, Murielle and Boehm, Bernhard O and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bornstein, Stefan R and Bottinger, Erwin P and Bouchard, Claude and Cauchi, St{\'e}phane and Chambers, John C and Chanock, Stephen J and Cooper, Richard S and de Bakker, Paul I W and Dedoussis, George and Ferrucci, Luigi and Franks, Paul W and Froguel, Philippe and Groop, Leif C and Haiman, Christopher A and Hamsten, Anders and Hui, Jennie and Hunter, David J and Hveem, Kristian and Kaplan, Robert C and Kivimaki, Mika and Kuh, Diana and Laakso, Markku and Liu, Yongmei and Martin, Nicholas G and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Melbye, Mads and Metspalu, Andres and Moebus, Susanne and Munroe, Patricia B and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Oostra, Ben A and Palmer, Colin N A and Pedersen, Nancy L and Perola, Markus and P{\'e}russe, Louis and Peters, Ulrike and Power, Chris and Quertermous, Thomas and Rauramaa, Rainer and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Saaristo, Timo E and Saleheen, Danish and Sattar, Naveed and Schadt, Eric E and Schlessinger, David and Slagboom, P Eline and Snieder, Harold and Spector, Tim D and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Stumvoll, Michael and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Uusitupa, Matti and van der Harst, Pim and Walker, Mark and Wallaschofski, Henri and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Weir, David R and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wilson, James F and Zanen, Pieter and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and Fox, Caroline S and Heid, Iris M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Strachan, David P and Stefansson, Kari and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Franke, Lude and Frayling, Timothy M and McCarthy, Mark I and Visscher, Peter M and Scherag, Andr{\'e} and Willer, Cristen J and Boehnke, Michael and Mohlke, Karen L and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Beckmann, Jacques S and Barroso, In{\^e}s and North, Kari E and Ingelsson, Erik and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Loos, Ruth J F and Speliotes, Elizabeth K} } @article {7724, 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 {3474, title = {Genome-wide association analyses identify 18 new loci associated with serum urate concentrations.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Feb}, pages = {145-54}, abstract = {

Elevated serum urate concentrations can cause gout, a prevalent and painful inflammatory arthritis. By combining data from >140,000 individuals of European ancestry within the Global Urate Genetics Consortium (GUGC), we identified and replicated 28 genome-wide significant loci in association with serum urate concentrations (18 new regions in or near TRIM46, INHBB, SFMBT1, TMEM171, VEGFA, BAZ1B, PRKAG2, STC1, HNF4G, A1CF, ATXN2, UBE2Q2, IGF1R, NFAT5, MAF, HLF, ACVR1B-ACVRL1 and B3GNT4). Associations for many of the loci were of similar magnitude in individuals of non-European ancestry. We further characterized these loci for associations with gout, transcript expression and the fractional excretion of urate. Network analyses implicate the inhibins-activins signaling pathways and glucose metabolism in systemic urate control. New candidate genes for serum urate concentration highlight the importance of metabolic control of urate production and excretion, which may have implications for the treatment and prevention of gout.

}, keywords = {Analysis of Variance, European Continental Ancestry Group, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glucose, Gout, Humans, Inhibins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Signal Transduction, Uric Acid}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2500}, author = {K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Albrecht, Eva and Teumer, Alexander and Vitart, Veronique and Krumsiek, Jan and Hundertmark, Claudia and Pistis, Giorgio and Ruggiero, Daniela and O{\textquoteright}Seaghdha, Conall M and Haller, Toomas and Yang, Qiong and Tanaka, Toshiko and Johnson, Andrew D and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Smith, Albert V and Shi, Julia and Struchalin, Maksim and Middelberg, Rita P S and Brown, Morris J and Gaffo, Angelo L and Pirastu, Nicola and Li, Guo and Hayward, Caroline and Zemunik, Tatijana and Huffman, Jennifer and Yengo, Loic and Zhao, Jing Hua and Demirkan, Ayse and Feitosa, Mary F and Liu, Xuan and Malerba, Giovanni and Lopez, Lorna M and van der Harst, Pim and Li, Xinzhong and Kleber, Marcus E and Hicks, Andrew A and Nolte, Ilja M and Johansson, {\r A}sa and Murgia, Federico and Wild, Sarah H and Bakker, Stephan J L and Peden, John F and Dehghan, Abbas and Steri, Maristella and Tenesa, Albert and Lagou, Vasiliki and Salo, Perttu and Mangino, Massimo and Rose, Lynda M and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Woodward, Owen M and Okada, Yukinori and Tin, Adrienne and M{\"u}ller, Christian and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Putku, Margus and Czamara, Darina and Kraft, Peter and Frogheri, Laura and Thun, Gian Andri and Grotevendt, Anne and Gislason, Gauti Kjartan and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and McArdle, Patrick and Shuldiner, Alan R and Boerwinkle, Eric and Coresh, Josef and Schmidt, Helena and Schallert, Michael and Martin, Nicholas G and Montgomery, Grant W and Kubo, Michiaki and Nakamura, Yusuke and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Munroe, Patricia B and Samani, Nilesh J and Jacobs, David R and Liu, Kiang and d{\textquoteright}Adamo, Pio and Ulivi, Sheila and Rotter, Jerome I and Psaty, Bruce M and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, Gerard and Campbell, Susan and Devuyst, Olivier and Navarro, Pau and Kolcic, Ivana and Hastie, Nicholas and Balkau, Beverley and Froguel, Philippe and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Salumets, Andres and Khaw, Kay Tee and Langenberg, Claudia and Wareham, Nicholas J and Isaacs, Aaron and Kraja, Aldi and Zhang, Qunyuan and Wild, Philipp S and Scott, Rodney J and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Org, Elin and Viigimaa, Margus and Bandinelli, Stefania and Metter, Jeffrey E and Lupo, Antonio and Trabetti, Elisabetta and Sorice, Rossella and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Lattka, Eva and Strauch, Konstantin and Theis, Fabian and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wichmann, H-Erich and Davies, Gail and Gow, Alan J and Bruinenberg, Marcel and Stolk, Ronald P and Kooner, Jaspal S and Zhang, Weihua and Winkelmann, Bernhard R and Boehm, Bernhard O and Lucae, Susanne and Penninx, Brenda W and Smit, Johannes H and Curhan, Gary and Mudgal, Poorva and Plenge, Robert M and Portas, Laura and Persico, Ivana and Kirin, Mirna and Wilson, James F and Mateo Leach, Irene and van Gilst, Wiek H and Goel, Anuj and Ongen, Halit and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Imboden, Medea and von Eckardstein, Arnold and Cucca, Francesco and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Piras, Maria Grazia and Nauck, Matthias and Schurmann, Claudia and Budde, Kathrin and Ernst, Florian and Farrington, Susan M and Theodoratou, Evropi and Prokopenko, Inga and Stumvoll, Michael and Jula, Antti and Perola, Markus and Salomaa, Veikko and Shin, So-Youn and Spector, Tim D and Sala, Cinzia and Ridker, Paul M and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Hengstenberg, Christian and Nelson, Christopher P and Meschia, James F and Nalls, Michael A and Sharma, Pankaj and Singleton, Andrew B and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Zeller, Tanja and Burnier, Michel and Attia, John and Laan, Maris and Klopp, Norman and Hillege, Hans L and Kloiber, Stefan and Choi, Hyon and Pirastu, Mario and Tore, Silvia and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Parsa, Afshin and Schmidt, Reinhold and Whitfield, John B and Fornage, Myriam and Gasparini, Paolo and Siscovick, David S and Polasek, Ozren and Campbell, Harry and Rudan, Igor and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Metspalu, Andres and Loos, Ruth J F and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Ferrucci, Luigi and Gambaro, Giovanni and Deary, Ian J and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Chambers, John C and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Pramstaller, Peter P and Snieder, Harold and Gyllensten, Ulf and Wright, Alan F and Navis, Gerjan and Watkins, Hugh and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Sanna, Serena and Schipf, Sabine and Dunlop, Malcolm G and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Ripatti, Samuli and Soranzo, Nicole and Toniolo, Daniela and Chasman, Daniel I and Raitakari, Olli and Kao, W H Linda and Ciullo, Marina and Fox, Caroline S and Caulfield, Mark and Bochud, Murielle and Gieger, Christian} } @article {1985, title = {Meta-analysis identifies multiple loci associated with kidney function-related traits in east Asian populations.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {44}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Aug}, pages = {904-9}, abstract = {

Chronic kidney disease (CKD), impairment of kidney function, is a serious public health problem, and the assessment of genetic factors influencing kidney function has substantial clinical relevance. Here, we report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for kidney function-related traits, including 71,149 east Asian individuals from 18 studies in 11 population-, hospital- or family-based cohorts, conducted as part of the Asian Genetic Epidemiology Network (AGEN). Our meta-analysis identified 17 loci newly associated with kidney function-related traits, including the concentrations of blood urea nitrogen, uric acid and serum creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate based on serum creatinine levels (eGFRcrea) (P < 5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). We further examined these loci with in silico replication in individuals of European ancestry from the KidneyGen, CKDGen and GUGC consortia, including a combined total of \~{}110,347 individuals. We identify pleiotropic associations among these loci with kidney function-related traits and risk of CKD. These findings provide new insights into the genetics of kidney function.

}, keywords = {Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Blood Urea Nitrogen, Cohort Studies, Creatinine, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Uric Acid}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2352}, author = {Okada, Yukinori and Sim, Xueling and Go, Min Jin and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Gu, Dongfeng and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Takahashi, Atsushi and Maeda, Shiro and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and Chen, Peng and Lim, Su-Chi and Wong, Tien-Yin and Liu, Jianjun and Young, Terri L and Aung, Tin and Seielstad, Mark and Teo, Yik-Ying and Kim, Young Jin and Lee, Jong-Young and Han, Bok-Ghee and Kang, Daehee and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Chang, Li-Ching and Fann, S-J Cathy and Mei, Hao and Rao, Dabeeru C and Hixson, James E and Chen, Shufeng and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Isono, Masato and Ogihara, Toshio and Chambers, John C and Zhang, Weihua and Kooner, Jaspal S and Albrecht, Eva and Yamamoto, Kazuhiko and Kubo, Michiaki and Nakamura, Yusuke and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Kato, Norihiro and He, Jiang and Chen, Yuan-Tsong and Cho, Yoon Shin and Tai, E-Shyong and Tanaka, Toshihiro} } @article {1790, title = {Multiple loci are associated with white blood cell phenotypes.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jun}, pages = {e1002113}, abstract = {

White blood cell (WBC) count is a common clinical measure from complete blood count assays, and it varies widely among healthy individuals. Total WBC count and its constituent subtypes have been shown to be moderately heritable, with the heritability estimates varying across cell types. We studied 19,509 subjects from seven cohorts in a discovery analysis, and 11,823 subjects from ten cohorts for replication analyses, to determine genetic factors influencing variability within the normal hematological range for total WBC count and five WBC subtype measures. Cohort specific data was supplied by the CHARGE, HeamGen, and INGI consortia, as well as independent collaborative studies. We identified and replicated ten associations with total WBC count and five WBC subtypes at seven different genomic loci (total WBC count-6p21 in the HLA region, 17q21 near ORMDL3, and CSF3; neutrophil count-17q21; basophil count- 3p21 near RPN1 and C3orf27; lymphocyte count-6p21, 19p13 at EPS15L1; monocyte count-2q31 at ITGA4, 3q21, 8q24 an intergenic region, 9q31 near EDG2), including three previously reported associations and seven novel associations. To investigate functional relationships among variants contributing to variability in the six WBC traits, we utilized gene expression- and pathways-based analyses. We implemented gene-clustering algorithms to evaluate functional connectivity among implicated loci and showed functional relationships across cell types. Gene expression data from whole blood was utilized to show that significant biological consequences can be extracted from our genome-wide analyses, with effect estimates for significant loci from the meta-analyses being highly corellated with the proximal gene expression. In addition, collaborative efforts between the groups contributing to this study and related studies conducted by the COGENT and RIKEN groups allowed for the examination of effect homogeneity for genome-wide significant associations across populations of diverse ancestral backgrounds.

}, keywords = {Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Leukocyte Count, Leukocytes, Molecular Epidemiology, Multigene Family, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002113}, author = {Nalls, Michael A and Couper, David J and Tanaka, Toshiko and van Rooij, Frank J A and Chen, Ming-Huei and Smith, Albert V and Toniolo, Daniela and Zakai, Neil A and Yang, Qiong and Greinacher, Andreas and Wood, Andrew R and Garcia, Melissa and Gasparini, Paolo and Liu, Yongmei and Lumley, Thomas and Folsom, Aaron R and Reiner, Alex P and Gieger, Christian and Lagou, Vasiliki and Felix, Janine F and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Gouskova, Natalia A and Biffi, Alessandro and D{\"o}ring, Angela and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Chong, Sean and Wiggins, Kerri L and Rendon, Augusto and Dehghan, Abbas and Moore, Matt and Taylor, Kent and Wilson, James G and Lettre, Guillaume and Hofman, Albert and Bis, Joshua C and Pirastu, Nicola and Fox, Caroline S and Meisinger, Christa and Sambrook, Jennifer and Arepalli, Sampath and Nauck, Matthias and Prokisch, Holger and Stephens, Jonathan and Glazer, Nicole L and Cupples, L Adrienne and Okada, Yukinori and Takahashi, Atsushi and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Matsuda, Koichi and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Kubo, Michiaki and Nakamura, Yusuke and Yamamoto, Kazuhiko and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Stumvoll, Michael and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Prokopenko, Inga and Illig, Thomas and Patel, Kushang V and Garner, Stephen F and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Mangino, Massimo and Oostra, Ben A and Thein, Swee Lay and Coresh, Josef and Wichmann, H-Erich and Menzel, Stephan and Lin, JingPing and Pistis, Giorgio and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Spector, Tim D and Teumer, Alexander and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Bandinelli, Stefania and Frayling, Timothy M and Chakravarti, Aravinda and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Melzer, David and Ouwehand, Willem H and Levy, Daniel and Boerwinkle, Eric and Singleton, Andrew B and Hernandez, Dena G and Longo, Dan L and Soranzo, Nicole and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Psaty, Bruce M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Harris, Tamara B and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Ganesh, Santhi K} }