@article {10786, title = {Genome Analyses of >200,000 Individuals Identify 58 Loci for Chronic Inflammation and Highlight Pathways that Link Inflammation and Complex Disorders.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {103}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Nov 01}, pages = {691-706}, abstract = {

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a sensitive biomarker of chronic low-grade inflammation and is associated with multiple complex diseases. The genetic determinants of chronic inflammation remain largely unknown, and the causal role of CRP in several clinical outcomes is debated. We performed two genome-wide association studies (GWASs), on HapMap and 1000 Genomes imputed data, of circulating amounts of CRP by using data from 88 studies comprising 204,402 European individuals. Additionally, we performed in silico functional analyses and Mendelian randomization analyses with several clinical outcomes. The GWAS meta-analyses of CRP revealed 58 distinct genetic loci (p < 5~{\texttimes} 10). After adjustment for body mass index in the regression analysis, the associations at all except three loci remained. The lead variants at the distinct loci explained up to 7.0\% of the variance in circulating amounts of CRP. We identified 66 gene sets that were organized in two substantially correlated clusters, one mainly composed of immune pathways and the other characterized by metabolic pathways in the liver. Mendelian randomization analyses revealed a causal protective effect of CRP on schizophrenia and a risk-increasing effect on bipolar disorder. Our findings provide further insights into the biology of inflammation and could lead to interventions for treating inflammation and its clinical consequences.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.09.009}, author = {Ligthart, Symen and Vaez, Ahmad and V{\~o}sa, Urmo and Stathopoulou, Maria G and de Vries, Paul S and Prins, Bram P and van der Most, Peter J and Tanaka, Toshiko and Naderi, Elnaz and Rose, Lynda M and Wu, Ying and Karlsson, Robert and Barbalic, Maja and Lin, Honghuang and Pool, Ren{\'e} and Zhu, Gu and Mac{\'e}, Aur{\'e}lien and Sidore, Carlo and Trompet, Stella and Mangino, Massimo and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Kemp, John P and Abbasi, Ali and Kacprowski, Tim and Verweij, Niek and Smith, Albert V and Huang, Tao and Marzi, Carola and Feitosa, Mary F and Lohman, Kurt K and Kleber, Marcus E and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mueller, Christian and Huq, Mahmudul and Vlachopoulou, Efthymia and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Deelen, Joris and Perola, Markus and Zhao, Jing Hua and Feenstra, Bjarke and Amini, Marzyeh and Lahti, Jari and Schraut, Katharina E and Fornage, Myriam and Suktitipat, Bhoom and Chen, Wei-Min and Li, Xiaohui and Nutile, Teresa and Malerba, Giovanni and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Bak, Tom and Schork, Nicholas and del Greco M, Fabiola and Thiering, Elisabeth and Mahajan, Anubha and Marioni, Riccardo E and Mihailov, Evelin and Eriksson, Joel and Ozel, Ayse Bilge and Zhang, Weihua and Nethander, Maria and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Aslibekyan, Stella and Ang, Wei and Gandin, Ilaria and Yengo, Loic and Portas, Laura and Kooperberg, Charles and Hofer, Edith and Rajan, Kumar B and Schurmann, Claudia and den Hollander, Wouter and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Zhao, Jing and Draisma, Harmen H M and Ford, Ian and Timpson, Nicholas and Teumer, Alexander and Huang, Hongyan and Wahl, Simone and Liu, Yongmei and Huang, Jie and Uh, Hae-Won and Geller, Frank and Joshi, Peter K and Yanek, Lisa R and Trabetti, Elisabetta and Lehne, Benjamin and Vozzi, Diego and Verbanck, Marie and Biino, Ginevra and Saba, Yasaman and Meulenbelt, Ingrid and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Laakso, Markku and Giulianini, Franco and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Ballantyne, Christie M and Hottenga, Jouke Jan and Montgomery, Grant W and Rivadineira, Fernando and Rueedi, Rico and Steri, Maristella and Herzig, Karl-Heinz and Stott, David J and Menni, Cristina and Fr{\r a}nberg, Mattias and St Pourcain, Beate and Felix, Stephan B and Pers, Tune H and Bakker, Stephan J L and Kraft, Peter and Peters, Annette and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Delgado, Graciela and Smit, Johannes H and Gro{\ss}mann, Vera and Sinisalo, Juha and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Williams, Stephen R and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Moed, Matthijs and Langenberg, Claudia and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Ding, Jingzhong and Campbell, Harry and Sale, Michele M and Chen, Yii-Der I and James, Alan L and Ruggiero, Daniela and Soranzo, Nicole and Hartman, Catharina A and Smith, Erin N and Berenson, Gerald S and Fuchsberger, Christian and Hernandez, Dena and Tiesler, Carla M T and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Liewald, David and Fischer, Krista and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and Larsson, Anders and Wang, Yunmei and Scott, William R and Lorentzon, Matthias and Beilby, John and Ryan, Kathleen A and Pennell, Craig E and Vuckovic, Dragana and Balkau, Beverly and Concas, Maria Pina and Schmidt, Reinhold and Mendes de Leon, Carlos F and Bottinger, Erwin P and Kloppenburg, Margreet and Paternoster, Lavinia and Boehnke, Michael and Musk, A W and Willemsen, Gonneke and Evans, David M and Madden, Pamela A F and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Zoledziewska, Magdalena and Karhunen, Ville and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Sattar, Naveed and LaChance, Genevieve and Clarke, Robert and Harris, Tamara B and Raitakari, Olli T and Attia, John R and van Heemst, Diana and Kajantie, Eero and Sorice, Rossella and Gambaro, Giovanni and Scott, Robert A and Hicks, Andrew A and Ferrucci, Luigi and Standl, Marie and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Starr, John M and Karlsson, Magnus and Lind, Lars and Li, Jun Z and Chambers, John C and Mori, Trevor A and de Geus, Eco J C N and Heath, Andrew C and Martin, Nicholas G and Auvinen, Juha and Buckley, Brendan M and de Craen, Anton J M and Waldenberger, Melanie and Strauch, Konstantin and Meitinger, Thomas and Scott, Rodney J and McEvoy, Mark and Beekman, Marian and Bombieri, Cristina and Ridker, Paul M and Mohlke, Karen L and Pedersen, Nancy L and Morrison, Alanna C and Boomsma, Dorret I and Whitfield, John B and Strachan, David P and Hofman, Albert and Vollenweider, Peter and Cucca, Francesco and J{\"a}rvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jukema, J Wouter and Spector, Tim D and Hamsten, Anders and Zeller, Tanja and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Nauck, Matthias and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Qi, Lu and Grallert, Harald and Borecki, Ingrid B and Rotter, Jerome I and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Wild, Philipp S and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Boyle, Michael and Salomaa, Veikko and Melbye, Mads and Eriksson, Johan G and Wilson, James F and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Becker, Diane M and Worrall, Bradford B and Gibson, Greg and Krauss, Ronald M and Ciullo, Marina and Zaza, Gianluigi and Wareham, Nicholas J and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Palmer, Lyle J and Murray, Sarah S and Pramstaller, Peter P and Bandinelli, Stefania and Heinrich, Joachim and Ingelsson, Erik and Deary, Ian J and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Vandenput, Liesbeth and van der Harst, Pim and Desch, Karl C and Kooner, Jaspal S and Ohlsson, Claes and Hayward, Caroline and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Shuldiner, Alan R and Arnett, Donna K and Beilin, Lawrence J and Robino, Antonietta and Froguel, Philippe and Pirastu, Mario and Jess, Tine and Koenig, Wolfgang and Loos, Ruth J F and Evans, Denis A and Schmidt, Helena and Smith, George Davey and Slagboom, P Eline and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Morris, Andrew P and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Nolte, Ilja M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Visvikis-Siest, Sophie and Reiner, Alex P and Gross, Myron and Bis, Joshua C and Franke, Lude and Franco, Oscar H and Benjamin, Emelia J and Chasman, Daniel I and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Snieder, Harold and Dehghan, Abbas and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z} } @article {10427, title = {A Large-Scale Multi-ancestry Genome-wide Study Accounting for Smoking Behavior Identifies Multiple Significant Loci for Blood Pressure.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {102}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 03 01}, pages = {375-400}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association analysis advanced understanding of blood pressure (BP), a major risk factor for vascular conditions such as coronary heart disease and stroke. Accounting for smoking behavior may help identify BP loci and extend our knowledge of its genetic architecture. We performed genome-wide association meta-analyses of systolic and diastolic BP incorporating gene-smoking interactions in 610,091 individuals. Stage 1 analysis examined \~{}18.8 million SNPs and small insertion/deletion variants in 129,913 individuals from four ancestries (European, African, Asian, and Hispanic) with follow-up analysis of promising variants in 480,178 additional individuals from five ancestries. We identified 15 loci that were genome-wide significant (p < 5~{\texttimes} 10) in stage 1 and formally replicated in stage 2. A combined stage 1 and 2 meta-analysis identified 66 additional genome-wide significant loci (13, 35, and 18 loci in European, African, and trans-ancestry, respectively). A total of 56 known BP loci were also identified by our results (p < 5~{\texttimes} 10). Of the newly identified loci, ten showed significant interaction with smoking status, but none of them were replicated in stage 2. Several loci were identified in African ancestry, highlighting the importance of genetic studies in diverse populations. The identified loci show strong evidence for regulatory features and support shared pathophysiology with cardiometabolic and addiction traits. They also highlight a role in BP regulation for biological candidates such as modulators of vascular structure and function (CDKN1B, BCAR1-CFDP1, PXDN, EEA1), ciliopathies (SDCCAG8, RPGRIP1L), telomere maintenance (TNKS, PINX1, AKTIP), and central dopaminergic signaling (MSRA, EBF2).

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Cohort Studies, Continental Population Groups, Diastole, Epistasis, Genetic, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Reproducibility of Results, Smoking, Systole}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.01.015}, author = {Sung, Yun J and Winkler, Thomas W and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Bentley, Amy R and Brown, Michael R and Kraja, Aldi T and Schwander, Karen and Ntalla, Ioanna and Guo, Xiuqing and Franceschini, Nora and Lu, Yingchang and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Sim, Xueling and Vojinovic, Dina and Marten, Jonathan and Musani, Solomon K and Li, Changwei and Feitosa, Mary F and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Richard, Melissa A and Noordam, Raymond and Aslibekyan, Stella and Aschard, Hugues and Bartz, Traci M and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Liu, Yongmei and Manning, Alisa K and Rankinen, Tuomo and Smith, Albert Vernon and Tajuddin, Salman M and Tayo, Bamidele O and Warren, Helen R and Zhao, Wei and Zhou, Yanhua and Matoba, Nana and Sofer, Tamar and Alver, Maris and Amini, Marzyeh and Boissel, Mathilde and Chai, Jin Fang and Chen, Xu and Divers, Jasmin and Gandin, Ilaria and Gao, Chuan and Giulianini, Franco and Goel, Anuj and Harris, Sarah E and Hartwig, Fernando Pires and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Jackson, Anne U and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Leander, Karin and Lee, Wen-Jane and Lin, Keng-Hung and {\textquoteright}an Luan, Jian and McKenzie, Colin A and Meian, He and Nelson, Christopher P and Rauramaa, Rainer and Schupf, Nicole and Scott, Robert A and Sheu, Wayne H H and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and van der Most, Peter J and Varga, Tibor V and Wang, Heming and Wang, Yajuan and Ware, Erin B and Weiss, Stefan and Wen, Wanqing and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Jing Hua and Afaq, Saima and Alfred, Tamuno and Amin, Najaf and Arking, Dan and Aung, Tin and Barr, R Graham and Bielak, Lawrence F and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Braund, Peter S and Brody, Jennifer A and Broeckel, Ulrich and Cabrera, Claudia P and Cade, Brian and Caizheng, Yu and Campbell, Archie and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chauhan, Ganesh and Christensen, Kaare and Cocca, Massimiliano and Collins, Francis S and Connell, John M and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Silva, H Janaka and Debette, St{\'e}phanie and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Duan, Qing and Eaton, Charles B and Ehret, Georg and Evangelou, Evangelos and Faul, Jessica D and Fisher, Virginia A and Forouhi, Nita G and Franco, Oscar H and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gao, He and Gigante, Bruna and Graff, Misa and Gu, C Charles and Gu, Dongfeng and Gupta, Preeti and Hagenaars, Saskia P and Harris, Tamara B and He, Jiang and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hirata, Makoto and Hofman, Albert and Howard, Barbara V and Hunt, Steven and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jia, Yucheng and Joehanes, Roby and Justice, Anne E and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Kaufman, Joel and Kerrison, Nicola D and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Koh, Woon-Puay and Koistinen, Heikki A and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kooperberg, Charles and Krieger, Jose E and Kubo, Michiaki and Kuusisto, Johanna and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lehne, Benjamin and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Yize and Lim, Sing Hui and Lin, Shiow and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jianjun and Liu, Jingmin and Liu, Kiang and Liu, Yeheng and Loh, Marie and Lohman, Kurt K and Long, Jirong and Louie, Tin and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mahajan, Anubha and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milani, Lili and Momozawa, Yukihide and Morris, Andrew P and Mosley, Thomas H and Munson, Peter and Murray, Alison D and Nalls, Mike A and Nasri, Ubaydah and Norris, Jill M and North, Kari and Ogunniyi, Adesola and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmas, Walter R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pankow, James S and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Raitakari, Olli T and Renstrom, Frida and Rice, Treva K and Ridker, Paul M and Robino, Antonietta and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rose, Lynda M and Rudan, Igor and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Salako, Babatunde L and Sandow, Kevin and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schreiner, Pamela J and Scott, William R and Seshadri, Sudha and Sever, Peter and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Starr, John M and Strauch, Konstantin and Tang, Hua and Taylor, Kent D and Teo, Yik Ying and Tham, Yih Chung and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Lihua and Wang, Ya X and Wei, Wen Bin and Williams, Christine and Wilson, Gregory and Wojczynski, Mary K and Yao, Jie and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and Chambers, John C and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and de Faire, Ulf and Deary, Ian J and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Farrall, Martin and Forrester, Terrence and Franks, Paul W and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Horta, Bernardo Lessa and Hung, Yi-Jen and Jonas, Jost B and Kato, Norihiro and Kooner, Jaspal S and Laakso, Markku and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Liang, Kae-Woei and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Newman, Anne B and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Pereira, Alexandre C and Redline, Susan and Rettig, Rainer and Samani, Nilesh J and Scott, James and Shu, Xiao-Ou and van der Harst, Pim and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Weir, David R and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and Wu, Tangchun and Zheng, Wei and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Laurie, Cathy C and Bouchard, Claude and Cooper, Richard S and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Levy, Daniel and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Psaty, Bruce M and van Dam, Rob M and Sims, Mario and Arnett, Donna K and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Kelly, Tanika N and Fox, Ervin R and Hayward, Caroline and Fornage, Myriam and Rotimi, Charles N and Province, Michael A and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Tai, E Shyong and Wong, Tien Yin and Loos, Ruth J F and Reiner, Alex P and Rotter, Jerome I and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Bierut, Laura J and Gauderman, W James and Caulfield, Mark J and Elliott, Paul and Rice, Kenneth and Munroe, Patricia B and Morrison, Alanna C and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rao, Dabeeru C and Chasman, Daniel I} } @article {10572, title = { and Loci Identified through Large-Scale Exome Chip Analysis Regulate Kidney Development and Function.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {28}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Mar}, pages = {981-994}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies have identified >50 common variants associated with kidney function, but these variants do not fully explain the variation in eGFR. We performed a two-stage meta-analysis of associations between genotypes from the Illumina exome array and eGFR on the basis of serum creatinine (eGFRcrea) among participants of European ancestry from the CKDGen Consortium (: 111,666; : 48,343). In single-variant analyses, we identified single nucleotide polymorphisms at seven new loci associated with eGFRcrea (, , and ; <3.7{\texttimes}10), of which most were common and annotated as nonsynonymous variants. Gene-based analysis identified associations of functional rare variants in three genes with eGFRcrea, including a novel association with the SOS Ras/Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor 2 gene, (=5.4{\texttimes}10 by sequence kernel association test). Experimental follow-up in zebrafish embryos revealed changes in glomerular gene expression and renal tubule morphology in the embryonic kidney of and -knockdowns. These developmental abnormalities associated with altered blood clearance rate and heightened prevalence of edema. This study expands the number of loci associated with kidney function and identifies novel genes with potential roles in kidney formation.

}, keywords = {Animals, Exome, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney, Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases, Proto-Oncogene Proteins, Son of Sevenless Proteins, Zebrafish}, issn = {1533-3450}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2016020131}, author = {Li, Man and Li, Yong and Weeks, Olivia and Mijatovic, Vladan and Teumer, Alexander and Huffman, Jennifer E and Tromp, Gerard and Fuchsberger, Christian and Gorski, Mathias and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nutile, Teresa and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Sorice, Rossella and Tin, Adrienne and Yang, Qiong and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Arking, Dan E and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Carroll, Robert J and Chasman, Daniel I and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Dehghan, Abbas and Faul, Jessica D and Feitosa, Mary F and Gambaro, Giovanni and Gasparini, Paolo and Giulianini, Franco and Heid, Iris and Huang, Jinyan and Imboden, Medea and Jackson, Anne U and Jeff, Janina and Jhun, Min A and Katz, Ronit and Kifley, Annette and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Kumar, Ashish and Laakso, Markku and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lohman, Kurt and Lu, Yingchang and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Malerba, Giovanni and Mihailov, Evelin and Mohlke, Karen L and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Robino, Antonietta and Ruderfer, Douglas and Salvi, Erika and Schick, Ursula M and Schulz, Christina-Alexandra and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Jennifer A and Traglia, Michela and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Zhao, Wei and Goodarzi, Mark O and Kraja, Aldi T and Liu, Chunyu and Wessel, Jennifer and Boerwinkle, Eric and Borecki, Ingrid B and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bottinger, Erwin P and Braga, Daniele and Brandslund, Ivan and Brody, Jennifer A and Campbell, Archie and Carey, David J and Christensen, Cramer and Coresh, Josef and Crook, Errol and Curhan, Gary C and Cusi, Daniele and de Boer, Ian H and de Vries, Aiko P J and Denny, Joshua C and Devuyst, Olivier and Dreisbach, Albert W and Endlich, Karlhans and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Franco, Oscar H and Fulop, Tibor and Gerhard, Glenn S and Gl{\"u}mer, Charlotte and Gottesman, Omri and Grarup, Niels and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Hocking, Lynne and Hofman, Albert and Hu, Frank B and Husemoen, Lise Lotte N and Jackson, Rebecca D and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kardia, Sharon L R and K{\"o}nig, Wolfgang and Kooperberg, Charles and Kriebel, Jennifer and Launer, Lenore J and Lauritzen, Torsten and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Levy, Daniel and Linksted, Pamela and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and Lupo, Antonio and Meisinger, Christine and Melander, Olle and Metspalu, Andres and Mitchell, Paul and Nauck, Matthias and N{\"u}rnberg, Peter and Orho-Melander, Marju and Parsa, Afshin and Pedersen, Oluf and Peters, Annette and Peters, Ulrike and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and Psaty, Bruce M and Qi, Lu and Raitakari, Olli T and Reiner, Alex P and Rettig, Rainer and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rossouw, Jacques E and Schmidt, Frank and Siscovick, David and Soranzo, Nicole and Strauch, Konstantin and Toniolo, Daniela and Turner, Stephen T and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ulivi, Sheila and Velayutham, Dinesh and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Jie Jin and Weir, David R and Witte, Daniel and Kuivaniemi, Helena and Fox, Caroline S and Franceschini, Nora and Goessling, Wolfram and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Chu, Audrey Y} } @article {10493, title = {Rare and low-frequency coding variants alter human adult height.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {542}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 02 09}, pages = {186-190}, abstract = {

Height is a highly heritable, classic polygenic trait with approximately 700 common associated variants identified through genome-wide association studies so far. Here, we report 83 height-associated coding variants with lower minor-allele frequencies (in the range of 0.1-4.8\%) and effects of up to 2 centimetres per allele (such as those in IHH, STC2, AR and CRISPLD2), greater than ten times the average effect of common variants. In functional follow-up studies, rare height-increasing alleles of STC2 (giving an increase of 1-2 centimetres per allele) compromised proteolytic inhibition of PAPP-A and increased cleavage of IGFBP-4 in vitro, resulting in higher bioavailability of insulin-like growth factors. These 83 height-associated variants overlap genes that are mutated in monogenic growth disorders and highlight new biological candidates (such as ADAMTS3, IL11RA and NOX4) and pathways (such as proteoglycan and glycosaminoglycan synthesis) involved in growth. Our results demonstrate that sufficiently large sample sizes can uncover rare and low-frequency variants of moderate-to-large effect associated with polygenic human phenotypes, and that these variants implicate relevant genes and pathways.

}, keywords = {ADAMTS Proteins, Adult, Alleles, Body Height, Cell Adhesion Molecules, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Glycoproteins, Glycosaminoglycans, Hedgehog Proteins, Humans, Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins, Interferon Regulatory Factors, Interleukin-11 Receptor alpha Subunit, Male, Multifactorial Inheritance, NADPH Oxidase 4, NADPH Oxidases, Phenotype, Pregnancy-Associated Plasma Protein-A, Procollagen N-Endopeptidase, Proteoglycans, Proteolysis, Receptors, Androgen, Somatomedins}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature21039}, author = {Marouli, Eirini and Graff, Mariaelisa and Medina-Gomez, Carolina and Lo, Ken Sin and Wood, Andrew R and Kjaer, Troels R and Fine, Rebecca S and Lu, Yingchang and Schurmann, Claudia and Highland, Heather M and R{\"u}eger, Sina and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Justice, Anne E and Lamparter, David and Stirrups, Kathleen E and Turcot, Val{\'e}rie and Young, Kristin L and Winkler, Thomas W and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Karaderi, Tugce and Locke, Adam E and Masca, Nicholas G D and Ng, Maggie C Y and Mudgal, Poorva and Rivas, Manuel A and Vedantam, Sailaja and Mahajan, Anubha and Guo, Xiuqing and Abecasis, Goncalo and Aben, Katja K and Adair, Linda S and Alam, Dewan S and Albrecht, Eva and Allin, Kristine H and Allison, Matthew and Amouyel, Philippe and Appel, Emil V and Arveiler, Dominique and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Auer, Paul L and Balkau, Beverley and Banas, Bernhard and Bang, Lia E and Benn, Marianne and Bergmann, Sven and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bl{\"u}her, Matthias and Boeing, Heiner and Boerwinkle, Eric and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bots, Michiel L and Bottinger, Erwin P and Bowden, Donald W and Brandslund, Ivan and Breen, Gerome and Brilliant, Murray H and Broer, Linda and Burt, Amber A and Butterworth, Adam S and Carey, David J and Caulfield, Mark J and Chambers, John C and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chowdhury, Rajiv and Christensen, Cramer and Chu, Audrey Y and Cocca, Massimiliano and Collins, Francis S and Cook, James P and Corley, Janie and Galbany, Jordi Corominas and Cox, Amanda J and Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel and Danesh, John and Davies, Gail and de Bakker, Paul I W and de Borst, Gert J and de Denus, Simon and de Groot, Mark C H and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Deary, Ian J and Dedoussis, George and Demerath, Ellen W and den Hollander, Anneke I and Dennis, Joe G and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Drenos, Fotios and Du, Mengmeng and Dunning, Alison M and Easton, Douglas F and Ebeling, Tapani and Edwards, Todd L and Ellinor, Patrick T and Elliott, Paul and Evangelou, Evangelos and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Faul, Jessica D and Feitosa, Mary F and Feng, Shuang and Ferrannini, Ele and Ferrario, Marco M and Ferri{\`e}res, Jean and Florez, Jose C and Ford, Ian and Fornage, Myriam and Franks, Paul W and Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth and Galesloot, Tessel E and Gan, Wei and Gandin, Ilaria and Gasparini, Paolo and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Giri, Ayush and Girotto, Giorgia and Gordon, Scott D and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Gorski, Mathias and Grarup, Niels and Grove, Megan L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gustafsson, Stefan and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Kathleen Mullan and Harris, Tamara B and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hayward, Caroline and He, Liang and Heid, Iris M and Heikkil{\"a}, Kauko and Helgeland, {\O}yvind and Hernesniemi, Jussi and Hewitt, Alex W and Hocking, Lynne J and Hollensted, Mette and Holmen, Oddgeir L and Hovingh, G Kees and Howson, Joanna M M and Hoyng, Carel B and Huang, Paul L and Hveem, Kristian and Ikram, M Arfan and Ingelsson, Erik and Jackson, Anne U and Jansson, Jan-H{\r a}kan and Jarvik, Gail P and Jensen, Gorm B and Jhun, Min A and Jia, Yucheng and Jiang, Xuejuan and Johansson, Stefan and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jukema, J Wouter and Kahali, Bratati and Kahn, Ren{\'e} S and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamstrup, Pia R and Kanoni, Stavroula and Kaprio, Jaakko and Karaleftheri, Maria and Kardia, Sharon L R and Karpe, Fredrik and Kee, Frank and Keeman, Renske and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Kitajima, Hidetoshi and Kluivers, Kirsten B and Kocher, Thomas and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kontto, Jukka and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kooperberg, Charles and Kovacs, Peter and Kriebel, Jennifer and Kuivaniemi, Helena and K{\"u}ry, S{\'e}bastien and Kuusisto, Johanna and La Bianca, Martina and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lange, Ethan M and Lange, Leslie A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Larson, Eric B and Lee, I-Te and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Huaixing and Li, Jin and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lin, Honghuang and Lin, Li-An and Lin, Xu and Lind, Lars and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Yeheng and Liu, Yongmei and Lophatananon, Artitaya and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lubitz, Steven A and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mackey, David A and Madden, Pamela A F and Manning, Alisa K and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Marenne, Ga{\"e}lle and Marten, Jonathan and Martin, Nicholas G and Mazul, Angela L and Meidtner, Karina and Metspalu, Andres and Mitchell, Paul and Mohlke, Karen L and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Morgan, Anna and Morris, Andrew D and Morris, Andrew P and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Munroe, Patricia B and Nalls, Mike A and Nauck, Matthias and Nelson, Christopher P and Neville, Matt and Nielsen, Sune F and Nikus, Kjell and Nj{\o}lstad, P{\r a}l R and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Ntalla, Ioanna and O{\textquoteright}Connel, Jeffrey R and Oksa, Heikki and Loohuis, Loes M Olde and Ophoff, Roel A and Owen, Katharine R and Packard, Chris J and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmer, Colin N A and Pasterkamp, Gerard and Patel, Aniruddh P and Pattie, Alison and Pedersen, Oluf and Peissig, Peggy L and Peloso, Gina M and Pennell, Craig E and Perola, Markus and Perry, James A and Perry, John R B and Person, Thomas N and Pirie, Ailith and Polasek, Ozren and Posthuma, Danielle and Raitakari, Olli T and Rasheed, Asif and Rauramaa, Rainer and Reilly, Dermot F and Reiner, Alex P and Renstrom, Frida and Ridker, Paul M and Rioux, John D and Robertson, Neil and Robino, Antonietta and Rolandsson, Olov and Rudan, Igor and Ruth, Katherine S and Saleheen, Danish and Salomaa, Veikko and Samani, Nilesh J and Sandow, Kevin and Sapkota, Yadav and Sattar, Naveed and Schmidt, Marjanka K and Schreiner, Pamela J and Schulze, Matthias B and Scott, Robert A and Segura-Lepe, Marcelo P and Shah, Svati and Sim, Xueling and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Small, Kerrin S and Smith, Albert Vernon and Smith, Jennifer A and Southam, Lorraine and Spector, Timothy D and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Starr, John M and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Stringham, Heather M and Stumvoll, Michael and Surendran, Praveen and {\textquoteright}t Hart, Leen M and Tansey, Katherine E and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Thompson, Deborah J and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Thuesen, Betina H and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tromp, Gerard and Trompet, Stella and Tsafantakis, Emmanouil and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and Tyrer, Jonathan P and Uher, Rudolf and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ulivi, Sheila and van der Laan, Sander W and Van Der Leij, Andries R and van Duijn, Cornelia M and van Schoor, Natasja M and van Setten, Jessica and Varbo, Anette and Varga, Tibor V and Varma, Rohit and Edwards, Digna R Velez and Vermeulen, Sita H and Vestergaard, Henrik and Vitart, Veronique and Vogt, Thomas F and Vozzi, Diego and Walker, Mark and Wang, Feijie and Wang, Carol A and Wang, Shuai and Wang, Yiqin and Wareham, Nicholas J and Warren, Helen R and Wessel, Jennifer and Willems, Sara M and Wilson, James G and Witte, Daniel R and Woods, Michael O and Wu, Ying and Yaghootkar, Hanieh and Yao, Jie and Yao, Pang and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Young, Robin and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Zhan, Xiaowei and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zhao, Wei and Zhao, Wei and Zheng, He and Zhou, Wei and Rotter, Jerome I and Boehnke, Michael and Kathiresan, Sekar and McCarthy, Mark I and Willer, Cristen J and Stefansson, Kari and Borecki, Ingrid B and Liu, Dajiang J and North, Kari E and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Pers, Tune H and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Oxvig, Claus and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Loos, Ruth J F and Frayling, Timothy M and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Deloukas, Panos and Lettre, Guillaume} } @article {8066, title = {Large-scale genomic analyses link reproductive aging to hypothalamic signaling, breast cancer susceptibility and BRCA1-mediated DNA repair.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {47}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Nov}, pages = {1294-303}, abstract = {

Menopause timing has a substantial impact on infertility and risk of disease, including breast cancer, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We report a dual strategy in \~{}70,000 women to identify common and low-frequency protein-coding variation associated with age at natural menopause (ANM). We identified 44 regions with common variants, including two regions harboring additional rare missense alleles of large effect. We found enrichment of signals in or near genes involved in delayed puberty, highlighting the first molecular links between the onset and end of reproductive lifespan. Pathway analyses identified major association with DNA damage response (DDR) genes, including the first common coding variant in BRCA1 associated with any complex trait. Mendelian randomization analyses supported a causal effect of later ANM on breast cancer risk (\~{}6\% increase in risk per year; P = 3 {\texttimes} 10(-14)), likely mediated by prolonged sex hormone exposure rather than DDR mechanisms.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3412}, author = {Day, Felix R and Ruth, Katherine S and Thompson, Deborah J and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Pervjakova, Natalia and Chasman, Daniel I and Stolk, Lisette and Finucane, Hilary K and Sulem, Patrick and Bulik-Sullivan, Brendan and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Johnson, Andrew D and Elks, Cathy E and Franceschini, Nora and He, Chunyan and Altmaier, Elisabeth and Brody, Jennifer A and Franke, Lude L and Huffman, Jennifer E and Keller, Margaux F and McArdle, Patrick F and Nutile, Teresa and Porcu, Eleonora and Robino, Antonietta and Rose, Lynda M and Schick, Ursula M and Smith, Jennifer A and Teumer, Alexander and Traglia, Michela and Vuckovic, Dragana and Yao, Jie and Zhao, Wei and Albrecht, Eva and Amin, Najaf and Corre, Tanguy and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Mangino, Massimo and Smith, Albert V and Tanaka, Toshiko and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Andrulis, Irene L and Anton-Culver, Hoda and Antoniou, Antonis C and Arndt, Volker and Arnold, Alice M and Barbieri, Caterina and Beckmann, Matthias W and Beeghly-Fadiel, Alicia and Benitez, Javier and Bernstein, Leslie and Bielinski, Suzette J and Blomqvist, Carl and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bogdanova, Natalia V and Bojesen, Stig E and Bolla, Manjeet K and Borresen-Dale, Anne-Lise and Boutin, Thibaud S and Brauch, Hiltrud and Brenner, Hermann and Br{\"u}ning, Thomas and Burwinkel, Barbara and Campbell, Archie and Campbell, Harry and Chanock, Stephen J and Chapman, J Ross and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chenevix-Trench, Georgia and Couch, Fergus J and Coviello, Andrea D and Cox, Angela and Czene, Kamila and Darabi, Hatef and De Vivo, Immaculata and Demerath, Ellen W and Dennis, Joe and Devilee, Peter and D{\"o}rk, Thilo and Dos-Santos-Silva, Isabel and Dunning, Alison M and Eicher, John D and Fasching, Peter A and Faul, Jessica D and Figueroa, Jonine and Flesch-Janys, Dieter and Gandin, Ilaria and Garcia, Melissa E and Garc{\'\i}a-Closas, Montserrat and Giles, Graham G and Girotto, Giorgia G and Goldberg, Mark S and Gonz{\'a}lez-Neira, Anna and Goodarzi, Mark O and Grove, Megan L and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Guenel, Pascal and Guo, Xiuqing and Haiman, Christopher A and Hall, Per and Hamann, Ute and Henderson, Brian E and Hocking, Lynne J and Hofman, Albert and Homuth, Georg and Hooning, Maartje J and Hopper, John L and Hu, Frank B and Huang, Jinyan and Humphreys, Keith and Hunter, David J and Jakubowska, Anna and Jones, Samuel E and Kabisch, Maria and Karasik, David and Knight, Julia A and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooperberg, Charles and Kosma, Veli-Matti and Kriebel, Jennifer and Kristensen, Vessela and Lambrechts, Diether and Langenberg, Claudia and Li, Jingmei and Li, Xin and Lindstr{\"o}m, Sara and Liu, Yongmei and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lubinski, Jan and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mannermaa, Arto and Manz, Judith and Margolin, Sara and Marten, Jonathan and Martin, Nicholas G and Masciullo, Corrado and Meindl, Alfons and Michailidou, Kyriaki and Mihailov, Evelin and Milani, Lili and Milne, Roger L and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nalls, Michael and Neale, Benjamin M and Nevanlinna, Heli and Neven, Patrick and Newman, Anne B and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Olson, Janet E and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Peterlongo, Paolo and Peters, Ulrike and Petersmann, Astrid and Peto, Julian and Pharoah, Paul D P and Pirastu, Nicola N and Pirie, Ailith and Pistis, Giorgio and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David and Psaty, Bruce M and Pylk{\"a}s, Katri and Radice, Paolo and Raffel, Leslie J and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rudan, Igor and Rudolph, Anja and Ruggiero, Daniela and Sala, Cinzia F and Sanna, Serena and Sawyer, Elinor J and Schlessinger, David and Schmidt, Marjanka K and Schmidt, Frank and Schmutzler, Rita K and Schoemaker, Minouk J and Scott, Robert A and Seynaeve, Caroline M and Simard, Jacques and Sorice, Rossella and Southey, Melissa C and St{\"o}ckl, Doris and Strauch, Konstantin and Swerdlow, Anthony and Taylor, Kent D and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Toland, Amanda E and Tomlinson, Ian and Truong, Therese and Tryggvadottir, Laufey and Turner, Stephen T and Vozzi, Diego and Wang, Qin and Wellons, Melissa and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, James F and Winqvist, Robert and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce B H R and Wright, Alan F and Yannoukakos, Drakoulis and Zemunik, Tatijana and Zheng, Wei and Zygmunt, Marek and Bergmann, Sven and Boomsma, Dorret I and Buring, Julie E and Ferrucci, Luigi and Montgomery, Grant W and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Spector, Tim D and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Ciullo, Marina and Crisponi, Laura and Easton, Douglas F and Gasparini, Paolo P and Gieger, Christian and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kraft, Peter and McKnight, Barbara and Metspalu, Andres and Morrison, Alanna C and Reiner, Alex P and Ridker, Paul M and Rotter, Jerome I and Toniolo, Daniela and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ulivi, Sheila and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wareham, Nicholas J and Weir, David R and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Price, Alkes L and Stefansson, Kari and Visser, Jenny A and Ong, Ken K and Chang-Claude, Jenny and Murabito, Joanne M and Perry, John R B and Murray, Anna} } @article {7736, title = {Rare coding variants and X-linked loci associated with age at menarche.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {6}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {7756}, abstract = {

More than 100 loci have been identified for age at menarche by genome-wide association studies; however, collectively these explain only \~{}3\% of the trait variance. Here we test two overlooked sources of variation in 192,974 European ancestry women: low-frequency protein-coding variants and X-chromosome variants. Five missense/nonsense variants (in ALMS1/LAMB2/TNRC6A/TACR3/PRKAG1) are associated with age at menarche (minor allele frequencies 0.08-4.6\%; effect sizes 0.08-1.25 years per allele; P<5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). In addition, we identify common X-chromosome loci at IGSF1 (rs762080, P=9.4 {\texttimes} 10(-13)) and FAAH2 (rs5914101, P=4.9 {\texttimes} 10(-10)). Highlighted genes implicate cellular energy homeostasis, post-transcriptional gene silencing and fatty-acid amide signalling. A frequently reported mutation in TACR3 for idiopathic hypogonatrophic hypogonadism (p.W275X) is associated with 1.25-year-later menarche (P=2.8 {\texttimes} 10(-11)), illustrating the utility of population studies to estimate the penetrance of reportedly pathogenic mutations. Collectively, these novel variants explain \~{}0.5\% variance, indicating that these overlooked sources of variation do not substantially explain the {\textquoteright}missing heritability{\textquoteright} of this complex trait.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms8756}, author = {Lunetta, Kathryn L and Day, Felix R and Sulem, Patrick and Ruth, Katherine S and Tung, Joyce Y and Hinds, David A and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Elks, Cathy E and Altmaier, Elisabeth and He, Chunyan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Mihailov, Evelin and Porcu, Eleonora and Robino, Antonietta and Rose, Lynda M and Schick, Ursula M and Stolk, Lisette and Teumer, Alexander and Thompson, Deborah J and Traglia, Michela and Wang, Carol A and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Antoniou, Antonis C and Barbieri, Caterina and Coviello, Andrea D and Cucca, Francesco and Demerath, Ellen W and Dunning, Alison M and Gandin, Ilaria and Grove, Megan L and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Hocking, Lynne J and Hofman, Albert and Huang, Jinyan and Jackson, Rebecca D and Karasik, David and Kriebel, Jennifer and Lange, Ethan M and Lange, Leslie A and Langenberg, Claudia and Li, Xin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Morrison, Alanna C and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Pirie, Ailith and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David and Reiner, Alex P and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rudan, Igor and Sala, Cinzia F and Schlessinger, David and Scott, Robert A and St{\"o}ckl, Doris and Visser, Jenny A and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vozzi, Diego and Wilson, James G and Zygmunt, Marek and Boerwinkle, Eric and Buring, Julie E and Crisponi, Laura and Easton, Douglas F and Hayward, Caroline and Hu, Frank B and Liu, Simin and Metspalu, Andres and Pennell, Craig E and Ridker, Paul M and Strauch, Konstantin and Streeten, Elizabeth A and Toniolo, Daniela and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ulivi, Sheila and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wellons, Melissa and Franceschini, Nora and Chasman, Daniel I and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Murray, Anna and Stefansson, Kari and Murabito, Joanne M and Ong, Ken K and Perry, John R B} } @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} }