@article {10775, title = {Exome-chip meta-analysis identifies novel loci associated with cardiac conduction, including ADAMTS6.}, journal = {Genome Biol}, volume = {19}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 07 17}, pages = {87}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies conducted on QRS duration, an electrocardiographic measurement associated with heart failure and sudden cardiac death, have led to novel biological insights into cardiac function. However, the variants identified fall predominantly in non-coding regions and their underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

RESULTS: Here, we identify putative functional coding variation associated with changes in the QRS interval duration by combining Illumina HumanExome BeadChip genotype data from 77,898 participants of European ancestry and 7695 of African descent in our discovery cohort, followed by replication in 111,874~individuals of European ancestry from the UK Biobank and deCODE cohorts. We identify ten novel loci, seven within coding regions, including ADAMTS6, significantly associated with QRS duration in gene-based analyses. ADAMTS6 encodes a secreted metalloprotease of currently unknown function. In vitro validation analysis shows that the QRS-associated variants lead to impaired ADAMTS6 secretion and loss-of function analysis in mice demonstrates a previously unappreciated role for ADAMTS6 in connexin 43 gap junction expression, which is essential for myocardial conduction.

CONCLUSIONS: Our approach identifies novel coding and non-coding variants underlying ventricular depolarization and provides a possible mechanism for the ADAMTS6-associated conduction changes.

}, keywords = {ADAMTS Proteins, African Continental Ancestry Group, Animals, Connexin 43, Electrocardiography, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Female, Gene Expression, Gene Expression Profiling, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Conduction System, Humans, Male, Mice, Middle Aged, Myocardium, Open Reading Frames, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Whole Exome Sequencing}, issn = {1474-760X}, doi = {10.1186/s13059-018-1457-6}, author = {Prins, Bram P and Mead, Timothy J and Brody, Jennifer A and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Ntalla, Ioanna and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and van den Berg, Marten and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Cappellani, Stefania and Van Duijvenboden, Stefan and Klena, Nikolai T and Gabriel, George C and Liu, Xiaoqin and Gulec, Cagri and Grarup, Niels and Haessler, Jeffrey and Hall, Leanne M and Iorio, Annamaria and Isaacs, Aaron and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lin, Honghuang and Liu, Ching-Ti and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Marten, Jonathan and Mei, Hao and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Orini, Michele and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Radmanesh, Farid and Ramirez, Julia and Robino, Antonietta and Schwartz, Molly and van Setten, Jessica and Smith, Albert V and Verweij, Niek and Warren, Helen R and Weiss, Stefan and Alonso, Alvaro and Arnar, David O and Bots, Michiel L and de Boer, Rudolf A and Dominiczak, Anna F and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Ellinor, Patrick T and Guo, Xiuqing and Felix, Stephan B and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Heckbert, Susan R and Huang, Paul L and Jukema, J W and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kors, Jan A and Lambiase, Pier D and Launer, Lenore J and Li, Man and Linneberg, Allan and Nelson, Christopher P and Pedersen, Oluf and Perez, Marco and Peters, Annette and Polasek, Ozren and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Rice, Kenneth M and Rotter, Jerome I and Sinner, Moritz F and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Spector, Tim D and Strauch, Konstantin and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tinker, Andrew and Trompet, Stella and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} and Vaartjes, Ilonca and van der Meer, Peter and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wilson, James G and Xie, Zhijun and Asselbergs, Folkert W and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Gasparini, Paolo and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hansen, Torben and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Kanters, J{\o}rgen K and Kooperberg, Charles and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lin, Henry J and Lubitz, Steven A and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Conti, Francesco J and Newton-Cheh, Christopher H and Rosand, Jonathan and Rudan, Igor and Samani, Nilesh J and Sinagra, Gianfranco and Smith, Blair H and Holm, Hilma and Stricker, Bruno H and Ulivi, Sheila and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Apte, Suneel S and van der Harst, Pim and Stefansson, Kari and Munroe, Patricia B and Arking, Dan E and Lo, Cecilia W and Jamshidi, Yalda} } @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 {10823, title = {Novel genetic associations for blood pressure identified via gene-alcohol interaction in up to 570K individuals across multiple ancestries.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {13}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {e0198166}, abstract = {

Heavy alcohol consumption is an established risk factor for hypertension; the mechanism by which alcohol consumption impact blood pressure (BP) regulation remains unknown. We hypothesized that a genome-wide association study accounting for gene-alcohol consumption interaction for BP might identify additional BP loci and contribute to the understanding of alcohol-related BP regulation. We conducted a large two-stage investigation incorporating joint testing of main genetic effects and single nucleotide variant (SNV)-alcohol consumption interactions. In Stage 1, genome-wide discovery meta-analyses in ≈131K individuals across several ancestry groups yielded 3,514 SNVs (245 loci) with suggestive evidence of association (P < 1.0 x 10-5). In Stage 2, these SNVs were tested for independent external replication in ≈440K individuals across multiple ancestries. We identified and replicated (at Bonferroni correction threshold) five novel BP loci (380 SNVs in 21 genes) and 49 previously reported BP loci (2,159 SNVs in 109 genes) in European ancestry, and in multi-ancestry meta-analyses (P < 5.0 x 10-8). For African ancestry samples, we detected 18 potentially novel BP loci (P < 5.0 x 10-8) in Stage 1 that warrant further replication. Additionally, correlated meta-analysis identified eight novel BP loci (11 genes). Several genes in these loci (e.g., PINX1, GATA4, BLK, FTO and GABBR2) have been previously reported to be associated with alcohol consumption. These findings provide insights into the role of alcohol consumption in the genetic architecture of hypertension.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alcohol Drinking, Blood Pressure, Cohort Studies, Continental Population Groups, Female, Gene-Environment Interaction, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Pedigree, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Young Adult}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0198166}, author = {Feitosa, Mary F and Kraja, Aldi T and Chasman, Daniel I and Sung, Yun J and Winkler, Thomas W and Ntalla, Ioanna and Guo, Xiuqing and Franceschini, Nora and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Sim, Xueling and Vojinovic, Dina and Marten, Jonathan and Musani, Solomon K and Li, Changwei and Bentley, Amy R and Brown, Michael R and Schwander, Karen and Richard, Melissa A and Noordam, Raymond and Aschard, Hugues and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Fisher, Virginia and Hartwig, Fernando P and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Lohman, Kurt K and Manning, Alisa K and Rankinen, Tuomo and Smith, Albert V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Wojczynski, Mary K and Alver, Maris and Boissel, Mathilde and Cai, Qiuyin and Campbell, Archie and Chai, Jin Fang and Chen, Xu and Divers, Jasmin and Gao, Chuan and Goel, Anuj and Hagemeijer, Yanick and Harris, Sarah E and He, Meian and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Jackson, Anne U and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Laguzzi, Federica and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Matoba, Nana and Nolte, Ilja M and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Riaz, Muhammad and Rueedi, Rico and Robino, Antonietta and Said, M Abdullah and Scott, Robert A and Sofer, Tamar and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Tayo, Bamidele O and van der Most, Peter J and Varga, Tibor V and Vitart, Veronique and Wang, Yajuan and Ware, Erin B and Warren, Helen R and Weiss, Stefan and Wen, Wanqing and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Jing Hua and Afaq, Saima and Amin, Najaf and Amini, Marzyeh and Arking, Dan E and Aung, Tin and Boerwinkle, Eric and Borecki, Ingrid and Broeckel, Ulrich and Brown, Morris and Brumat, Marco and Burke, Gregory L and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Charumathi, Sabanayagam and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Connell, John M and Correa, Adolfo and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Silva, H Janaka and Deng, Xuan and Ding, Jingzhong and Duan, Qing and Eaton, Charles B and Ehret, Georg and Eppinga, Ruben N and Evangelou, Evangelos and Faul, Jessica D and Felix, Stephan B and Forouhi, Nita G and Forrester, Terrence and Franco, Oscar H and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gandin, Ilaria and Gao, He and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Gigante, Bruna and Gu, C Charles and Gu, Dongfeng and Hagenaars, Saskia P and Hallmans, Goran and Harris, Tamara B and He, Jiang and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hirata, Makoto and Howard, Barbara V and Ikram, M Arfan and John, Ulrich and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Koh, Woon-Puay and Krieger, Jose E and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Kubo, Michiaki and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lakka, Timo A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lehne, Benjamin and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Yize and Lin, Shiow and Liu, Jianjun and Liu, Jingmin and Loh, Marie and Louie, Tin and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and McKenzie, Colin A and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Milani, Lili and Mohlke, Karen L and Momozawa, Yukihide and Nalls, Mike A and Nelson, Christopher P and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Norris, Jill M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Perls, Thomas and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Poulter, Neil and Raffel, Leslie J and Raitakari, Olli T and Roll, Kathryn and Rose, Lynda M and Rosendaal, Frits R and Rotter, Jerome I and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schreiner, Pamela J and Schupf, Nicole and Scott, William R and Sever, Peter S and Shi, Yuan and Sidney, Stephen and Sims, Mario and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Starr, John M and Strauch, Konstantin and Stringham, Heather M and Tan, Nicholas Y Q and Tang, Hua and Taylor, Kent D and Teo, Yik Ying and Tham, Yih Chung and Turner, Stephen T and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vollenweider, Peter and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Lihua and Wang, Ya Xing and Wei, Wen Bin and Williams, Christine and Yao, Jie and Yu, Caizheng and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zhao, Wei and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and Chambers, John C and Deary, Ian J and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Farrall, Martin and Franks, Paul W and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Jonas, Jost Bruno and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kato, Norihiro and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Laakso, Markku and Laurie, Cathy C and Leander, Karin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Study, Lifelines Cohort and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David J and Rauramaa, 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 Bouchard, Claude and Christensen, Kaare and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Horta, Bernardo L and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Yongmei and Pereira, Alexandre C and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and van Dam, Rob M and Gauderman, W James and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Fornage, Myriam and Rotimi, Charles N and Cupples, L Adrienne and Kelly, Tanika N and Fox, Ervin R and Hayward, Caroline and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Tai, E Shyong and Wong, Tien Yin and Kooperberg, Charles and Palmas, Walter and Rice, Kenneth and Morrison, Alanna C and Elliott, Paul and Caulfield, Mark J and Munroe, Patricia B and Rao, Dabeeru C and Province, Michael A and Levy, Daniel} } @article {10511, title = {Genome-wide association analysis identifies novel blood pressure loci and offers biological insights into cardiovascular risk.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {49}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Mar}, pages = {403-415}, abstract = {

Elevated blood pressure is the leading heritable risk factor for cardiovascular disease worldwide. We report genetic association of blood pressure (systolic, diastolic, pulse pressure) among UK Biobank participants of European ancestry with independent replication in other cohorts, and robust validation of 107 independent loci. We also identify new independent variants at 11 previously reported blood pressure loci. In combination with results from a range of in silico functional analyses and wet bench experiments, our findings highlight new biological pathways for blood pressure regulation enriched for genes expressed in vascular tissues and identify potential therapeutic targets for hypertension. Results from genetic risk score models raise the possibility of a precision medicine approach through early lifestyle intervention to offset the impact of blood pressure-raising genetic variants on future cardiovascular disease risk.

}, keywords = {Adult, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3768}, author = {Warren, Helen R and Evangelou, Evangelos and Cabrera, Claudia P and Gao, He and Ren, Meixia and Mifsud, Borbala and Ntalla, Ioanna and Surendran, Praveen and Liu, Chunyu and Cook, James P and Kraja, Aldi T and Drenos, Fotios and Loh, Marie and Verweij, Niek and Marten, Jonathan and Karaman, Ibrahim and Lepe, Marcelo P Segura and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Knight, Joanne and Snieder, Harold and Kato, Norihiro and He, Jiang and Tai, E Shyong and Said, M Abdullah and Porteous, David and Alver, Maris and Poulter, Neil and Farrall, Martin and Gansevoort, Ron T and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Stanton, Alice and Connell, John and Bakker, Stephan J L and Metspalu, Andres and Shields, Denis C and Thom, Simon and Brown, Morris and Sever, Peter and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Hayward, Caroline and van der Harst, Pim and Saleheen, Danish and Chowdhury, Rajiv and Chambers, John C and Chasman, Daniel I and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Levy, Daniel and Kooner, Jaspal S and Keavney, Bernard and Tomaszewski, Maciej and Samani, Nilesh J and Howson, Joanna M M and Tobin, Martin D and Munroe, Patricia B and Ehret, Georg B and Wain, Louise V} } @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 {10557, title = {Whole-Genome Sequencing Coupled to Imputation Discovers Genetic Signals for Anthropometric Traits.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {100}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jun 01}, pages = {865-884}, abstract = {

Deep sequence-based imputation can enhance the discovery power of genome-wide association studies by assessing previously unexplored variation across the common- and low-frequency spectra. We applied a hybrid whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and deep imputation approach to examine the broader allelic architecture of 12 anthropometric traits associated with height, body mass, and fat distribution in up to 267,616 individuals. We report 106 genome-wide significant signals that have not been previously identified, including 9 low-frequency variants pointing to functional candidates. Of the 106 signals, 6 are in genomic regions that have not been implicated with related traits before, 28 are independent signals at previously reported regions, and 72 represent previously reported signals for a different anthropometric trait. 71\% of signals reside within genes and fine mapping resolves 23 signals to one or two likely causal variants. We confirm genetic overlap between human monogenic and polygenic anthropometric traits and find signal enrichment in cis expression QTLs in relevant tissues. Our results highlight the potential of WGS strategies to enhance biologically relevant discoveries across the frequency spectrum.

}, keywords = {Anthropometry, Body Height, Cohort Studies, Databases, Genetic, DNA Methylation, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipodystrophy, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Obesity, Physical Chromosome Mapping, Quantitative Trait Loci, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Sex Characteristics, Syndrome, United Kingdom}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2017.04.014}, author = {Tachmazidou, Ioanna and S{\"u}veges, D{\'a}niel and Min, Josine L and Ritchie, Graham R S and Steinberg, Julia and Walter, Klaudia and Iotchkova, Valentina and Schwartzentruber, Jeremy and Huang, Jie and Memari, Yasin and McCarthy, Shane and Crawford, Andrew A and Bombieri, Cristina and Cocca, Massimiliano and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Gaunt, Tom R and Jousilahti, Pekka and Kooijman, Marjolein N and Lehne, Benjamin and Malerba, Giovanni and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Matchan, Angela and Medina-Gomez, Carolina and Metrustry, Sarah J and Nag, Abhishek and Ntalla, Ioanna and Paternoster, Lavinia and Rayner, Nigel W and Sala, Cinzia and Scott, William R and Shihab, Hashem A and Southam, Lorraine and St Pourcain, Beate and Traglia, Michela and Trajanoska, Katerina and Zaza, Gialuigi and Zhang, Weihua and Artigas, Mar{\'\i}a S and Bansal, Narinder and Benn, Marianne and Chen, Zhongsheng and Danecek, Petr and Lin, Wei-Yu and Locke, Adam and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Manning, Alisa K and Mulas, Antonella and Sidore, Carlo and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and Varbo, Anette and Zoledziewska, Magdalena and Finan, Chris and Hatzikotoulas, Konstantinos and Hendricks, Audrey E and Kemp, John P and Moayyeri, Alireza and Panoutsopoulou, Kalliope and Szpak, Michal and Wilson, Scott G and Boehnke, Michael and Cucca, Francesco and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Langenberg, Claudia and Lindgren, Cecilia and McCarthy, Mark I and Morris, Andrew P and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Scott, Robert A and Tobin, Martin D and Wareham, Nicholas J and Burton, Paul and Chambers, John C and Smith, George Davey and Dedoussis, George and Felix, Janine F and Franco, Oscar H and Gambaro, Giovanni and Gasparini, Paolo and Hammond, Christopher J and Hofman, Albert and Jaddoe, Vincent W V and Kleber, Marcus and Kooner, Jaspal S and Perola, Markus and Relton, Caroline and Ring, Susan M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Salomaa, Veikko and Spector, Timothy D and Stegle, Oliver and Toniolo, Daniela and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Greenwood, Celia M T and Perry, John R B and Walker, Brian R and Butterworth, Adam S and Xue, Yali and Durbin, Richard and Small, Kerrin S and Soranzo, Nicole and Timpson, Nicholas J and Zeggini, Eleftheria} } @article {3639, title = {Genome-wide association study of sexual maturation in males and females highlights a role for body mass and menarche loci in male puberty.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug 15}, pages = {4452-64}, abstract = {

Little is known about genes regulating male puberty. Further, while many identified pubertal timing variants associate with age at menarche, a late manifestation of puberty, and body mass, little is known about these variants{\textquoteright} relationship to pubertal initiation or tempo. To address these questions, we performed genome-wide association meta-analysis in over 11 000 European samples with data on early pubertal traits, male genital and female breast development, measured by the Tanner scale. We report the first genome-wide significant locus for male sexual development upstream of myocardin-like 2 (MKL2) (P = 8.9 {\texttimes} 10(-9)), a menarche locus tagging a developmental pathway linking earlier puberty with reduced pubertal growth (P = 4.6 {\texttimes} 10(-5)) and short adult stature (p = 7.5 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) in both males and females. Furthermore, our results indicate that a proportion of menarche loci are important for pubertal initiation in both sexes. Consistent with epidemiological correlations between increased prepubertal body mass and earlier pubertal timing in girls, body mass index (BMI)-increasing alleles correlated with earlier breast development. In boys, some BMI-increasing alleles associated with earlier, and others with delayed, sexual development; these genetic results mimic the controversy in epidemiological studies, some of which show opposing correlations between prepubertal BMI and male puberty. Our results contribute to our understanding of the pubertal initiation program in both sexes and indicate that although mechanisms regulating pubertal onset in males and females may largely be shared, the relationship between body mass and pubertal timing in boys may be complex and requires further genetic studies.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddu150}, author = {Cousminer, Diana L and Stergiakouli, Evangelia and Berry, Diane J and Ang, Wei and Groen-Blokhuis, Maria M and K{\"o}rner, Antje and Siitonen, Niina and Ntalla, Ioanna and Marinelli, Marcella and Perry, John R B and Kettunen, Johannes and Jansen, Rick and Surakka, Ida and Timpson, Nicholas J and Ring, Susan and McMahon, George and Power, Chris and Wang, Carol and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Middeldorp, Christel M and Hulshoff Pol, Hilleke E and Neef, Madlen and Weise, Sebastian and Pahkala, Katja and Niinikoski, Harri and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Panoutsopoulou, Kalliope and Bustamante, Mariona and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Murabito, Joanne and Torrent, Maties and Dedoussis, George V and Kiess, Wieland and Boomsma, Dorret I and Pennell, Craig E and Raitakari, Olli T and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Davey Smith, George and Ripatti, Samuli and McCarthy, Mark I and Widen, Elisabeth} }