@article {10785, title = {Genetic analysis of over 1 million people identifies 535 new loci associated with blood pressure traits.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Oct}, pages = {1412-1425}, abstract = {

High blood pressure is a highly heritable and modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We report the largest genetic association study of blood pressure traits (systolic, diastolic and pulse pressure) to date in over 1 million people of European ancestry. We identify 535 novel blood pressure loci that not only offer new biological insights into blood pressure regulation but also highlight shared genetic architecture between blood pressure and lifestyle exposures. Our findings identify new biological pathways for blood pressure regulation with potential for improved cardiovascular disease prevention in the future.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0205-x}, author = {Evangelou, Evangelos and Warren, Helen R and Mosen-Ansorena, David and Mifsud, Borbala and Pazoki, Raha and Gao, He and Ntritsos, Georgios and Dimou, Niki and Cabrera, Claudia P and Karaman, Ibrahim and Ng, Fu Liang and Evangelou, Marina and Witkowska, Katarzyna and Tzanis, Evan and Hellwege, Jacklyn N and Giri, Ayush and Velez Edwards, Digna R and Sun, Yan V and Cho, Kelly and Gaziano, J Michael and Wilson, Peter W F and Tsao, Philip S and Kovesdy, Csaba P and Esko, T{\~o}nu and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Milani, Lili and Almgren, Peter and Boutin, Thibaud and Debette, St{\'e}phanie and Ding, Jun and Giulianini, Franco and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Jackson, Anne U and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lin, Wei-Yu and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Mangino, Massimo and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Prins, Bram Peter and Qian, Yong and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Shah, Nabi and Surendran, Praveen and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Verweij, Niek and Willems, Sara M and Zhao, Jing-Hua and Amouyel, Philippe and Connell, John and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Doney, Alex S F and Farrall, Martin and Menni, Cristina and Morris, Andrew D and Noordam, Raymond and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Poulter, Neil R and Shields, Denis C and Stanton, Alice and Thom, Simon and Abecasis, Goncalo and Amin, Najaf and Arking, Dan E and Ayers, Kristin L and Barbieri, Caterina M and Batini, Chiara and Bis, Joshua C and Blake, Tineka and Bochud, Murielle and Boehnke, Michael and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boomsma, Dorret I and Bottinger, Erwin P and Braund, Peter S and Brumat, Marco and Campbell, Archie and Campbell, Harry and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chambers, John C and Chauhan, Ganesh and Ciullo, Marina and Cocca, Massimiliano and Collins, Francis and Cordell, Heather J and Davies, Gail and de Borst, Martin H and de Geus, Eco J and Deary, Ian J and Deelen, Joris and del Greco M, Fabiola and Demirkale, Cumhur Yusuf and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Ehret, Georg B and Elosua, Roberto and Enroth, Stefan and Erzurumluoglu, A Mesut and Ferreira, Teresa and Fr{\r a}nberg, Mattias and Franco, Oscar H and Gandin, Ilaria and Gasparini, Paolo and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gieger, Christian and Girotto, Giorgia and Goel, Anuj and Gow, Alan J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Guo, Xiuqing and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Harris, Sarah E and Hartman, Catharina A and Havulinna, Aki S and Hicks, Andrew A and Hofer, Edith and Hofman, Albert and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Ingelsson, Erik and James, Alan and Jansen, Rick and J{\"a}rvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Joehanes, Roby and Johansson, {\r A}sa and Johnson, Andrew D and Joshi, Peter K and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jukema, J Wouter and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kathiresan, Sekar and Keavney, Bernard D and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Knekt, Paul and Knight, Joanne and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooner, Jaspal S and Koskinen, Seppo and Kristiansson, Kati and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Laan, Maris and Larson, Marty and Launer, Lenore J and Lehne, Benjamin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Liewald, David C M and Lin, Li and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and Lopez, Lorna M and Lu, Yingchang and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mahajan, Anubha and Mamasoula, Chrysovalanto and Marrugat, Jaume and Marten, Jonathan and Milaneschi, Yuri and Morgan, Anna and Morris, Andrew P and Morrison, Alanna C and Munson, Peter J and Nalls, Mike A and Nandakumar, Priyanka and Nelson, Christopher P and Niiranen, Teemu and Nolte, Ilja M and Nutile, Teresa and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Oostra, Ben A and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Org, Elin and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmas, Walter and Palotie, Aarno and Pattie, Alison and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Perola, Markus and Peters, Annette and Polasek, Ozren and Pramstaller, Peter P and Nguyen, Quang Tri and Raitakari, Olli T and Ren, Meixia and Rettig, Rainer and Rice, Kenneth and Ridker, Paul M and Ried, Janina S and Riese, Harri{\"e}tte and Ripatti, Samuli and Robino, Antonietta and Rose, Lynda M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Ruggiero, Daniela and Saba, Yasaman and Sala, Cinzia F and Salomaa, Veikko and Samani, Nilesh J and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schmidt, Helena and Shrine, Nick and Siscovick, David and Smith, Albert V and Snieder, Harold and S{\~o}ber, Siim and Sorice, Rossella and Starr, John M and Stott, David J and Strachan, David P and Strawbridge, Rona J and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Swertz, Morris A and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Tobin, Martin D and Tomaszewski, Maciej and Toniolo, Daniela and Traglia, Michela and Trompet, Stella and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tzourio, Christophe and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaez, Ahmad and van der Most, Peter J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Verwoert, Germaine C and Vitart, Veronique and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and Vuckovic, Dragana and Watkins, Hugh and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, James F and Wright, Alan F and Yao, Jie and Zemunik, Tatijana and Zhang, Weihua and Attia, John R and Butterworth, Adam S and Chasman, Daniel I and Conen, David and Cucca, Francesco and Danesh, John and Hayward, Caroline and Howson, Joanna M M and Laakso, Markku and Lakatta, Edward G and Langenberg, Claudia and Melander, Olle and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Palmer, Colin N A and Risch, Lorenz and Scott, Robert A and Scott, Rodney J and Sever, Peter and Spector, Tim D and van der Harst, Pim and Wareham, Nicholas J and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Levy, Daniel and Munroe, Patricia B and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Brown, Morris J and Metspalu, Andres and Hung, Adriana M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Edwards, Todd L and Psaty, Bruce M and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Barnes, Michael R and Wain, Louise V and Elliott, Paul and Caulfield, Mark J} } @article {10514, title = {Enrichment of low-frequency functional variants revealed by whole-genome sequencing of multiple isolated European populations.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {8}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 06 23}, pages = {15927}, abstract = {

The genetic features of isolated populations can boost power in complex-trait association studies, and an in-depth understanding of how their genetic variation has been shaped by their demographic history can help leverage these advantageous characteristics. Here, we perform a comprehensive investigation using 3,059 newly generated low-depth whole-genome sequences from eight European isolates and two matched general populations, together with published data from the 1000 Genomes Project and UK10K. Sequencing data give deeper and richer insights into population demography and genetic characteristics than genotype-chip data, distinguishing related populations more effectively and allowing their functional variants to be studied more fully. We demonstrate relaxation of purifying selection in the isolates, leading to enrichment of rare and low-frequency functional variants, using novel statistics, DVxy and SVxy. We also develop an isolation-index (Isx) that predicts the overall level of such key genetic characteristics and can thus help guide population choice in future complex-trait association studies.

}, keywords = {European Continental Ancestry Group, Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genetics, Population, Genome, Human, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms15927}, author = {Xue, Yali and Mezzavilla, Massimo and Haber, Marc and McCarthy, Shane and Chen, Yuan and Narasimhan, Vagheesh and Gilly, Arthur and Ayub, Qasim and Colonna, Vincenza and Southam, Lorraine and Finan, Christopher and Massaia, Andrea and Chheda, Himanshu and Palta, Priit and Ritchie, Graham and Asimit, Jennifer and Dedoussis, George and Gasparini, Paolo and Palotie, Aarno and Ripatti, Samuli and Soranzo, Nicole and Toniolo, Daniela and Wilson, James F and Durbin, Richard and Tyler-Smith, Chris and Zeggini, Eleftheria} } @article {10512, title = {Novel Blood Pressure Locus and Gene Discovery Using Genome-Wide Association Study and Expression Data Sets From Blood and the Kidney.}, journal = {Hypertension}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jul 24}, abstract = {

Elevated blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and has a substantial genetic contribution. Genetic variation influencing blood pressure has the potential to identify new pharmacological targets for the treatment of hypertension. To discover additional novel blood pressure loci, we used 1000 Genomes Project-based imputation in 150 134 European ancestry individuals and sought significant evidence for independent replication in a further 228 245 individuals. We report 6 new signals of association in or near , , , , , and , and provide new replication evidence for a further 2 signals in and Combining large whole-blood gene expression resources totaling 12 607 individuals, we investigated all novel and previously reported signals and identified 48 genes with evidence for involvement in blood pressure regulation that are significant in multiple resources. Three novel kidney-specific signals were also detected. These robustly implicated genes may provide new leads for therapeutic innovation.

}, issn = {1524-4563}, doi = {10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.117.09438}, author = {Wain, Louise V and Vaez, Ahmad and Jansen, Rick and Joehanes, Roby and van der Most, Peter J and Erzurumluoglu, A Mesut and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Cabrera, Claudia P and Warren, Helen R and Rose, Lynda M and Verwoert, Germaine C and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Strawbridge, Rona J and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Arking, Dan E and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Guo, Xiuqing and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Trompet, Stella and Shrine, Nick and Teumer, Alexander and Ried, Janina S and Bis, Joshua C and Smith, Albert V and Amin, Najaf and Nolte, Ilja M and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mahajan, Anubha and Wareham, Nicholas J and Hofer, Edith and Joshi, Peter K and Kristiansson, Kati and Traglia, Michela and Havulinna, Aki S and Goel, Anuj and Nalls, Mike A and S{\~o}ber, Siim and Vuckovic, Dragana and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and del Greco M, Fabiola and Ayers, Kristin L and Marrugat, Jaume and Ruggiero, Daniela and Lopez, Lorna M and Niiranen, Teemu and Enroth, Stefan and Jackson, Anne U and Nelson, Christopher P and Huffman, Jennifer E and Zhang, Weihua and Marten, Jonathan and Gandin, Ilaria and Harris, Sarah E and Zemunik, Tatijana and Lu, Yingchang and Evangelou, Evangelos and Shah, Nabi and de Borst, Martin H and Mangino, Massimo and Prins, Bram P and Campbell, Archie and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Chauhan, Ganesh and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Abecasis, Goncalo and Abedi, Maryam and Barbieri, Caterina M and Barnes, Michael R and Batini, Chiara and Beilby, John and Blake, Tineka and Boehnke, Michael and Bottinger, Erwin P and Braund, Peter S and Brown, Morris and Brumat, Marco and Campbell, Harry and Chambers, John C and Cocca, Massimiliano and Collins, Francis and Connell, John and Cordell, Heather J and Damman, Jeffrey J and Davies, Gail and de Geus, Eco J and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Deelen, Joris and Demirkale, Yusuf and Doney, Alex S F and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Farrall, Martin and Ferreira, Teresa and Fr{\r a}nberg, Mattias and Gao, He and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gieger, Christian and Giulianini, Franco and Gow, Alan J and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Hui, Jennie and J{\"a}rvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Johansson, {\r A}sa and Johnson, Andrew D and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kathiresan, Sekar and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kolcic, Ivana and Koskinen, Seppo and Langenberg, Claudia and Larson, Marty and Launer, Lenore J and Lehne, Benjamin and Liewald, David C M and Lin, Li and Lind, Lars and Mach, Fran{\c c}ois and Mamasoula, Chrysovalanto and Menni, Cristina and Mifsud, Borbala and Milaneschi, Yuri and Morgan, Anna and Morris, Andrew D and Morrison, Alanna C and Munson, Peter J and Nandakumar, Priyanka and Nguyen, Quang Tri and Nutile, Teresa and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Oostra, Ben A and Org, Elin and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palotie, Aarno and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Pattie, Alison and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Poulter, Neil and Pramstaller, Peter P and Raitakari, Olli T and Ren, Meixia and Rice, Kenneth and Ridker, Paul M and Riese, Harri{\"e}tte and Ripatti, Samuli and Robino, Antonietta and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Saba, Yasaman and Saint Pierre, Aude and Sala, Cinzia F and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Schmidt, Reinhold and Scott, Rodney and Seelen, Marc A and Shields, Denis C and Siscovick, David and Sorice, Rossella and Stanton, Alice and Stott, David J and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Swertz, Morris and Taylor, Kent D and Thom, Simon and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Tzourio, Christophe and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and Wild, Sarah and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wright, Alan F and Yao, Jie and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Conen, David and Attia, John and Sever, Peter and Debette, St{\'e}phanie and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Spector, Tim D and van der Harst, Pim and Palmer, Colin N A and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Loos, Ruth J F and Polasek, Ozren and Starr, John M and Girotto, Giorgia and Hayward, Caroline and Kooner, Jaspal S and Lindgren, Cecila M and Vitart, Veronique and Samani, Nilesh J and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Gyllensten, Ulf and Knekt, Paul and Deary, Ian J and Ciullo, Marina and Elosua, Roberto and Keavney, Bernard D and Hicks, Andrew A and Scott, Robert A and Gasparini, Paolo and Laan, Maris and Liu, Yongmei and Watkins, Hugh and Hartman, Catharina A and Salomaa, Veikko and Toniolo, Daniela and Perola, Markus and Wilson, James F and Schmidt, Helena and Zhao, Jing Hua and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Psaty, Bruce M and Peters, Annette and Rettig, Rainer and James, Alan and Jukema, J Wouter and Strachan, David P and Palmas, Walter and Metspalu, Andres and Ingelsson, Erik and Boomsma, Dorret I and Franco, Oscar H and Bochud, Murielle and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Munroe, Patricia B and Elliott, Paul and Chasman, Daniel I and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Knight, Joanne and Morris, Andrew P and Levy, Daniel and Tobin, Martin D and Snieder, Harold and Caulfield, Mark J and Ehret, Georg B} } @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 {8526, title = {A reference panel of 64,976 haplotypes for genotype imputation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Aug 22}, abstract = {

We describe a reference panel of 64,976 human haplotypes at 39,235,157 SNPs constructed using whole-genome sequence data from 20 studies of predominantly European ancestry. Using this resource leads to accurate genotype imputation at minor allele frequencies as low as 0.1\% and a large increase in the number of SNPs tested in association studies, and it can help to discover and refine causal loci. We describe remote server resources that allow researchers to carry out imputation and phasing consistently and efficiently.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3643}, author = {McCarthy, Shane and Das, Sayantan and Kretzschmar, Warren and Delaneau, Olivier and Wood, Andrew R and Teumer, Alexander and Kang, Hyun Min and Fuchsberger, Christian and Danecek, Petr and Sharp, Kevin and Luo, Yang and Sidore, Carlo and Kwong, Alan and Timpson, Nicholas and Koskinen, Seppo and Vrieze, Scott and Scott, Laura J and Zhang, He and Mahajan, Anubha and Veldink, Jan and Peters, Ulrike and Pato, Carlos and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Gillies, Christopher E and Gandin, Ilaria and Mezzavilla, Massimo and Gilly, Arthur and Cocca, Massimiliano and Traglia, Michela and Angius, Andrea and Barrett, Jeffrey C and Boomsma, Dorrett and Branham, Kari and Breen, Gerome and Brummett, Chad M and Busonero, Fabio and Campbell, Harry and Chan, Andrew and Chen, Sai and Chew, Emily and Collins, Francis S and Corbin, Laura J and Smith, George Davey and Dedoussis, George and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Ferrucci, Luigi and Forer, Lukas and Fraser, Ross M and Gabriel, Stacey and Levy, Shawn and Groop, Leif and Harrison, Tabitha and Hattersley, Andrew and Holmen, Oddgeir L and Hveem, Kristian and Kretzler, Matthias and Lee, James C and McGue, Matt and Meitinger, Thomas and Melzer, David and Min, Josine L and Mohlke, Karen L and Vincent, John B and Nauck, Matthias and Nickerson, Deborah and Palotie, Aarno and Pato, Michele and Pirastu, Nicola and McInnis, Melvin and Richards, J Brent and Sala, Cinzia and Salomaa, Veikko and Schlessinger, David and Schoenherr, Sebastian and Slagboom, P Eline and Small, Kerrin and Spector, Timothy and Stambolian, Dwight and Tuke, Marcus and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Van den Berg, Leonard H and van Rheenen, Wouter and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wijmenga, Cisca and Toniolo, Daniela and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Gasparini, Paolo and Sampson, Matthew G and Wilson, James F and Frayling, Timothy and de Bakker, Paul I W and Swertz, Morris A and McCarroll, Steven and Kooperberg, Charles and Dekker, Annelot and Altshuler, David and Willer, Cristen and Iacono, William and Ripatti, Samuli and Soranzo, Nicole and Walter, Klaudia and Swaroop, Anand and Cucca, Francesco and Anderson, Carl A and Myers, Richard M and Boehnke, Michael and McCarthy, Mark I and Durbin, Richard} } @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 {8038, title = {Genome sequencing elucidates Sardinian genetic architecture and augments association analyses for lipid and blood inflammatory markers.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {47}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Nov}, pages = {1272-81}, abstract = {

We report \~{}17.6 million genetic variants from whole-genome sequencing of 2,120 Sardinians; 22\% are absent from previous sequencing-based compilations and are enriched for predicted functional consequences. Furthermore, \~{}76,000 variants common in our sample (frequency >5\%) are rare elsewhere (<0.5\% in the 1000 Genomes Project). We assessed the impact of these variants on circulating lipid levels and five inflammatory biomarkers. We observe 14 signals, including 2 major new loci, for lipid levels and 19 signals, including 2 new loci, for inflammatory markers. The new associations would have been missed in analyses based on 1000 Genomes Project data, underlining the advantages of large-scale sequencing in this founder population.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3368}, author = {Sidore, Carlo and Busonero, Fabio and Maschio, Andrea and Porcu, Eleonora and Naitza, Silvia and Zoledziewska, Magdalena and Mulas, Antonella and Pistis, Giorgio and Steri, Maristella and Danjou, Fabrice and Kwong, Alan and Ortega Del Vecchyo, Vicente Diego and Chiang, Charleston W K and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer and Pitzalis, Maristella and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Tarrier, Brendan and Brennan, Christine and Uzzau, Sergio and Fuchsberger, Christian and Atzeni, Rossano and Reinier, Frederic and Berutti, Riccardo and Huang, Jie and Timpson, Nicholas J and Toniolo, Daniela and Gasparini, Paolo and Malerba, Giovanni and Dedoussis, George and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Soranzo, Nicole and Jones, Chris and Lyons, Robert and Angius, Andrea and Kang, Hyun M and Novembre, John and Sanna, Serena and Schlessinger, David and Cucca, Francesco and Abecasis, Goncalo R} } @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} }