%0 Journal Article %J Nat Genet %D 2018 %T Genetic analysis of over 1 million people identifies 535 new loci associated with blood pressure traits. %A Evangelou, Evangelos %A Warren, Helen R %A Mosen-Ansorena, David %A Mifsud, Borbala %A Pazoki, Raha %A Gao, He %A Ntritsos, Georgios %A Dimou, Niki %A Cabrera, Claudia P %A Karaman, Ibrahim %A Ng, Fu Liang %A Evangelou, Marina %A Witkowska, Katarzyna %A Tzanis, Evan %A Hellwege, Jacklyn N %A Giri, Ayush %A Velez Edwards, Digna R %A Sun, Yan V %A Cho, Kelly %A Gaziano, J Michael %A Wilson, Peter W F %A Tsao, Philip S %A Kovesdy, Csaba P %A Esko, Tõnu %A Mägi, Reedik %A Milani, Lili %A Almgren, Peter %A Boutin, Thibaud %A Debette, Stéphanie %A Ding, Jun %A Giulianini, Franco %A Holliday, Elizabeth G %A Jackson, Anne U %A Li-Gao, Ruifang %A Lin, Wei-Yu %A Luan, Jian'an %A Mangino, Massimo %A Oldmeadow, Christopher %A Prins, Bram Peter %A Qian, Yong %A Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan %A Shah, Nabi %A Surendran, Praveen %A Thériault, Sébastien %A Verweij, Niek %A Willems, Sara M %A Zhao, Jing-Hua %A Amouyel, Philippe %A Connell, John %A de Mutsert, Renée %A Doney, Alex S F %A Farrall, Martin %A Menni, Cristina %A Morris, Andrew D %A Noordam, Raymond %A Paré, Guillaume %A Poulter, Neil R %A Shields, Denis C %A Stanton, Alice %A Thom, Simon %A Abecasis, Goncalo %A Amin, Najaf %A Arking, Dan E %A Ayers, Kristin L %A Barbieri, Caterina M %A Batini, Chiara %A Bis, Joshua C %A Blake, Tineka %A Bochud, Murielle %A Boehnke, Michael %A Boerwinkle, Eric %A Boomsma, Dorret I %A Bottinger, Erwin P %A Braund, Peter S %A Brumat, Marco %A Campbell, Archie %A Campbell, Harry %A Chakravarti, Aravinda %A Chambers, John C %A Chauhan, Ganesh %A Ciullo, Marina %A Cocca, Massimiliano %A Collins, Francis %A Cordell, Heather J %A Davies, Gail %A de Borst, Martin H %A de Geus, Eco J %A Deary, Ian J %A Deelen, Joris %A del Greco M, Fabiola %A Demirkale, Cumhur Yusuf %A Dörr, Marcus %A Ehret, Georg B %A Elosua, Roberto %A Enroth, Stefan %A Erzurumluoglu, A Mesut %A Ferreira, Teresa %A Frånberg, Mattias %A Franco, Oscar H %A Gandin, Ilaria %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Giedraitis, Vilmantas %A Gieger, Christian %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Goel, Anuj %A Gow, Alan J %A Gudnason, Vilmundur %A Guo, Xiuqing %A Gyllensten, Ulf %A Hamsten, Anders %A Harris, Tamara B %A Harris, Sarah E %A Hartman, Catharina A %A Havulinna, Aki S %A Hicks, Andrew A %A Hofer, Edith %A Hofman, Albert %A Hottenga, Jouke-Jan %A Huffman, Jennifer E %A Hwang, Shih-Jen %A Ingelsson, Erik %A James, Alan %A Jansen, Rick %A Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta %A Joehanes, Roby %A Johansson, Åsa %A Johnson, Andrew D %A Joshi, Peter K %A Jousilahti, Pekka %A Jukema, J Wouter %A Jula, Antti %A Kähönen, Mika %A Kathiresan, Sekar %A Keavney, Bernard D %A Khaw, Kay-Tee %A Knekt, Paul %A Knight, Joanne %A Kolcic, Ivana %A Kooner, Jaspal S %A Koskinen, Seppo %A Kristiansson, Kati %A Kutalik, Zoltán %A Laan, Maris %A Larson, Marty %A Launer, Lenore J %A Lehne, Benjamin %A Lehtimäki, Terho %A Liewald, David C M %A Lin, Li %A Lind, Lars %A Lindgren, Cecilia M %A Liu, Yongmei %A Loos, Ruth J F %A Lopez, Lorna M %A Lu, Yingchang %A Lyytikäinen, Leo-Pekka %A Mahajan, Anubha %A Mamasoula, Chrysovalanto %A Marrugat, Jaume %A Marten, Jonathan %A Milaneschi, Yuri %A Morgan, Anna %A Morris, Andrew P %A Morrison, Alanna C %A Munson, Peter J %A Nalls, Mike A %A Nandakumar, Priyanka %A Nelson, Christopher P %A Niiranen, Teemu %A Nolte, Ilja M %A Nutile, Teresa %A Oldehinkel, Albertine J %A Oostra, Ben A %A O'Reilly, Paul F %A Org, Elin %A Padmanabhan, Sandosh %A Palmas, Walter %A Palotie, Aarno %A Pattie, Alison %A Penninx, Brenda W J H %A Perola, Markus %A Peters, Annette %A Polasek, Ozren %A Pramstaller, Peter P %A Nguyen, Quang Tri %A Raitakari, Olli T %A Ren, Meixia %A Rettig, Rainer %A Rice, Kenneth %A Ridker, Paul M %A Ried, Janina S %A Riese, Harriëtte %A Ripatti, Samuli %A Robino, Antonietta %A Rose, Lynda M %A Rotter, Jerome I %A Rudan, Igor %A Ruggiero, Daniela %A Saba, Yasaman %A Sala, Cinzia F %A Salomaa, Veikko %A Samani, Nilesh J %A Sarin, Antti-Pekka %A Schmidt, Reinhold %A Schmidt, Helena %A Shrine, Nick %A Siscovick, David %A Smith, Albert V %A Snieder, Harold %A Sõber, Siim %A Sorice, Rossella %A Starr, John M %A Stott, David J %A Strachan, David P %A Strawbridge, Rona J %A Sundström, Johan %A Swertz, Morris A %A Taylor, Kent D %A Teumer, Alexander %A Tobin, Martin D %A Tomaszewski, Maciej %A Toniolo, Daniela %A Traglia, Michela %A Trompet, Stella %A Tuomilehto, Jaakko %A Tzourio, Christophe %A Uitterlinden, André G %A Vaez, Ahmad %A van der Most, Peter J %A van Duijn, Cornelia M %A Vergnaud, Anne-Claire %A Verwoert, Germaine C %A Vitart, Veronique %A Völker, Uwe %A Vollenweider, Peter %A Vuckovic, Dragana %A Watkins, Hugh %A Wild, Sarah H %A Willemsen, Gonneke %A Wilson, James F %A Wright, Alan F %A Yao, Jie %A Zemunik, Tatijana %A Zhang, Weihua %A Attia, John R %A Butterworth, Adam S %A Chasman, Daniel I %A Conen, David %A Cucca, Francesco %A Danesh, John %A Hayward, Caroline %A Howson, Joanna M M %A Laakso, Markku %A Lakatta, Edward G %A Langenberg, Claudia %A Melander, Olle %A Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O %A Palmer, Colin N A %A Risch, Lorenz %A Scott, Robert A %A Scott, Rodney J %A Sever, Peter %A Spector, Tim D %A van der Harst, Pim %A Wareham, Nicholas J %A Zeggini, Eleftheria %A Levy, Daniel %A Munroe, Patricia B %A Newton-Cheh, Christopher %A Brown, Morris J %A Metspalu, Andres %A Hung, Adriana M %A O'Donnell, Christopher J %A Edwards, Todd L %A Psaty, Bruce M %A Tzoulaki, Ioanna %A Barnes, Michael R %A Wain, Louise V %A Elliott, Paul %A Caulfield, Mark J %X

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.

%B Nat Genet %V 50 %P 1412-1425 %8 2018 Oct %G eng %N 10 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30224653?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1038/s41588-018-0205-x %0 Journal Article %J Nature %D 2017 %T Rare and low-frequency coding variants alter human adult height. %A Marouli, Eirini %A Graff, Mariaelisa %A Medina-Gomez, Carolina %A Lo, Ken Sin %A Wood, Andrew R %A Kjaer, Troels R %A Fine, Rebecca S %A Lu, Yingchang %A Schurmann, Claudia %A Highland, Heather M %A Rüeger, Sina %A Thorleifsson, Gudmar %A Justice, Anne E %A Lamparter, David %A Stirrups, Kathleen E %A Turcot, Valérie %A Young, Kristin L %A Winkler, Thomas W %A Esko, Tõnu %A Karaderi, Tugce %A Locke, Adam E %A Masca, Nicholas G D %A Ng, Maggie C Y %A Mudgal, Poorva %A Rivas, Manuel A %A Vedantam, Sailaja %A Mahajan, Anubha %A Guo, Xiuqing %A Abecasis, Goncalo %A Aben, Katja K %A Adair, Linda S %A Alam, Dewan S %A Albrecht, Eva %A Allin, Kristine H %A Allison, Matthew %A Amouyel, Philippe %A Appel, Emil V %A Arveiler, Dominique %A Asselbergs, Folkert W %A Auer, Paul L %A Balkau, Beverley %A Banas, Bernhard %A Bang, Lia E %A Benn, Marianne %A Bergmann, Sven %A Bielak, Lawrence F %A Blüher, Matthias %A Boeing, Heiner %A Boerwinkle, Eric %A Böger, Carsten A %A Bonnycastle, Lori L %A Bork-Jensen, Jette %A Bots, Michiel L %A Bottinger, Erwin P %A Bowden, Donald W %A Brandslund, Ivan %A Breen, Gerome %A Brilliant, Murray H %A Broer, Linda %A Burt, Amber A %A Butterworth, Adam S %A Carey, David J %A Caulfield, Mark J %A Chambers, John C %A Chasman, Daniel I %A Chen, Yii-Der Ida %A Chowdhury, Rajiv %A Christensen, Cramer %A Chu, Audrey Y %A Cocca, Massimiliano %A Collins, Francis S %A Cook, James P %A Corley, Janie %A Galbany, Jordi Corominas %A Cox, Amanda J %A Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel %A Danesh, John %A Davies, Gail %A de Bakker, Paul I W %A de Borst, Gert J %A de Denus, Simon %A de Groot, Mark C H %A de Mutsert, Renée %A Deary, Ian J %A Dedoussis, George %A Demerath, Ellen W %A den Hollander, Anneke I %A Dennis, Joe G %A Di Angelantonio, Emanuele %A Drenos, Fotios %A Du, Mengmeng %A Dunning, Alison M %A Easton, Douglas F %A Ebeling, Tapani %A Edwards, Todd L %A Ellinor, Patrick T %A Elliott, Paul %A Evangelou, Evangelos %A Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni %A Faul, Jessica D %A Feitosa, Mary F %A Feng, Shuang %A Ferrannini, Ele %A Ferrario, Marco M %A Ferrières, Jean %A Florez, Jose C %A Ford, Ian %A Fornage, Myriam %A Franks, Paul W %A Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth %A Galesloot, Tessel E %A Gan, Wei %A Gandin, Ilaria %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Giedraitis, Vilmantas %A Giri, Ayush %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Gordon, Scott D %A Gordon-Larsen, Penny %A Gorski, Mathias %A Grarup, Niels %A Grove, Megan L %A Gudnason, Vilmundur %A Gustafsson, Stefan %A Hansen, Torben %A Harris, Kathleen Mullan %A Harris, Tamara B %A Hattersley, Andrew T %A Hayward, Caroline %A He, Liang %A Heid, Iris M %A Heikkilä, Kauko %A Helgeland, Øyvind %A Hernesniemi, Jussi %A Hewitt, Alex W %A Hocking, Lynne J %A Hollensted, Mette %A Holmen, Oddgeir L %A Hovingh, G Kees %A Howson, Joanna M M %A Hoyng, Carel B %A Huang, Paul L %A Hveem, Kristian %A Ikram, M Arfan %A Ingelsson, Erik %A Jackson, Anne U %A Jansson, Jan-Håkan %A Jarvik, Gail P %A Jensen, Gorm B %A Jhun, Min A %A Jia, Yucheng %A Jiang, Xuejuan %A Johansson, Stefan %A Jørgensen, Marit E %A Jørgensen, Torben %A Jousilahti, Pekka %A Jukema, J Wouter %A Kahali, Bratati %A Kahn, René S %A Kähönen, Mika %A Kamstrup, Pia R %A Kanoni, Stavroula %A Kaprio, Jaakko %A Karaleftheri, Maria %A Kardia, Sharon L R %A Karpe, Fredrik %A Kee, Frank %A Keeman, Renske %A Kiemeney, Lambertus A %A Kitajima, Hidetoshi %A Kluivers, Kirsten B %A Kocher, Thomas %A Komulainen, Pirjo %A Kontto, Jukka %A Kooner, Jaspal S %A Kooperberg, Charles %A Kovacs, Peter %A Kriebel, Jennifer %A Kuivaniemi, Helena %A Küry, Sébastien %A Kuusisto, Johanna %A La Bianca, Martina %A Laakso, Markku %A Lakka, Timo A %A Lange, Ethan M %A Lange, Leslie A %A Langefeld, Carl D %A Langenberg, Claudia %A Larson, Eric B %A Lee, I-Te %A Lehtimäki, Terho %A Lewis, Cora E %A Li, Huaixing %A Li, Jin %A Li-Gao, Ruifang %A Lin, Honghuang %A Lin, Li-An %A Lin, Xu %A Lind, Lars %A Lindström, Jaana %A Linneberg, Allan %A Liu, Yeheng %A Liu, Yongmei %A Lophatananon, Artitaya %A Luan, Jian'an %A Lubitz, Steven A %A Lyytikäinen, Leo-Pekka %A Mackey, David A %A Madden, Pamela A F %A Manning, Alisa K %A Männistö, Satu %A Marenne, Gaëlle %A Marten, Jonathan %A Martin, Nicholas G %A Mazul, Angela L %A Meidtner, Karina %A Metspalu, Andres %A Mitchell, Paul %A Mohlke, Karen L %A Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O %A Morgan, Anna %A Morris, Andrew D %A Morris, Andrew P %A Müller-Nurasyid, Martina %A Munroe, Patricia B %A Nalls, Mike A %A Nauck, Matthias %A Nelson, Christopher P %A Neville, Matt %A Nielsen, Sune F %A Nikus, Kjell %A Njølstad, Pål R %A Nordestgaard, Børge G %A Ntalla, Ioanna %A O'Connel, Jeffrey R %A Oksa, Heikki %A Loohuis, Loes M Olde %A Ophoff, Roel A %A Owen, Katharine R %A Packard, Chris J %A Padmanabhan, Sandosh %A Palmer, Colin N A %A Pasterkamp, Gerard %A Patel, Aniruddh P %A Pattie, Alison %A Pedersen, Oluf %A Peissig, Peggy L %A Peloso, Gina M %A Pennell, Craig E %A Perola, Markus %A Perry, James A %A Perry, John R B %A Person, Thomas N %A Pirie, Ailith %A Polasek, Ozren %A Posthuma, Danielle %A Raitakari, Olli T %A Rasheed, Asif %A Rauramaa, Rainer %A Reilly, Dermot F %A Reiner, Alex P %A Renstrom, Frida %A Ridker, Paul M %A Rioux, John D %A Robertson, Neil %A Robino, Antonietta %A Rolandsson, Olov %A Rudan, Igor %A Ruth, Katherine S %A Saleheen, Danish %A Salomaa, Veikko %A Samani, Nilesh J %A Sandow, Kevin %A Sapkota, Yadav %A Sattar, Naveed %A Schmidt, Marjanka K %A Schreiner, Pamela J %A Schulze, Matthias B %A Scott, Robert A %A Segura-Lepe, Marcelo P %A Shah, Svati %A Sim, Xueling %A Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh %A Small, Kerrin S %A Smith, Albert Vernon %A Smith, Jennifer A %A Southam, Lorraine %A Spector, Timothy D %A Speliotes, Elizabeth K %A Starr, John M %A Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur %A Stringham, Heather M %A Stumvoll, Michael %A Surendran, Praveen %A 't Hart, Leen M %A Tansey, Katherine E %A Tardif, Jean-Claude %A Taylor, Kent D %A Teumer, Alexander %A Thompson, Deborah J %A Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur %A Thuesen, Betina H %A Tönjes, Anke %A Tromp, Gerard %A Trompet, Stella %A Tsafantakis, Emmanouil %A Tuomilehto, Jaakko %A Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne %A Tyrer, Jonathan P %A Uher, Rudolf %A Uitterlinden, André G %A Ulivi, Sheila %A van der Laan, Sander W %A Van Der Leij, Andries R %A van Duijn, Cornelia M %A van Schoor, Natasja M %A van Setten, Jessica %A Varbo, Anette %A Varga, Tibor V %A Varma, Rohit %A Edwards, Digna R Velez %A Vermeulen, Sita H %A Vestergaard, Henrik %A Vitart, Veronique %A Vogt, Thomas F %A Vozzi, Diego %A Walker, Mark %A Wang, Feijie %A Wang, Carol A %A Wang, Shuai %A Wang, Yiqin %A Wareham, Nicholas J %A Warren, Helen R %A Wessel, Jennifer %A Willems, Sara M %A Wilson, James G %A Witte, Daniel R %A Woods, Michael O %A Wu, Ying %A Yaghootkar, Hanieh %A Yao, Jie %A Yao, Pang %A Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M %A Young, Robin %A Zeggini, Eleftheria %A Zhan, Xiaowei %A Zhang, Weihua %A Zhao, Jing Hua %A Zhao, Wei %A Zhao, Wei %A Zheng, He %A Zhou, Wei %A Rotter, Jerome I %A Boehnke, Michael %A Kathiresan, Sekar %A McCarthy, Mark I %A Willer, Cristen J %A Stefansson, Kari %A Borecki, Ingrid B %A Liu, Dajiang J %A North, Kari E %A Heard-Costa, Nancy L %A Pers, Tune H %A Lindgren, Cecilia M %A Oxvig, Claus %A Kutalik, Zoltán %A Rivadeneira, Fernando %A Loos, Ruth J F %A Frayling, Timothy M %A Hirschhorn, Joel N %A Deloukas, Panos %A Lettre, Guillaume %K ADAMTS Proteins %K Adult %K Alleles %K Body Height %K Cell Adhesion Molecules %K Female %K Gene Frequency %K Genetic Variation %K Genome, Human %K Glycoproteins %K Glycosaminoglycans %K Hedgehog Proteins %K Humans %K Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins %K Interferon Regulatory Factors %K Interleukin-11 Receptor alpha Subunit %K Male %K Multifactorial Inheritance %K NADPH Oxidase 4 %K NADPH Oxidases %K Phenotype %K Pregnancy-Associated Plasma Protein-A %K Procollagen N-Endopeptidase %K Proteoglycans %K Proteolysis %K Receptors, Androgen %K Somatomedins %X

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.

%B Nature %V 542 %P 186-190 %8 2017 02 09 %G eng %N 7640 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28146470?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1038/nature21039 %0 Journal Article %J Rev Endocr Metab Disord %D 2016 %T A Genome-Wide Association Study in isolated populations reveals new genes associated to common food likings. %A Pirastu, Nicola %A Kooyman, Maarten %A Traglia, Michela %A Robino, Antonietta %A Willems, Sara M %A Pistis, Giorgio %A Amin, Najaf %A Sala, Cinzia %A Karssen, Lennart C %A van Duijn, Cornelia %A Toniolo, Daniela %A Gasparini, Paolo %X

Food preferences are the first factor driving food choice and thus nutrition. They involve numerous different senses such as taste and olfaction as well as various other factors such as personal experiences and hedonistic aspects. Although it is clear that several of these have a genetic basis, up to now studies have focused mostly on the effects of polymorphisms of taste receptor genes. Therefore, we have carried out one of the first large scale (4611 individuals) GWAS on food likings assessed for 20 specific food likings belonging to 4 different categories (vegetables, fatty, dairy and bitter). A two-step meta-analysis using three different isolated populations from Italy for the discovery step and two populations from The Netherlands and Central Asia for replication, revealed 15 independent genome-wide significant loci (p < 5 × 10(-8)) for 12 different foods. None of the identified genes coded for either taste or olfactory receptors suggesting that genetics impacts in determining food likings in a much broader way than simple differences in taste perception. These results represent a further step in uncovering the genes that underlie liking of common foods that in the end will greatly help understanding the genetics of human nutrition in general.

%B Rev Endocr Metab Disord %8 2016 Apr 30 %G ENG %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27129595?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1007/s11154-016-9354-3 %0 Journal Article %J Eur J Hum Genet %D 2015 %T Genome-wide association analysis on five isolated populations identifies variants of the HLA-DOA gene associated with white wine liking. %A Pirastu, Nicola %A Kooyman, Maarten %A Traglia, Michela %A Robino, Antonietta %A Willems, Sara M %A Pistis, Giorgio %A Amin, Najaf %A Sala, Cinzia %A Karssen, Lennart C %A van Duijn, Cornelia M %A Toniolo, Daniela %A Gasparini, Paolo %X

Wine is the most popular alcoholic beverage around the world and because of its importance in society has been widely studied. Understanding what drives its flavor has been a quest for decades but much is still unknown and will be determined at least in part by individual taste preferences. Recently studies in the genetics of taste have uncovered the role of different genes in the determination of food preferences giving new insight on its physiology. In this context we have performed a genome-wide association study on red and white wine liking using three isolated populations collected in Italy, and replicated our results on two additional populations coming from the Netherland and Central Asia for a total of 3885 samples. We have found a significant association (P=2.1 × 10(-8)) between white wine liking and rs9276975:C>T a polymorphism in the HLA-DOA gene encoding a non-canonical MHC II molecule, which regulates other MHC II molecules. The same association was also found with red wine liking (P=8.3 × 10(-6)). Sex-separated analysis have also revealed that the effect of HLA-DOA is twice as large in women as compared to men suggesting an interaction between this polymorphism and gender. Our results are one of the first examples of genome-wide association between liking of a commonly consumed food and gene variants. Moreover, our results suggest a role of the MHC system in the determination of food preferences opening new insight in this field in general.

%B Eur J Hum Genet %V 23 %P 1717-22 %8 2015 Dec %G eng %N 12 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25758996?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1038/ejhg.2015.34 %0 Journal Article %J PLoS One %D 2014 %T Association analysis of bitter receptor genes in five isolated populations identifies a significant correlation between TAS2R43 variants and coffee liking. %A Pirastu, Nicola %A Kooyman, Maarten %A Traglia, Michela %A Robino, Antonietta %A Willems, Sara M %A Pistis, Giorgio %A d'Adamo, Pio %A Amin, Najaf %A D'Eustacchio, Angela %A Navarini, Luciano %A Sala, Cinzia %A Karssen, Lennart C %A van Duijn, Cornelia %A Toniolo, Daniela %A Gasparini, Paolo %K Coffee %K Genetic Association Studies %K Humans %K Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide %K Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled %K Taste %X

Coffee, one of the most popular beverages in the world, contains many different physiologically active compounds with a potential impact on people's health. Despite the recent attention given to the genetic basis of its consumption, very little has been done in understanding genes influencing coffee preference among different individuals. Given its markedly bitter taste, we decided to verify if bitter receptor genes (TAS2Rs) variants affect coffee liking. In this light, 4066 people from different parts of Europe and Central Asia filled in a field questionnaire on coffee liking. They have been consequently recruited and included in the study. Eighty-eight SNPs covering the 25 TAS2R genes were selected from the available imputed ones and used to run association analysis for coffee liking. A significant association was detected with three SNP: one synonymous and two functional variants (W35S and H212R) on the TAS2R43 gene. Both variants have been shown to greatly reduce in vitro protein activity. Surprisingly the wild type allele, which corresponds to the functional form of the protein, is associated to higher liking of coffee. Since the hTAS2R43 receptor is sensible to caffeine, we verified if the detected variants produced differences in caffeine bitter perception on a subsample of people coming from the FVG cohort. We found a significant association between differences in caffeine perception and the H212R variant but not with the W35S, which suggests that the effect of the TAS2R43 gene on coffee liking is mediated by caffeine and in particular by the H212R variant. No other significant association was found with other TAS2R genes. In conclusion, the present study opens new perspectives in the understanding of coffee liking. Further studies are needed to clarify the role of the TAS2R43 gene in coffee hedonics and to identify which other genes and pathways are involved in its genetics.

%B PLoS One %V 9 %P e92065 %8 2014 %G eng %N 3 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24647340?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1371/journal.pone.0092065