%0 Journal Article %J Eur J Hum Genet %D 2019 %T Next-generation sequencing identified SPATC1L as a possible candidate gene for both early-onset and age-related hearing loss. %A Morgan, Anna %A Vuckovic, Dragana %A Krishnamoorthy, Navaneethakrishnan %A Rubinato, Elisa %A Ambrosetti, Umberto %A Castorina, Pierangela %A Franzè, Annamaria %A Vozzi, Diego %A La Bianca, Martina %A Cappellani, Stefania %A Di Stazio, Mariateresa %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Girotto, Giorgia %X

Hereditary hearing loss (HHL) and age-related hearing loss (ARHL) are two major sensory diseases affecting millions of people worldwide. Despite many efforts, additional HHL-genes and ARHL genetic risk factors still need to be identified. To fill this gap a large genomic screening based on next-generation sequencing technologies was performed. Whole exome sequencing in a 3-generation Italian HHL family and targeted re-sequencing in 464 ARHL patients were performed. We detected three variants in SPATC1L: a nonsense allele in an HHL family and a frameshift insertion and a missense variation in two unrelated ARHL patients. In silico molecular modelling of all variants suggested a significant impact on the structural stability of the protein itself, likely leading to deleterious effects and resulting in truncated isoforms. After demonstrating Spatc1l expression in mice inner ear, in vitro functional experiments were performed confirming the results of the molecular modelling studies. Finally, a candidate-gene population-based statistical study in cohorts from Caucasus and Central Asia revealed a statistically significant association of SPATC1L with normal hearing function at low and medium hearing frequencies. Overall, the amount of different genetic data presented here (variants with early-onset and late-onset hearing loss in addition to genetic association with normal hearing function), together with relevant functional evidence, likely suggest a role of SPATC1L in hearing function and loss.

%B Eur J Hum Genet %V 27 %P 70-79 %8 2019 01 %G eng %N 1 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30177775?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1038/s41431-018-0229-9 %0 Journal Article %J Redox Biol %D 2018 %T Cx26 partial loss causes accelerated presbycusis by redox imbalance and dysregulation of Nfr2 pathway. %A Fetoni, Anna Rita %A Zorzi, Veronica %A Paciello, Fabiola %A Ziraldo, Gaia %A Peres, Chiara %A Raspa, Marcello %A Scavizzi, Ferdinando %A Salvatore, Anna Maria %A Crispino, Giulia %A Tognola, Gabriella %A Gentile, Giulia %A Spampinato, Antonio Gianmaria %A Cuccaro, Denis %A Guarnaccia, Maria %A Morello, Giovanna %A Van Camp, Guy %A Fransen, Erik %A Brumat, Marco %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Paludetti, Gaetano %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Cavallaro, Sebastiano %A Mammano, Fabio %K Animals %K Apoptosis %K Connexin 26 %K Female %K Gene Deletion %K Male %K Mice %K Mice, Inbred C57BL %K NF-E2-Related Factor 2 %K Oxidation-Reduction %K Presbycusis %K Signal Transduction %X

Mutations in GJB2, the gene that encodes connexin 26 (Cx26), are the most common cause of sensorineural hearing impairment. The truncating variant 35delG, which determines a complete loss of Cx26 protein function, is the prevalent GJB2 mutation in several populations. Here, we generated and analyzed Gjb2 mice as a model of heterozygous human carriers of 35delG. Compared to control mice, auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) worsened over time more rapidly in Gjb2 mice, indicating they were affected by accelerated age-related hearing loss (ARHL), or presbycusis. We linked causally the auditory phenotype of Gjb2 mice to apoptosis and oxidative damage in the cochlear duct, reduced release of glutathione from connexin hemichannels, decreased nutrient delivery to the sensory epithelium via cochlear gap junctions and deregulated expression of genes that are under transcriptional control of the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a pivotal regulator of tolerance to redox stress. Moreover, a statistically significant genome-wide association with two genes (PRKCE and TGFB1) related to the Nrf2 pathway (p-value < 4 × 10) was detected in a very large cohort of 4091 individuals, originating from Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, with hearing phenotype (including 1076 presbycusis patients and 1290 healthy matched controls). We conclude that (i) elements of the Nrf2 pathway are essential for hearing maintenance and (ii) their dysfunction may play an important role in the etiopathogenesis of human presbycusis.

%B Redox Biol %V 19 %P 301-317 %8 2018 10 %G eng %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30199819?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1016/j.redox.2018.08.002 %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 Nat Genet %D 2018 %T Genome-wide association meta-analysis of individuals of European ancestry identifies new loci explaining a substantial fraction of hair color variation and heritability. %A Hysi, Pirro G %A Valdes, Ana M %A Liu, Fan %A Furlotte, Nicholas A %A Evans, David M %A Bataille, Veronique %A Visconti, Alessia %A Hemani, Gibran %A McMahon, George %A Ring, Susan M %A Smith, George Davey %A Duffy, David L %A Zhu, Gu %A Gordon, Scott D %A Medland, Sarah E %A Lin, Bochao D %A Willemsen, Gonneke %A Jan Hottenga, Jouke %A Vuckovic, Dragana %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Gandin, Ilaria %A Sala, Cinzia %A Concas, Maria Pina %A Brumat, Marco %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Toniolo, Daniela %A Cocca, Massimiliano %A Robino, Antonietta %A Yazar, Seyhan %A Hewitt, Alex W %A Chen, Yan %A Zeng, Changqing %A Uitterlinden, André G %A Ikram, M Arfan %A Hamer, Merel A %A van Duijn, Cornelia M %A Nijsten, Tamar %A Mackey, David A %A Falchi, Mario %A Boomsma, Dorret I %A Martin, Nicholas G %A Hinds, David A %A Kayser, Manfred %A Spector, Timothy D %X

Hair color is one of the most recognizable visual traits in European populations and is under strong genetic control. Here we report the results of a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of almost 300,000 participants of European descent. We identified 123 autosomal and one X-chromosome loci significantly associated with hair color; all but 13 are novel. Collectively, single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with hair color within these loci explain 34.6% of red hair, 24.8% of blond hair, and 26.1% of black hair heritability in the study populations. These results confirm the polygenic nature of complex phenotypes and improve our understanding of melanin pigment metabolism in humans.

%B Nat Genet %V 50 %P 652-656 %8 2018 May %G eng %N 5 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29662168?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1038/s41588-018-0100-5 %0 Journal Article %J Sci Rep %D 2017 %T 1000 Genomes-based meta-analysis identifies 10 novel loci for kidney function. %A Gorski, Mathias %A van der Most, Peter J %A Teumer, Alexander %A Chu, Audrey Y %A Li, Man %A Mijatovic, Vladan %A Nolte, Ilja M %A Cocca, Massimiliano %A Taliun, Daniel %A Gomez, Felicia %A Li, Yong %A Tayo, Bamidele %A Tin, Adrienne %A Feitosa, Mary F %A Aspelund, Thor %A Attia, John %A Biffar, Reiner %A Bochud, Murielle %A Boerwinkle, Eric %A Borecki, Ingrid %A Bottinger, Erwin P %A Chen, Ming-Huei %A Chouraki, Vincent %A Ciullo, Marina %A Coresh, Josef %A Cornelis, Marilyn C %A Curhan, Gary C %A d'Adamo, Adamo Pio %A Dehghan, Abbas %A Dengler, Laura %A Ding, Jingzhong %A Eiriksdottir, Gudny %A Endlich, Karlhans %A Enroth, Stefan %A Esko, Tõnu %A Franco, Oscar H %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Gieger, Christian %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Gottesman, Omri %A Gudnason, Vilmundur %A Gyllensten, Ulf %A Hancock, Stephen J %A Harris, Tamara B %A Helmer, Catherine %A Höllerer, Simon %A Hofer, Edith %A Hofman, Albert %A Holliday, Elizabeth G %A Homuth, Georg %A Hu, Frank B %A Huth, Cornelia %A Hutri-Kähönen, Nina %A Hwang, Shih-Jen %A Imboden, Medea %A Johansson, Åsa %A Kähönen, Mika %A König, Wolfgang %A Kramer, Holly %A Krämer, Bernhard K %A Kumar, Ashish %A Kutalik, Zoltán %A Lambert, Jean-Charles %A Launer, Lenore J %A Lehtimäki, Terho %A de Borst, Martin %A Navis, Gerjan %A Swertz, Morris %A Liu, Yongmei %A Lohman, Kurt %A Loos, Ruth J F %A Lu, Yingchang %A Lyytikäinen, Leo-Pekka %A McEvoy, Mark A %A Meisinger, Christa %A Meitinger, Thomas %A Metspalu, Andres %A Metzger, Marie %A Mihailov, Evelin %A Mitchell, Paul %A Nauck, Matthias %A Oldehinkel, Albertine J %A Olden, Matthias %A Wjh Penninx, Brenda %A Pistis, Giorgio %A Pramstaller, Peter P %A Probst-Hensch, Nicole %A Raitakari, Olli T %A Rettig, Rainer %A Ridker, Paul M %A Rivadeneira, Fernando %A Robino, Antonietta %A Rosas, Sylvia E %A Ruderfer, Douglas %A Ruggiero, Daniela %A Saba, Yasaman %A Sala, Cinzia %A Schmidt, Helena %A Schmidt, Reinhold %A Scott, Rodney J %A Sedaghat, Sanaz %A Smith, Albert V %A Sorice, Rossella %A Stengel, Bénédicte %A Stracke, Sylvia %A Strauch, Konstantin %A Toniolo, Daniela %A Uitterlinden, André G %A Ulivi, Sheila %A Viikari, Jorma S %A Völker, Uwe %A Vollenweider, Peter %A Völzke, Henry %A Vuckovic, Dragana %A Waldenberger, Melanie %A Jin Wang, Jie %A Yang, Qiong %A Chasman, Daniel I %A Tromp, Gerard %A Snieder, Harold %A Heid, Iris M %A Fox, Caroline S %A Köttgen, Anna %A Pattaro, Cristian %A Böger, Carsten A %A Fuchsberger, Christian %K Computational Biology %K Gene Frequency %K Genetic Loci %K Genome, Human %K Genome-Wide Association Study %K Genotyping Techniques %K Humans %K Kidney %K Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide %X

HapMap imputed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed >50 loci at which common variants with minor allele frequency >5% are associated with kidney function. GWAS using more complete reference sets for imputation, such as those from The 1000 Genomes project, promise to identify novel loci that have been missed by previous efforts. To investigate the value of such a more complete variant catalog, we conducted a GWAS meta-analysis of kidney function based on the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in 110,517 European ancestry participants using 1000 Genomes imputed data. We identified 10 novel loci with p-value < 5 × 10 previously missed by HapMap-based GWAS. Six of these loci (HOXD8, ARL15, PIK3R1, EYA4, ASTN2, and EPB41L3) are tagged by common SNPs unique to the 1000 Genomes reference panel. Using pathway analysis, we identified 39 significant (FDR < 0.05) genes and 127 significantly (FDR < 0.05) enriched gene sets, which were missed by our previous analyses. Among those, the 10 identified novel genes are part of pathways of kidney development, carbohydrate metabolism, cardiac septum development and glucose metabolism. These results highlight the utility of re-imputing from denser reference panels, until whole-genome sequencing becomes feasible in large samples.

%B Sci Rep %V 7 %P 45040 %8 2017 04 28 %G eng %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28452372?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1038/srep45040 %0 Journal Article %J Hypertension %D 2017 %T Novel Blood Pressure Locus and Gene Discovery Using Genome-Wide Association Study and Expression Data Sets From Blood and the Kidney. %A Wain, Louise V %A Vaez, Ahmad %A Jansen, Rick %A Joehanes, Roby %A van der Most, Peter J %A Erzurumluoglu, A Mesut %A O'Reilly, Paul F %A Cabrera, Claudia P %A Warren, Helen R %A Rose, Lynda M %A Verwoert, Germaine C %A Hottenga, Jouke-Jan %A Strawbridge, Rona J %A Esko, Tõnu %A Arking, Dan E %A Hwang, Shih-Jen %A Guo, Xiuqing %A Kutalik, Zoltán %A Trompet, Stella %A Shrine, Nick %A Teumer, Alexander %A Ried, Janina S %A Bis, Joshua C %A Smith, Albert V %A Amin, Najaf %A Nolte, Ilja M %A Lyytikäinen, Leo-Pekka %A Mahajan, Anubha %A Wareham, Nicholas J %A Hofer, Edith %A Joshi, Peter K %A Kristiansson, Kati %A Traglia, Michela %A Havulinna, Aki S %A Goel, Anuj %A Nalls, Mike A %A Sõber, Siim %A Vuckovic, Dragana %A Luan, Jian'an %A del Greco M, Fabiola %A Ayers, Kristin L %A Marrugat, Jaume %A Ruggiero, Daniela %A Lopez, Lorna M %A Niiranen, Teemu %A Enroth, Stefan %A Jackson, Anne U %A Nelson, Christopher P %A Huffman, Jennifer E %A Zhang, Weihua %A Marten, Jonathan %A Gandin, Ilaria %A Harris, Sarah E %A Zemunik, Tatijana %A Lu, Yingchang %A Evangelou, Evangelos %A Shah, Nabi %A de Borst, Martin H %A Mangino, Massimo %A Prins, Bram P %A Campbell, Archie %A Li-Gao, Ruifang %A Chauhan, Ganesh %A Oldmeadow, Christopher %A Abecasis, Goncalo %A Abedi, Maryam %A Barbieri, Caterina M %A Barnes, Michael R %A Batini, Chiara %A Beilby, John %A Blake, Tineka %A Boehnke, Michael %A Bottinger, Erwin P %A Braund, Peter S %A Brown, Morris %A Brumat, Marco %A Campbell, Harry %A Chambers, John C %A Cocca, Massimiliano %A Collins, Francis %A Connell, John %A Cordell, Heather J %A Damman, Jeffrey J %A Davies, Gail %A de Geus, Eco J %A de Mutsert, Renée %A Deelen, Joris %A Demirkale, Yusuf %A Doney, Alex S F %A Dörr, Marcus %A Farrall, Martin %A Ferreira, Teresa %A Frånberg, Mattias %A Gao, He %A Giedraitis, Vilmantas %A Gieger, Christian %A Giulianini, Franco %A Gow, Alan J %A Hamsten, Anders %A Harris, Tamara B %A Hofman, Albert %A Holliday, Elizabeth G %A Hui, Jennie %A Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta %A Johansson, Åsa %A Johnson, Andrew D %A Jousilahti, Pekka %A Jula, Antti %A Kähönen, Mika %A Kathiresan, Sekar %A Khaw, Kay-Tee %A Kolcic, Ivana %A Koskinen, Seppo %A Langenberg, Claudia %A Larson, Marty %A Launer, Lenore J %A Lehne, Benjamin %A Liewald, David C M %A Lin, Li %A Lind, Lars %A Mach, François %A Mamasoula, Chrysovalanto %A Menni, Cristina %A Mifsud, Borbala %A Milaneschi, Yuri %A Morgan, Anna %A Morris, Andrew D %A Morrison, Alanna C %A Munson, Peter J %A Nandakumar, Priyanka %A Nguyen, Quang Tri %A Nutile, Teresa %A Oldehinkel, Albertine J %A Oostra, Ben A %A Org, Elin %A Padmanabhan, Sandosh %A Palotie, Aarno %A Paré, Guillaume %A Pattie, Alison %A Penninx, Brenda W J H %A Poulter, Neil %A Pramstaller, Peter P %A Raitakari, Olli T %A Ren, Meixia %A Rice, Kenneth %A Ridker, Paul M %A Riese, Harriëtte %A Ripatti, Samuli %A Robino, Antonietta %A Rotter, Jerome I %A Rudan, Igor %A Saba, Yasaman %A Saint Pierre, Aude %A Sala, Cinzia F %A Sarin, Antti-Pekka %A Schmidt, Reinhold %A Scott, Rodney %A Seelen, Marc A %A Shields, Denis C %A Siscovick, David %A Sorice, Rossella %A Stanton, Alice %A Stott, David J %A Sundström, Johan %A Swertz, Morris %A Taylor, Kent D %A Thom, Simon %A Tzoulaki, Ioanna %A Tzourio, Christophe %A Uitterlinden, André G %A Völker, Uwe %A Vollenweider, Peter %A Wild, Sarah %A Willemsen, Gonneke %A Wright, Alan F %A Yao, Jie %A Thériault, Sébastien %A Conen, David %A Attia, John %A Sever, Peter %A Debette, Stéphanie %A Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O %A Zeggini, Eleftheria %A Spector, Tim D %A van der Harst, Pim %A Palmer, Colin N A %A Vergnaud, Anne-Claire %A Loos, Ruth J F %A Polasek, Ozren %A Starr, John M %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Hayward, Caroline %A Kooner, Jaspal S %A Lindgren, Cecila M %A Vitart, Veronique %A Samani, Nilesh J %A Tuomilehto, Jaakko %A Gyllensten, Ulf %A Knekt, Paul %A Deary, Ian J %A Ciullo, Marina %A Elosua, Roberto %A Keavney, Bernard D %A Hicks, Andrew A %A Scott, Robert A %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Laan, Maris %A Liu, Yongmei %A Watkins, Hugh %A Hartman, Catharina A %A Salomaa, Veikko %A Toniolo, Daniela %A Perola, Markus %A Wilson, James F %A Schmidt, Helena %A Zhao, Jing Hua %A Lehtimäki, Terho %A van Duijn, Cornelia M %A Gudnason, Vilmundur %A Psaty, Bruce M %A Peters, Annette %A Rettig, Rainer %A James, Alan %A Jukema, J Wouter %A Strachan, David P %A Palmas, Walter %A Metspalu, Andres %A Ingelsson, Erik %A Boomsma, Dorret I %A Franco, Oscar H %A Bochud, Murielle %A Newton-Cheh, Christopher %A Munroe, Patricia B %A Elliott, Paul %A Chasman, Daniel I %A Chakravarti, Aravinda %A Knight, Joanne %A Morris, Andrew P %A Levy, Daniel %A Tobin, Martin D %A Snieder, Harold %A Caulfield, Mark J %A Ehret, Georg B %X

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.

%B Hypertension %8 2017 Jul 24 %G eng %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28739976?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.117.09438 %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 Mutat Res %D 2017 %T Targeted sequencing identifies novel variants involved in autosomal recessive hereditary hearing loss in Qatari families. %A Alkowari, Moza K %A Vozzi, Diego %A Bhagat, Shruti %A Krishnamoorthy, Navaneethakrishnan %A Morgan, Anna %A Hayder, Yousra %A Logendra, Barathy %A Najjar, Nehal %A Gandin, Ilaria %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Badii, Ramin %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Abdulhadi, Khalid %K Adolescent %K Alleles %K Cadherins %K Child %K Child, Preschool %K Connexins %K Female %K GPI-Linked Proteins %K Hearing Loss, Sensorineural %K Humans %K Infant %K Male %K Membrane Proteins %K Models, Molecular %K Mutation %K Myosin Heavy Chains %K Pedigree %K Protein Conformation %K Qatar %K Sequence Analysis, DNA %X

Hereditary hearing loss is characterized by a very high genetic heterogeneity. In the Qatari population the role of GJB2, the worldwide HHL major player, seems to be quite limited compared to Caucasian populations. In this study we analysed 18 Qatari families affected by non-syndromic hearing loss using a targeted sequencing approach that allowed us to analyse 81 genes simultaneously. Thanks to this approach, 50% of these families (9 out of 18) resulted positive for the presence of likely causative alleles in 6 different genes: CDH23, MYO6, GJB6, OTOF, TMC1 and OTOA. In particular, 4 novel alleles were detected while the remaining ones were already described to be associated to HHL in other ethnic groups. Molecular modelling has been used to further investigate the role of novel alleles identified in CDH23 and TMC1 genes demonstrating their crucial role in Ca2+ binding and therefore possible functional role in proteins. Present study showed that an accurate molecular diagnosis based on next generation sequencing technologies might largely improve molecular diagnostics outcome leading to benefits for both genetic counseling and definition of recurrence risk.

%B Mutat Res %V 800-802 %P 29-36 %8 2017 08 %G eng %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28501645?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1016/j.mrfmmm.2017.05.001 %0 Journal Article %J Nature %D 2016 %T Genome-wide association study identifies 74 loci associated with educational attainment. %A Okbay, Aysu %A Beauchamp, Jonathan P %A Fontana, Mark Alan %A Lee, James J %A Pers, Tune H %A Rietveld, Cornelius A %A Turley, Patrick %A Chen, Guo-Bo %A Emilsson, Valur %A Meddens, S Fleur W %A Oskarsson, Sven %A Pickrell, Joseph K %A Thom, Kevin %A Timshel, Pascal %A de Vlaming, Ronald %A Abdellaoui, Abdel %A Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S %A Bacelis, Jonas %A Baumbach, Clemens %A Bjornsdottir, Gyda %A Brandsma, Johannes H %A Pina Concas, Maria %A Derringer, Jaime %A Furlotte, Nicholas A %A Galesloot, Tessel E %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Gupta, Richa %A Hall, Leanne M %A Harris, Sarah E %A Hofer, Edith %A Horikoshi, Momoko %A Huffman, Jennifer E %A Kaasik, Kadri %A Kalafati, Ioanna P %A Karlsson, Robert %A Kong, Augustine %A Lahti, Jari %A van der Lee, Sven J %A deLeeuw, Christiaan %A Lind, Penelope A %A Lindgren, Karl-Oskar %A Liu, Tian %A Mangino, Massimo %A Marten, Jonathan %A Mihailov, Evelin %A Miller, Michael B %A van der Most, Peter J %A Oldmeadow, Christopher %A Payton, Antony %A Pervjakova, Natalia %A Peyrot, Wouter J %A Qian, Yong %A Raitakari, Olli %A Rueedi, Rico %A Salvi, Erika %A Schmidt, Börge %A Schraut, Katharina E %A Shi, Jianxin %A Smith, Albert V %A Poot, Raymond A %A St Pourcain, Beate %A Teumer, Alexander %A Thorleifsson, Gudmar %A Verweij, Niek %A Vuckovic, Dragana %A Wellmann, Juergen %A Westra, Harm-Jan %A Yang, Jingyun %A Zhao, Wei %A Zhu, Zhihong %A Alizadeh, Behrooz Z %A Amin, Najaf %A Bakshi, Andrew %A Baumeister, Sebastian E %A Biino, Ginevra %A Bønnelykke, Klaus %A Boyle, Patricia A %A Campbell, Harry %A Cappuccio, Francesco P %A Davies, Gail %A De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel %A Deloukas, Panos %A Demuth, Ilja %A Ding, Jun %A Eibich, Peter %A Eisele, Lewin %A Eklund, Niina %A Evans, David M %A Faul, Jessica D %A Feitosa, Mary F %A Forstner, Andreas J %A Gandin, Ilaria %A Gunnarsson, Bjarni %A Halldórsson, Bjarni V %A Harris, Tamara B %A Heath, Andrew C %A Hocking, Lynne J %A Holliday, Elizabeth G %A Homuth, Georg %A Horan, Michael A %A Hottenga, Jouke-Jan %A de Jager, Philip L %A Joshi, Peter K %A Jugessur, Astanand %A Kaakinen, Marika A %A Kähönen, Mika %A Kanoni, Stavroula %A Keltigangas-Järvinen, Liisa %A Kiemeney, Lambertus A L M %A Kolcic, Ivana %A Koskinen, Seppo %A Kraja, Aldi T %A Kroh, Martin %A Kutalik, Zoltán %A Latvala, Antti %A Launer, Lenore J %A Lebreton, Maël P %A Levinson, Douglas F %A Lichtenstein, Paul %A Lichtner, Peter %A Liewald, David C M %A Loukola, Anu %A Madden, Pamela A %A Mägi, Reedik %A Mäki-Opas, Tomi %A Marioni, Riccardo E %A Marques-Vidal, Pedro %A Meddens, Gerardus A %A McMahon, George %A Meisinger, Christa %A Meitinger, Thomas %A Milaneschi, Yusplitri %A Milani, Lili %A Montgomery, Grant W %A Myhre, Ronny %A Nelson, Christopher P %A Nyholt, Dale R %A Ollier, William E R %A Palotie, Aarno %A Paternoster, Lavinia %A Pedersen, Nancy L %A Petrovic, Katja E %A Porteous, David J %A Räikkönen, Katri %A Ring, Susan M %A Robino, Antonietta %A Rostapshova, Olga %A Rudan, Igor %A Rustichini, Aldo %A Salomaa, Veikko %A Sanders, Alan R %A Sarin, Antti-Pekka %A Schmidt, Helena %A Scott, Rodney J %A Smith, Blair H %A Smith, Jennifer A %A Staessen, Jan A %A Steinhagen-Thiessen, Elisabeth %A Strauch, Konstantin %A Terracciano, Antonio %A Tobin, Martin D %A Ulivi, Sheila %A Vaccargiu, Simona %A Quaye, Lydia %A van Rooij, Frank J A %A Venturini, Cristina %A Vinkhuyzen, Anna A E %A Völker, Uwe %A Völzke, Henry %A Vonk, Judith M %A Vozzi, Diego %A Waage, Johannes %A Ware, Erin B %A Willemsen, Gonneke %A Attia, John R %A Bennett, David A %A Berger, Klaus %A Bertram, Lars %A Bisgaard, Hans %A Boomsma, Dorret I %A Borecki, Ingrid B %A Bültmann, Ute %A Chabris, Christopher F %A Cucca, Francesco %A Cusi, Daniele %A Deary, Ian J %A Dedoussis, George V %A van Duijn, Cornelia M %A Eriksson, Johan G %A Franke, Barbara %A Franke, Lude %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Gejman, Pablo V %A Gieger, Christian %A Grabe, Hans-Jörgen %A Gratten, Jacob %A Groenen, Patrick J F %A Gudnason, Vilmundur %A van der Harst, Pim %A Hayward, Caroline %A Hinds, David A %A Hoffmann, Wolfgang %A Hyppönen, Elina %A Iacono, William G %A Jacobsson, Bo %A Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta %A Jöckel, Karl-Heinz %A Kaprio, Jaakko %A Kardia, Sharon L R %A Lehtimäki, Terho %A Lehrer, Steven F %A Magnusson, Patrik K E %A Martin, Nicholas G %A McGue, Matt %A Metspalu, Andres %A Pendleton, Neil %A Penninx, Brenda W J H %A Perola, Markus %A Pirastu, Nicola %A Pirastu, Mario %A Polasek, Ozren %A Posthuma, Danielle %A Power, Christine %A Province, Michael A %A Samani, Nilesh J %A Schlessinger, David %A Schmidt, Reinhold %A Sørensen, Thorkild I A %A Spector, Tim D %A Stefansson, Kari %A Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur %A Thurik, A Roy %A Timpson, Nicholas J %A Tiemeier, Henning %A Tung, Joyce Y %A Uitterlinden, André G %A Vitart, Veronique %A Vollenweider, Peter %A Weir, David R %A Wilson, James F %A Wright, Alan F %A Conley, Dalton C %A Krueger, Robert F %A Davey Smith, George %A Hofman, Albert %A Laibson, David I %A Medland, Sarah E %A Meyer, Michelle N %A Yang, Jian %A Johannesson, Magnus %A Visscher, Peter M %A Esko, Tõnu %A Koellinger, Philipp D %A Cesarini, David %A Benjamin, Daniel J %K Alzheimer Disease %K Bipolar Disorder %K Brain %K Cognition %K Computational Biology %K Educational Status %K Fetus %K Gene Expression Regulation %K Gene-Environment Interaction %K Genome-Wide Association Study %K Great Britain %K Humans %K Molecular Sequence Annotation %K Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide %K Schizophrenia %X

Educational attainment is strongly influenced by social and other environmental factors, but genetic factors are estimated to account for at least 20% of the variation across individuals. Here we report the results of a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for educational attainment that extends our earlier discovery sample of 101,069 individuals to 293,723 individuals, and a replication study in an independent sample of 111,349 individuals from the UK Biobank. We identify 74 genome-wide significant loci associated with the number of years of schooling completed. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with educational attainment are disproportionately found in genomic regions regulating gene expression in the fetal brain. Candidate genes are preferentially expressed in neural tissue, especially during the prenatal period, and enriched for biological pathways involved in neural development. Our findings demonstrate that, even for a behavioural phenotype that is mostly environmentally determined, a well-powered GWAS identifies replicable associated genetic variants that suggest biologically relevant pathways. Because educational attainment is measured in large numbers of individuals, it will continue to be useful as a proxy phenotype in efforts to characterize the genetic influences of related phenotypes, including cognition and neuropsychiatric diseases.

%B Nature %V 533 %P 539-42 %8 2016 May 26 %G eng %N 7604 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27225129?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1038/nature17671 %0 Journal Article %J J Transl Med %D 2016 %T Pharmacogenetics driving personalized medicine: analysis of genetic polymorphisms related to breast cancer medications in Italian isolated populations. %A Cocca, Massimiliano %A Bedognetti, Davide %A La Bianca, Martina %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Girotto, Giorgia %X

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women characterized by a high variable clinical outcome among individuals treated with equivalent regimens and novel targeted therapies. In this study, we performed a population based approach intersecting high-throughput genotype data from Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) isolated populations with publically available pharmacogenomics information to estimate the frequency of genotypes correlated with responsiveness to breast cancer treatment thus improving the clinical management of this disease in an efficient and cost effective way.

METHODS: A list of 80 variants reported to be related to the efficacy or toxicity of breast cancer drugs was obtained from PharmGKB database. Fourty-one were present in FVG, 1000G European (EUR) and ExAC (Non Finnish European) databases. Their frequency was extracted using PLINK software and the differences tested by Fisher's exact test.

RESULTS: Statistical analyses revealed that 13 out of the 41 (32 %) variants were significantly different in frequency in our sample as compared to the EUR/ExAC cohorts. For nine variants the available level of evidence (LOE) included polymorphisms related to cyclophosphamide, tamoxifen, doxorubicin, fluorpyrimidine and paclitaxel. In particular, for trastuzumab two variants were detected: (1) rs1801274-G within FCGR2A and associated with decreased efficacy (LOE 2B); (2) rs1136201-G located within ERBB2 and associated with increased toxicity (LOE 3). Both these two variants were underrepresented in the FVG population compared to EUR/ExAC population thus suggesting a high therapeutic index of this drug in our population. Moreover, as regards fluoropyrimidines, the frequency of two polymorphisms within the DPYD gene associated with drug toxicity (e.g., rs2297595-C allele and rs3918290-T allele, LOE 2A and 1, respectively) was extremely low in FVG population thus suggesting that a larger number of FVG patients could benefit from full dosage of fluoropyrimidine therapy.

CONCLUSIONS: All these findings increase the overall knowledge on the prevalence of specific variants related with breast cancer treatment responsiveness in FVG population and highlight the importance of assessing gene polymorphisms related with cancer medications in isolated communities.

%B J Transl Med %V 14 %P 22 %8 2016 %G eng %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26801900?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1186/s12967-016-0778-z %0 Journal Article %J Nature %D 2015 %T Directional dominance on stature and cognition in diverse human populations. %A Joshi, Peter K %A Esko, Tõnu %A Mattsson, Hannele %A Eklund, Niina %A Gandin, Ilaria %A Nutile, Teresa %A Jackson, Anne U %A Schurmann, Claudia %A Smith, Albert V %A Zhang, Weihua %A Okada, Yukinori %A Stančáková, Alena %A Faul, Jessica D %A Zhao, Wei %A Bartz, Traci M %A Concas, Maria Pina %A Franceschini, Nora %A Enroth, Stefan %A Vitart, Veronique %A Trompet, Stella %A Guo, Xiuqing %A Chasman, Daniel I %A O'Connel, Jeffrey R %A Corre, Tanguy %A Nongmaithem, Suraj S %A Chen, Yuning %A Mangino, Massimo %A Ruggiero, Daniela %A Traglia, Michela %A Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni %A Kacprowski, Tim %A Bjonnes, Andrew %A van der Spek, Ashley %A Wu, Ying %A Giri, Anil K %A Yanek, Lisa R %A Wang, Lihua %A Hofer, Edith %A Rietveld, Cornelius A %A McLeod, Olga %A Cornelis, Marilyn C %A Pattaro, Cristian %A Verweij, Niek %A Baumbach, Clemens %A Abdellaoui, Abdel %A Warren, Helen R %A Vuckovic, Dragana %A Mei, Hao %A Bouchard, Claude %A Perry, John R B %A Cappellani, Stefania %A Mirza, Saira S %A Benton, Miles C %A Broeckel, Ulrich %A Medland, Sarah E %A Lind, Penelope A %A Malerba, Giovanni %A Drong, Alexander %A Yengo, Loic %A Bielak, Lawrence F %A Zhi, Degui %A van der Most, Peter J %A Shriner, Daniel %A Mägi, Reedik %A Hemani, Gibran %A Karaderi, Tugce %A Wang, Zhaoming %A Liu, Tian %A Demuth, Ilja %A Zhao, Jing Hua %A Meng, Weihua %A Lataniotis, Lazaros %A van der Laan, Sander W %A Bradfield, Jonathan P %A Wood, Andrew R %A Bonnefond, Amelie %A Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S %A Hall, Leanne M %A Salvi, Erika %A Yazar, Seyhan %A Carstensen, Lisbeth %A de Haan, Hugoline G %A Abney, Mark %A Afzal, Uzma %A Allison, Matthew A %A Amin, Najaf %A Asselbergs, Folkert W %A Bakker, Stephan J L %A Barr, R Graham %A Baumeister, Sebastian E %A Benjamin, Daniel J %A Bergmann, Sven %A Boerwinkle, Eric %A Bottinger, Erwin P %A Campbell, Archie %A Chakravarti, Aravinda %A Chan, Yingleong %A Chanock, Stephen J %A Chen, Constance %A Chen, Y-D Ida %A Collins, Francis S %A Connell, John %A Correa, Adolfo %A Cupples, L Adrienne %A Smith, George Davey %A Davies, Gail %A Dörr, Marcus %A Ehret, Georg %A Ellis, Stephen B %A Feenstra, Bjarke %A Feitosa, Mary F %A Ford, Ian %A Fox, Caroline S %A Frayling, Timothy M %A Friedrich, Nele %A Geller, Frank %A Scotland, Generation %A Gillham-Nasenya, Irina %A Gottesman, Omri %A Graff, Misa %A Grodstein, Francine %A Gu, Charles %A Haley, Chris %A Hammond, Christopher J %A Harris, Sarah E %A Harris, Tamara B %A Hastie, Nicholas D %A Heard-Costa, Nancy L %A Heikkilä, Kauko %A Hocking, Lynne J %A Homuth, Georg %A Hottenga, Jouke-Jan %A Huang, Jinyan %A Huffman, Jennifer E %A Hysi, Pirro G %A Ikram, M Arfan %A Ingelsson, Erik %A Joensuu, Anni %A Johansson, Åsa %A Jousilahti, Pekka %A Jukema, J Wouter %A Kähönen, Mika %A Kamatani, Yoichiro %A Kanoni, Stavroula %A Kerr, Shona M %A Khan, Nazir M %A Koellinger, Philipp %A Koistinen, Heikki A %A Kooner, Manraj K %A Kubo, Michiaki %A Kuusisto, Johanna %A Lahti, Jari %A Launer, Lenore J %A Lea, Rodney A %A Lehne, Benjamin %A Lehtimäki, Terho %A Liewald, David C M %A Lind, Lars %A Loh, Marie %A Lokki, Marja-Liisa %A London, Stephanie J %A Loomis, Stephanie J %A Loukola, Anu %A Lu, Yingchang %A Lumley, Thomas %A Lundqvist, Annamari %A Männistö, Satu %A Marques-Vidal, Pedro %A Masciullo, Corrado %A Matchan, Angela %A Mathias, Rasika A %A Matsuda, Koichi %A Meigs, James B %A Meisinger, Christa %A Meitinger, Thomas %A Menni, Cristina %A Mentch, Frank D %A Mihailov, Evelin %A Milani, Lili %A Montasser, May E %A Montgomery, Grant W %A Morrison, Alanna %A Myers, Richard H %A Nadukuru, Rajiv %A Navarro, Pau %A Nelis, Mari %A Nieminen, Markku S %A Nolte, Ilja M %A O'Connor, George T %A Ogunniyi, Adesola %A Padmanabhan, Sandosh %A Palmas, Walter R %A Pankow, James S %A Patarcic, Inga %A Pavani, Francesca %A Peyser, Patricia A %A Pietilainen, Kirsi %A Poulter, Neil %A Prokopenko, Inga %A Ralhan, Sarju %A Redmond, Paul %A Rich, Stephen S %A Rissanen, Harri %A Robino, Antonietta %A Rose, Lynda M %A Rose, Richard %A Sala, Cinzia %A Salako, Babatunde %A Salomaa, Veikko %A Sarin, Antti-Pekka %A Saxena, Richa %A Schmidt, Helena %A Scott, Laura J %A Scott, William R %A Sennblad, Bengt %A Seshadri, Sudha %A Sever, Peter %A Shrestha, Smeeta %A Smith, Blair H %A Smith, Jennifer A %A Soranzo, Nicole %A Sotoodehnia, Nona %A Southam, Lorraine %A Stanton, Alice V %A Stathopoulou, Maria G %A Strauch, Konstantin %A Strawbridge, Rona J %A Suderman, Matthew J %A Tandon, Nikhil %A Tang, Sian-Tsun %A Taylor, Kent D %A Tayo, Bamidele O %A Töglhofer, Anna Maria %A Tomaszewski, Maciej %A Tšernikova, Natalia %A Tuomilehto, Jaakko %A Uitterlinden, André G %A Vaidya, Dhananjay %A van Hylckama Vlieg, Astrid %A van Setten, Jessica %A Vasankari, Tuula %A Vedantam, Sailaja %A Vlachopoulou, Efthymia %A Vozzi, Diego %A Vuoksimaa, Eero %A Waldenberger, Melanie %A Ware, Erin B %A Wentworth-Shields, William %A Whitfield, John B %A Wild, Sarah %A Willemsen, Gonneke %A Yajnik, Chittaranjan S %A Yao, Jie %A Zaza, Gianluigi %A Zhu, Xiaofeng %A Salem, Rany M %A Melbye, Mads %A Bisgaard, Hans %A Samani, Nilesh J %A Cusi, Daniele %A Mackey, David A %A Cooper, Richard S %A Froguel, Philippe %A Pasterkamp, Gerard %A Grant, Struan F A %A Hakonarson, Hakon %A Ferrucci, Luigi %A Scott, Robert A %A Morris, Andrew D %A Palmer, Colin N A %A Dedoussis, George %A Deloukas, Panos %A Bertram, Lars %A Lindenberger, Ulman %A Berndt, Sonja I %A Lindgren, Cecilia M %A Timpson, Nicholas J %A Tönjes, Anke %A Munroe, Patricia B %A Sørensen, Thorkild I A %A Rotimi, Charles N %A Arnett, Donna K %A Oldehinkel, Albertine J %A Kardia, Sharon L R %A Balkau, Beverley %A Gambaro, Giovanni %A Morris, Andrew P %A Eriksson, Johan G %A Wright, Margie J %A Martin, Nicholas G %A Hunt, Steven C %A Starr, John M %A Deary, Ian J %A Griffiths, Lyn R %A Tiemeier, Henning %A Pirastu, Nicola %A Kaprio, Jaakko %A Wareham, Nicholas J %A Pérusse, Louis %A Wilson, James G %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Caulfield, Mark J %A Raitakari, Olli %A Boomsma, Dorret I %A Gieger, Christian %A van der Harst, Pim %A Hicks, Andrew A %A Kraft, Peter %A Sinisalo, Juha %A Knekt, Paul %A Johannesson, Magnus %A Magnusson, Patrik K E %A Hamsten, Anders %A Schmidt, Reinhold %A Borecki, Ingrid B %A Vartiainen, Erkki %A Becker, Diane M %A Bharadwaj, Dwaipayan %A Mohlke, Karen L %A Boehnke, Michael %A van Duijn, Cornelia M %A Sanghera, Dharambir K %A Teumer, Alexander %A Zeggini, Eleftheria %A Metspalu, Andres %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Ulivi, Sheila %A Ober, Carole %A Toniolo, Daniela %A Rudan, Igor %A Porteous, David J %A Ciullo, Marina %A Spector, Tim D %A Hayward, Caroline %A Dupuis, Josée %A Loos, Ruth J F %A Wright, Alan F %A Chandak, Giriraj R %A Vollenweider, Peter %A Shuldiner, Alan R %A Ridker, Paul M %A Rotter, Jerome I %A Sattar, Naveed %A Gyllensten, Ulf %A North, Kari E %A Pirastu, Mario %A Psaty, Bruce M %A Weir, David R %A Laakso, Markku %A Gudnason, Vilmundur %A Takahashi, Atsushi %A Chambers, John C %A Kooner, Jaspal S %A Strachan, David P %A Campbell, Harry %A Hirschhorn, Joel N %A Perola, Markus %A Polasek, Ozren %A Wilson, James F %K Biological Evolution %K Blood Pressure %K Body Height %K Cholesterol, LDL %K Cognition %K Cohort Studies %K Educational Status %K Female %K Forced Expiratory Volume %K Genome, Human %K Homozygote %K Humans %K Lung Volume Measurements %K Male %K Phenotype %X

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 × 10(-300), 2.1 × 10(-6), 2.5 × 10(-10) and 1.8 × 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' 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.

%B Nature %V 523 %P 459-62 %8 2015 Jul 23 %G eng %N 7561 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26131930?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1038/nature14618 %0 Journal Article %J Hum Mol Genet %D 2015 %T Genome-wide association analysis on normal hearing function identifies PCDH20 and SLC28A3 as candidates for hearing function and loss. %A Vuckovic, Dragana %A Dawson, Sally %A Scheffer, Deborah I %A Rantanen, Taina %A Morgan, Anna %A Di Stazio, Mariateresa %A Vozzi, Diego %A Nutile, Teresa %A Concas, Maria P %A Biino, Ginevra %A Nolan, Lisa %A Bahl, Aileen %A Loukola, Anu %A Viljanen, Anne %A Davis, Adrian %A Ciullo, Marina %A Corey, David P %A Pirastu, Mario %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Girotto, Giorgia %X

Hearing loss and individual differences in normal hearing both have a substantial genetic basis. Although many new genes contributing to deafness have been identified, very little is known about genes/variants modulating the normal range of hearing ability. To fill this gap, we performed a two-stage meta-analysis on hearing thresholds (tested at 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8 kHz) and on pure-tone averages (low-, medium- and high-frequency thresholds grouped) in several isolated populations from Italy and Central Asia (total N = 2636). Here, we detected two genome-wide significant loci close to PCDH20 and SLC28A3 (top hits: rs78043697, P = 4.71E-10 and rs7032430, P = 2.39E-09, respectively). For both loci, we sought replication in two independent cohorts: B58C from the UK (N = 5892) and FITSA from Finland (N = 270). Both loci were successfully replicated at a nominal level of significance (P < 0.05). In order to confirm our quantitative findings, we carried out RT-PCR and reported RNA-Seq data, which showed that both genes are expressed in mouse inner ear, especially in hair cells, further suggesting them as good candidates for modulatory genes in the auditory system. Sequencing data revealed no functional variants in the coding region of PCDH20 or SLC28A3, suggesting that variation in regulatory sequences may affect expression. Overall, these results contribute to a better understanding of the complex mechanisms underlying human hearing function.

%B Hum Mol Genet %V 24 %P 5655-64 %8 2015 Oct 1 %G eng %N 19 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26188009?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1093/hmg/ddv279 %0 Journal Article %J Hum Hered %D 2015 %T Increased rate of deleterious variants in long runs of homozygosity of an inbred population from Qatar. %A Mezzavilla, Massimo %A Vozzi, Diego %A Badii, Ramin %A Alkowari, Moza Khalifa %A Abdulhadi, Khalid %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Gasparini, Paolo %K Cohort Studies %K Consanguinity %K Homozygote %K Humans %K Mutation %K Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide %K Qatar %X

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the fraction of putatively deleterious variants within genomic runs of homozygosity (ROH) regions in an inbred and selected cohort of Qatari individuals.

METHODS: High-density SNP array analysis was performed in 36 individuals, and for 14 of them whole-exome sequencing (WES) was also carried out.

RESULTS: In all individuals, regions characterized by a high (hotspot) or low (coldspot) degree of homozygosity in all the analysed individuals were mapped, and the most frequent hotspot regions were selected. WES data were exploited to identify the single nucleotide variations (SNVs) harboured by genes located within both regions in each individual. Evolutionary conservation-based algorithms were employed to predict the potential deleteriousness of SNVs. The amount of in silico predicted deleterious SNVs was significantly different (p < 0.05) between homozygosity hotspot and coldspot regions.

CONCLUSION: Genes located within ROH hotspot regions contain a significant burden of predicted putatively deleterious variants compared to genes located outside these regions, suggesting inbreeding as a possible mechanism allowing an enrichment of putatively deleterious variants at the homozygous state.

%B Hum Hered %V 79 %P 14-9 %8 2015 %G eng %N 1 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25720536?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1159/000371387 %0 Journal Article %J Hum Mol Genet %D 2015 %T The p.Cys169Tyr variant of connexin 26 is not a polymorphism. %A Zonta, Francesco %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Buratto, Damiano %A Crispino, Giulia %A Morgan, Anna %A Abdulhadi, Khalid %A Alkowari, Moza %A Badii, Ramin %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Mammano, Fabio %K Alleles %K Amino Acid Substitution %K Cell Line %K Connexins %K Female %K Gap Junctions %K Gene Expression %K Genotype %K Hearing Loss %K Humans %K Immunohistochemistry %K Male %K Models, Molecular %K Mutation, Missense %K Pedigree %K Polymorphism, Genetic %K Protein Conformation %K Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs %K Transfection %X

Mutations in the GJB2 gene, which encodes the gap junction protein connexin 26 (Cx26), are the primary cause of hereditary prelingual hearing impairment. Here, the p.Cys169Tyr missense mutation of Cx26 (Cx26C169Y), previously classified as a polymorphism, has been identified as causative of severe hearing loss in two Qatari families. We have analyzed the effect of this mutation using a combination of confocal immunofluorescence microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. At the cellular level, our results show that the mutant protein fails to form junctional channels in HeLa transfectants despite being correctly targeted to the plasma membrane. At the molecular level, this effect can be accounted for by disruption of the disulfide bridge that Cys169 forms with Cys64 in the wild-type structure (Cx26WT). The lack of the disulfide bridge in the Cx26C169Y protein causes a spatial rearrangement of two important residues, Asn176 and Thr177. In the Cx26WT protein, these residues play a crucial role in the intra-molecular interactions that permit the formation of an intercellular channel by the head-to-head docking of two opposing hemichannels resident in the plasma membrane of adjacent cells. Our results elucidate the molecular pathogenesis of hereditary hearing loss due to the connexin mutation and facilitate the understanding of its role in both healthy and affected individuals.

%B Hum Mol Genet %V 24 %P 2641-8 %8 2015 May 1 %G eng %N 9 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25628337?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1093/hmg/ddv026 %0 Journal Article %J Sci Rep %D 2015 %T PSIP1/LEDGF: a new gene likely involved in sensorineural progressive hearing loss. %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Scheffer, Deborah I %A Morgan, Anna %A Vozzi, Diego %A Rubinato, Elisa %A Di Stazio, Mariateresa %A Muzzi, Enrico %A Pensiero, Stefano %A Giersch, Anne B %A Corey, David P %A Gasparini, Paolo %X

Hereditary Hearing Loss (HHL) is an extremely heterogeneous disorder. Approximately 30 out of 80 known HHL genes are associated with autosomal dominant forms. Here, we identified PSIP1/LEDGF (isoform p75) as a novel strong candidate gene involved in dominant HHL. Using exome sequencing we found a frameshift deletion (c.1554_1555del leading to p.E518Dfs*2) in an Italian pedigree affected by sensorineural mild-to-moderate HHL but also showing a variable eye phenotype (i.e. uveitis, optic neuropathy). This deletion led to a premature stop codon (p.T519X) with truncation of the last 12 amino acids. PSIP1 was recently described as a transcriptional co-activator regulated by miR-135b in vestibular hair cells of the mouse inner ear as well as a possible protector against photoreceptor degeneration. Here, we demonstrate that it is ubiquitously expressed in the mouse inner ear. The PSIP1 mutation is associated with a peculiar audiometric slope toward the high frequencies. These findings indicate that PSIP1 likely plays an important role in HHL.

%B Sci Rep %V 5 %P 18568 %8 2015 %G eng %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26689366?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1038/srep18568 %0 Journal Article %J J Am Soc Nephrol %D 2014 %T Common variants in UMOD associate with urinary uromodulin levels: a meta-analysis. %A Olden, Matthias %A Corre, Tanguy %A Hayward, Caroline %A Toniolo, Daniela %A Ulivi, Sheila %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Pistis, Giorgio %A Hwang, Shih-Jen %A Bergmann, Sven %A Campbell, Harry %A Cocca, Massimiliano %A Gandin, Ilaria %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Glaudemans, Bob %A Hastie, Nicholas D %A Loffing, Johannes %A Polasek, Ozren %A Rampoldi, Luca %A Rudan, Igor %A Sala, Cinzia %A Traglia, Michela %A Vollenweider, Peter %A Vuckovic, Dragana %A Youhanna, Sonia %A Weber, Julien %A Wright, Alan F %A Kutalik, Zoltán %A Bochud, Murielle %A Fox, Caroline S %A Devuyst, Olivier %K Creatinine %K European Continental Ancestry Group %K Genetic Variation %K Humans %K Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide %K Uromodulin %X

Uromodulin is expressed exclusively in the thick ascending limb and is the most abundant protein excreted in normal urine. Variants in UMOD, which encodes uromodulin, are associated with renal function, and urinary uromodulin levels may be a biomarker for kidney disease. However, the genetic factors regulating uromodulin excretion are unknown. We conducted a meta-analysis of urinary uromodulin levels to identify associated common genetic variants in the general population. We included 10,884 individuals of European descent from three genetic isolates and three urban cohorts. Each study measured uromodulin indexed to creatinine and conducted linear regression analysis of approximately 2.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms using an additive model. We also tested whether variants in genes expressed in the thick ascending limb associate with uromodulin levels. rs12917707, located near UMOD and previously associated with renal function and CKD, had the strongest association with urinary uromodulin levels (P<0.001). In all cohorts, carriers of a G allele of this variant had higher uromodulin levels than noncarriers did (geometric means 10.24, 14.05, and 17.67 μg/g creatinine for zero, one, or two copies of the G allele). rs12446492 in the adjacent gene PDILT (protein disulfide isomerase-like, testis expressed) also reached genome-wide significance (P<0.001). Regarding genes expressed in the thick ascending limb, variants in KCNJ1, SORL1, and CAB39 associated with urinary uromodulin levels. These data indicate that common variants in the UMOD promoter region may influence urinary uromodulin levels. They also provide insights into uromodulin biology and the association of UMOD variants with renal function.

%B J Am Soc Nephrol %V 25 %P 1869-82 %8 2014 Aug %G eng %N 8 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24578125?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1681/ASN.2013070781 %0 Journal Article %J Hum Hered %D 2014 %T Consanguinity and hereditary hearing loss in Qatar. %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Mezzavilla, Massimo %A Abdulhadi, Khalid %A Vuckovic, Dragana %A Vozzi, Diego %A Khalifa Alkowari, Moza %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Badii, Ramin %K Consanguinity %K Hearing Loss %K Homozygote %K Humans %K Inheritance Patterns %K Pedigree %K Prevalence %K Principal Component Analysis %K Qatar %K Transcription Factor TFIIIB %X

Qatar is a sovereign state located on the Eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Persian Gulf. Its native population consists of 3 major subgroups: people of Arabian origin or Bedouins, those from an Eastern or Persian ancestry and individuals with African admixture. Historically, all types of consanguineous marriages have been and still are common in the Qatari population, particularly among first and double-first cousins. Thus, there is a higher risk for most inherited diseases including hereditary hearing loss (HHL). In particular, a hearing loss prevalence of 5.2% has been reported in Qatar, with parental consanguinity being more common among affected individuals as compared with unaffected ones. Our recent molecular results confirm a high homogeneity and level of inbreeding in Qatari HHL patients. Among all HHL genes, GJB2, the major player worldwide, accounts for a minor proportion of cases and at least 3 additional genes have been found to be mutated in Qatari patients. Interestingly, one gene, BDP1, has been described to cause HHL only in this country. These results point towards an unexpected level of genetic heterogeneity despite the high level of inbreeding. This review provides an up-to-date picture of HHL in Qatar and of the impact of consanguinity on this disease.

%B Hum Hered %V 77 %P 175-82 %8 2014 %G eng %N 1-4 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25060281?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1159/000360475 %0 Journal Article %J PLoS One %D 2014 %T Expression and replication studies to identify new candidate genes involved in normal hearing function. %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Vuckovic, Dragana %A Buniello, Annalisa %A Lorente-Cánovas, Beatriz %A Lewis, Morag %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Steel, Karen P %K Adult %K Animals %K DNA Replication %K Gene Expression Profiling %K Genome-Wide Association Study %K Genotype %K Hair Cells, Auditory %K Hearing %K Humans %K Mice %K Phenotype %K Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide %K Stria Vascularis %X

Considerable progress has been made in identifying deafness genes, but still little is known about the genetic basis of normal variation in hearing function. We recently carried out a Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) of quantitative hearing traits in southern European populations and found several SNPs with suggestive but none with significant association. In the current study, we followed up these SNPs to investigate which of them might show a genuine association with auditory function using alternative approaches. Firstly, we generated a shortlist of 19 genes from the published GWAS results. Secondly, we carried out immunocytochemistry to examine expression of these 19 genes in the mouse inner ear. Twelve of them showed distinctive cochlear expression patterns. Four showed expression restricted to sensory hair cells (Csmd1, Arsg, Slc16a6 and Gabrg3), one only in marginal cells of the stria vascularis (Dclk1) while the others (Ptprd, Grm8, GlyBP, Evi5, Rimbp2, Ank2, Cdh13) in multiple cochlear cell types. In the third step, we tested these 12 genes for replication of association in an independent set of samples from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Nine out of them showed nominally significant association (p<0.05). In particular, 4 were replicated at the same SNP and with the same effect direction while the remaining 5 showed a significant association in a gene-based test. Finally, to look for genotype-phenotype relationship, the audiometric profiles of the three genotypes of the most strongly associated gene variants were analyzed. Seven out of the 9 replicated genes (CDH13, GRM8, ANK2, SLC16A6, ARSG, RIMBP2 and DCLK1) showed an audiometric pattern with differences between different genotypes further supporting their role in hearing function. These data demonstrate the usefulness of this multistep approach in providing new insights into the molecular basis of hearing and may suggest new targets for treatment and prevention of hearing impairment.

%B PLoS One %V 9 %P e85352 %8 2014 %G eng %N 1 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24454846?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1371/journal.pone.0085352 %0 Journal Article %J BMC Genet %D 2014 %T Genetic landscape of populations along the Silk Road: admixture and migration patterns. %A Mezzavilla, Massimo %A Vozzi, Diego %A Pirastu, Nicola %A Girotto, Giorgia %A d'Adamo, Pio %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Colonna, Vincenza %K Asian Continental Ancestry Group %K Commonwealth of Independent States %K European Continental Ancestry Group %K Gene Flow %K Homozygote %K Human Migration %K Humans %K Phenotype %K Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide %K Principal Component Analysis %K Sequence Analysis, DNA %X

BACKGROUND: The ancient Silk Road has been a trading route between Europe and Central Asia from the 2(nd) century BCE to the 15(th) century CE. While most populations on this route have been characterized, the genetic background of others remains poorly understood, and little is known about past migration patterns. The scientific expedition "Marco Polo" has recently collected genetic and phenotypic data in six regions (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan) along the Silk Road to study the genetics of a number of phenotypes.

RESULTS: We characterized the genetic structure of these populations within a worldwide context. We observed a West-East subdivision albeit the existence of a genetic component shared within Central Asia and nearby populations from Europe and Near East. We observed a contribution of up to 50% from Europe and Asia to most of the populations that have been analyzed. The contribution from Asia dates back to ~25 generations and is limited to the Eastern Silk Road. Time and direction of this contribution are consistent with the Mongolian expansion era.

CONCLUSIONS: We clarified the genetic structure of six populations from Central Asia and suggested a complex pattern of gene flow among them. We provided a map of migration events in time and space and we quantified exchanges among populations. Altogether these novel findings will support the future studies aimed at understanding the genetics of the phenotypes that have been collected during the Marco Polo campaign, they will provide insights into the history of these populations, and they will be useful to reconstruct the developments and events that have shaped modern Eurasians genomes.

%B BMC Genet %V 15 %P 131 %8 2014 %G eng %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25476266?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1186/s12863-014-0131-6 %0 Journal Article %J Gene %D 2014 %T A novel P2RX2 mutation in an Italian family affected by autosomal dominant nonsyndromic hearing loss. %A Faletra, Flavio %A Girotto, Giorgia %A d'Adamo, Adamo Pio %A Vozzi, Diego %A Morgan, Anna %A Gasparini, Paolo %K Amino Acid Sequence %K Deafness %K European Continental Ancestry Group %K Female %K Genotype %K Hearing Loss, Sensorineural %K Humans %K Italy %K Male %K Molecular Sequence Data %K Mutation, Missense %K Pedigree %K Receptors, Purinergic P2X2 %X

Hereditary hearing loss (HHL) is a common disorder accounting for at least 60% of prelingual deafness. It is characterized by a large genetic heterogeneity, and despite the presence of a major gene, still there is a need to search for new causative mutations/genes. Very recently, a mutation within ATP-gated P2X(2) receptor (ligand-gated ion channel, purinergic receptor 2) gene (P2RX2) at DNFA41 locus has been reported leading to a bilateral and symmetrical sensorineural non-syndromic autosomal dominant HHL in two Chinese families. We performed a linkage analysis in a large Italian family with a dominant pattern of inheritance showing a significant 3.31 LOD score in a 2Mb region overlapping with the DNFA41 locus. Molecular analyses of P2RX2 identified a novel missense mutation (p.Gly353Arg) affecting a residue highly conserved across species. Visual inspection of the protein structure as obtained from comparative modeling suggests that substitution of the small glycine residue with a charged bulky residue such as an arginine that is close to the 'neck' of the region responsible for ion channel gating should have a high energetic cost and should lead to a severely destabilization of the fold. The identification of a second most likely causative mutation in P2RX2 gene further supports the possible role of this gene in causing autosomal dominant HHL.

%B Gene %V 534 %P 236-9 %8 2014 Jan 25 %G eng %N 2 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24211385?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1016/j.gene.2013.10.052 %0 Journal Article %J Hum Mol Genet %D 2014 %T Salt-inducible kinase 3, SIK3, is a new gene associated with hearing. %A Wolber, Lisa E %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Buniello, Annalisa %A Vuckovic, Dragana %A Pirastu, Nicola %A Lorente-Cánovas, Beatriz %A Rudan, Igor %A Hayward, Caroline %A Polasek, Ozren %A Ciullo, Marina %A Mangino, Massimo %A Steves, Claire %A Concas, Maria Pina %A Cocca, Massilimiliano %A Spector, Tim D %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Steel, Karen P %A Williams, Frances M K %K Age Factors %K Animals %K Cochlea %K European Continental Ancestry Group %K Genome-Wide Association Study %K Hearing %K Humans %K Mice, Inbred C57BL %K Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide %K Protein Kinases %X

Hearing function is known to be heritable, but few significant and reproducible associations of genetic variants have been identified to date in the adult population. In this study, genome-wide association results of hearing function from the G-EAR consortium and TwinsUK were used for meta-analysis. Hearing ability in eight population samples of Northern and Southern European ancestry (n = 4591) and the Silk Road (n = 348) was measured using pure-tone audiometry and summarized using principal component (PC) analysis. Genome-wide association analyses for PC1-3 were conducted separately in each sample assuming an additive model adjusted for age, sex and relatedness of subjects. Meta-analysis was performed using 2.3 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) tested against each of the three PCs of hearing ability in 4939 individuals. A single SNP lying in intron 6 of the salt-inducible kinase 3 (SIK3) gene was found to be associated with hearing PC2 (P = 3.7×10(-8)) and further supported by whole-genome sequence in a subset. To determine the relevance of this gene in the ear, expression of the Sik3 protein was studied in mouse cochlea of different ages. Sik3 was expressed in murine hair cells during early development and in cells of the spiral ganglion during early development and adulthood. Our results suggest a developmental role of Sik3 in hearing and may be required for the maintenance of adult auditory function.

%B Hum Mol Genet %V 23 %P 6407-18 %8 2014 Dec 1 %G eng %N 23 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25060954?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1093/hmg/ddu346 %0 Journal Article %J PLoS Genet %D 2012 %T Evidence of inbreeding depression on human height. %A McQuillan, Ruth %A Eklund, Niina %A Pirastu, Nicola %A Kuningas, Maris %A McEvoy, Brian P %A Esko, Tõnu %A Corre, Tanguy %A Davies, Gail %A Kaakinen, Marika %A Lyytikäinen, Leo-Pekka %A Kristiansson, Kati %A Havulinna, Aki S %A Gögele, Martin %A Vitart, Veronique %A Tenesa, Albert %A Aulchenko, Yurii %A Hayward, Caroline %A Johansson, Åsa %A Boban, Mladen %A Ulivi, Sheila %A Robino, Antonietta %A Boraska, Vesna %A Igl, Wilmar %A Wild, Sarah H %A Zgaga, Lina %A Amin, Najaf %A Theodoratou, Evropi %A Polasek, Ozren %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Lopez, Lorna M %A Sala, Cinzia %A Lahti, Jari %A Laatikainen, Tiina %A Prokopenko, Inga %A Kals, Mart %A Viikari, Jorma %A Yang, Jian %A Pouta, Anneli %A Estrada, Karol %A Hofman, Albert %A Freimer, Nelson %A Martin, Nicholas G %A Kähönen, Mika %A Milani, Lili %A Heliövaara, Markku %A Vartiainen, Erkki %A Räikkönen, Katri %A Masciullo, Corrado %A Starr, John M %A Hicks, Andrew A %A Esposito, Laura %A Kolcic, Ivana %A Farrington, Susan M %A Oostra, Ben %A Zemunik, Tatijana %A Campbell, Harry %A Kirin, Mirna %A Pehlic, Marina %A Faletra, Flavio %A Porteous, David %A Pistis, Giorgio %A Widen, Elisabeth %A Salomaa, Veikko %A Koskinen, Seppo %A Fischer, Krista %A Lehtimäki, Terho %A Heath, Andrew %A McCarthy, Mark I %A Rivadeneira, Fernando %A Montgomery, Grant W %A Tiemeier, Henning %A Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa %A Madden, Pamela A F %A d'Adamo, Pio %A Hastie, Nicholas D %A Gyllensten, Ulf %A Wright, Alan F %A van Duijn, Cornelia M %A Dunlop, Malcolm %A Rudan, Igor %A Gasparini, Paolo %A Pramstaller, Peter P %A Deary, Ian J %A Toniolo, Daniela %A Eriksson, Johan G %A Jula, Antti %A Raitakari, Olli T %A Metspalu, Andres %A Perola, Markus %A Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta %A Uitterlinden, André %A Visscher, Peter M %A Wilson, James F %K Adult %K Aged %K Body Height %K Consanguinity %K Databases, Genetic %K Family %K Female %K Genes, Recessive %K Genetic Heterogeneity %K Genome-Wide Association Study %K Homozygote %K Humans %K Male %K Middle Aged %K Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide %K Quantitative Trait, Heritable %X

Stature is a classical and highly heritable complex trait, with 80%-90% of variation explained by genetic factors. In recent years, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified many common additive variants influencing human height; however, little attention has been given to the potential role of recessive genetic effects. Here, we investigated genome-wide recessive effects by an analysis of inbreeding depression on adult height in over 35,000 people from 21 different population samples. We found a highly significant inverse association between height and genome-wide homozygosity, equivalent to a height reduction of up to 3 cm in the offspring of first cousins compared with the offspring of unrelated individuals, an effect which remained after controlling for the effects of socio-economic status, an important confounder (χ(2) = 83.89, df = 1; p = 5.2 × 10(-20)). There was, however, a high degree of heterogeneity among populations: whereas the direction of the effect was consistent across most population samples, the effect size differed significantly among populations. It is likely that this reflects true biological heterogeneity: whether or not an effect can be observed will depend on both the variance in homozygosity in the population and the chance inheritance of individual recessive genotypes. These results predict that multiple, rare, recessive variants influence human height. Although this exploratory work focuses on height alone, the methodology developed is generally applicable to heritable quantitative traits (QT), paving the way for an investigation into inbreeding effects, and therefore genetic architecture, on a range of QT of biomedical importance.

%B PLoS Genet %V 8 %P e1002655 %8 2012 %G eng %N 7 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22829771?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002655 %0 Journal Article %J J Med Genet %D 2011 %T Hearing function and thresholds: a genome-wide association study in European isolated populations identifies new loci and pathways. %A Girotto, Giorgia %A Pirastu, Nicola %A Sorice, Rossella %A Biino, Ginevra %A Campbell, Harry %A d'Adamo, Adamo P %A Hastie, Nicholas D %A Nutile, Teresa %A Polasek, Ozren %A Portas, Laura %A Rudan, Igor %A Ulivi, Sheila %A Zemunik, Tatijana %A Wright, Alan F %A Ciullo, Marina %A Hayward, Caroline %A Pirastu, Mario %A Gasparini, Paolo %K Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing %K Animals %K Auditory Threshold %K Carrier Proteins %K Databases, Genetic %K Europe %K European Continental Ancestry Group %K Female %K Founder Effect %K Genetic Linkage %K Genome-Wide Association Study %K Hearing %K Hearing Loss %K Humans %K Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins %K Male %K Mice %K Phenotype %K Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide %K Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases %K Receptor-Like Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases, Class 2 %K Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate %X

BACKGROUND: Hearing is a complex trait, but until now only a few genes are known to contribute to variability of this process. In order to discover genes and pathways that underlie auditory function, a genome-wide association study was carried out within the International Consortium G-EAR.

METHODS: Meta-analysis of genome-wide association study's data from six isolated populations of European ancestry for an overall number of 3417 individuals.

RESULTS: Eight suggestive significant loci (p<10(-7)) were detected with a series of genes expressed within the inner ear such as: DCLK1, PTPRD, GRM8, CMIP. Additional biological candidates marked by a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) with a suggestive association (p<10(-6)) were identified, as well as loci encompassing 'gene desert regions'-genes of unknown function or genes whose function has not be linked to hearing so far. Some of these new loci map to already known hereditary hearing loss loci whose genes still need to be identified. Data have also been used to construct a highly significant 'in silico' pathway for hearing function characterised by a network of 49 genes, 34 of which are certainly expressed in the ear.

CONCLUSION: These results provide new insights into the molecular basis of hearing function and may suggest new targets for hearing impairment treatment and prevention.

%B J Med Genet %V 48 %P 369-74 %8 2011 Jun %G eng %N 6 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21493956?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1136/jmg.2010.088310