scholarly journals Genome-wide association studies of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis suggest candidate susceptibility genes

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 1456-1466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swarkar Sharma ◽  
Xiaochong Gao ◽  
Douglas Londono ◽  
Shonn E. Devroy ◽  
Kristen N. Mauldin ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadja Makki ◽  
Jingjing Zhao ◽  
Zhaoyang Liu ◽  
Walter L. Eckalbar ◽  
Aki Ushiki ◽  
...  

AbstractAdolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), a sideways curvature of the spine, is the most common pediatric musculoskeletal disorder, affecting ∼3% of the population worldwide. However, its genetic bases and tissues of origin remain largely unknown. Several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have implicated nucleotide variants in noncoding sequences that control genes with important roles in cartilage, muscle, bone, connective tissue and intervertebral discs (IVDs) as drivers of AIS susceptibility. Here, we set out to define the expression of AIS-associated genes and active regulatory elements by performing RNA-seq and ChIP-seq against H3K27ac in these tissues in mouse and human. Our study highlights genetic pathways involving AIS-associated loci that regulate chondrogenesis, IVD development and connective tissue maintenance and homeostasis. In addition, we identify thousands of putative AIS-associated regulatory elements which may orchestrate tissue-specific expression in musculoskeletal tissues of the spine. Quantification of enhancer activity of several candidate regulatory elements from our study identifies three functional enhancers carrying AIS-associated GWAS SNPs at the ADGRG6 and BNC2 loci. Our findings provide a novel genome-wide catalog of AIS-relevant genes and regulatory elements and aid in the identification of novel targets for AIS causality and treatment.


2011 ◽  
Vol 96 (5) ◽  
pp. 1258-1268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Braxton D. Mitchell ◽  
Laura M. Yerges-Armstrong

Context: A strong genetic influence on bone mineral density has been long established, and modern genotyping technologies have generated a flurry of new discoveries about the genetic determinants of bone mineral density (BMD) measured at a single time point. However, much less is known about the genetics of age-related bone loss. Identifying bone loss-related genes may provide new routes for therapeutic intervention and osteoporosis prevention. Evidence Acquisition: A review of published peer-reviewed literature on the genetics of bone loss was performed. Relevant studies were summarized, most of which were drawn from the period 1990–2010. Evidence Synthesis: Although bone loss is a challenging phenotype, available evidence supports a substantial genetic contribution. Some of the genes identified from recent genome-wide association studies of cross-sectional BMD are attractive candidate genes for bone loss, most notably genes in the nuclear factor κB and estrogen endocrine pathways. New insights into the biology of skeletal development and regulation of bone turnover have inspired new hypotheses about genetic regulation of bone loss and may provide new directions for identifying genes associated with bone loss. Conclusions: Although recent genome-wide association and candidate gene studies have begun to identify genes that influence BMD, efforts to identify susceptibility genes specific for bone loss have proceeded more slowly. Nevertheless, clues are beginning to emerge on where to look, and as population studies accumulate, there is hope that important bone loss susceptibility genes will soon be identified.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Mancuso ◽  
Huwenbo Shi ◽  
Pagé Goddard ◽  
Gleb Kichaev ◽  
Alexander Gusev ◽  
...  

AbstractAlthough genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified thousands of risk loci for many complex traits and diseases, the causal variants and genes at these loci remain largely unknown. We leverage recently introduced methods to integrate gene expression measurements from 45 expression panels with summary GWAS data to perform 30 transcriptome-wide association studies (TWASs). We identify 1,196 susceptibility genes whose expression is associated with these traits; of these, 168 reside more than 0.5Mb away from any previously reported GWAS significant variant, thus providing new risk loci. Second, we find 43 pairs of traits with significant genetic correlation at the level of predicted expression; of these, 8 are not found through genetic correlation at the SNP level. Third, we use bi-directional regression to find evidence for BMI causally influencing triglyceride levels, and triglyceride levels causally influencing LDL. Taken together, our results provide insights into the role of expression to susceptibility of complex traits and diseases.


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