scholarly journals Genome-wide association analyses identify 139 loci associated with macular thickness in the UK Biobank cohort

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 1162-1172 ◽  
Author(s):  
X Raymond Gao ◽  
Hua Huang ◽  
Heejin Kim
Author(s):  
Jack W. O’Sullivan ◽  
John P. A. Ioannidis

AbstractWith the establishment of large biobanks, discovery of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) that are associated with various phenotypes has been accelerated. An open question is whether SNPs identified with genome-wide significance in earlier genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are replicated also in later GWAS conducted in biobanks. To address this question, the authors examined a publicly available GWAS database and identified two, independent GWAS on the same phenotype (an earlier, “discovery” GWAS and a later, replication GWAS done in the UK biobank). The analysis evaluated 136,318,924 SNPs (of which 6,289 had reached p<5e-8 in the discovery GWAS) from 4,397,962 participants across nine phenotypes. The overall replication rate was 85.0% and it was lower for binary than for quantitative phenotypes (58.1% versus 94.8% respectively). There was a18.0% decrease in SNP effect size for binary phenotypes, but a 12.0% increase for quantitative phenotypes. Using the discovery SNP effect size, phenotype trait (binary or quantitative), and discovery p-value, we built and validated a model that predicted SNP replication with area under the Receiver Operator Curve = 0.90. While non-replication may often reflect lack of power rather than genuine false-positive findings, these results provide insights about which discovered associations are likely to be seen again across subsequent GWAS.


Author(s):  
Mengyao Yu ◽  
Sergiy Kyryachenko ◽  
Stephanie Debette ◽  
Philippe Amouyel ◽  
Jean-Jacques Schott ◽  
...  

Background: Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is a common cardiac valve disease, which affects 1 in 40 in the general population. Previous genome-wide association study have identified 6 risk loci for MVP. But these loci explained only partially the genetic risk for MVP. We aim to identify additional risk loci for MVP by adding data set from the UK Biobank. Methods: We reanalyzed 1007/479 cases from the MVP-France study, 1469/862 controls from the MVP-Nantes study for reimputation genotypes using HRC and TOPMed panels. We also incorporated 434 MVP cases and 4527 controls from the UK Biobank for discovery analyses. Genetic association was conducted using SNPTEST and meta-analyses using METAL. We used FUMA for post-genome-wide association study annotations and MAGMA for gene-based and gene-set analyses. Results: We found TOPMed imputation to perform better in terms of accuracy in the lower ranges of minor allele frequency below 0.1. Our updated meta-analysis included UK Biobank study for ≈8 million common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (minor allele frequency >0.01) and replicated the association on Chr2 as the top association signal near TNS1 . We identified an additional risk locus on Chr1 ( SYT2 ) and 2 suggestive risk loci on chr8 ( MSRA ) and chr19 ( FBXO46 ), all driven by common variants. Gene-based association using MAGMA revealed 6 risk genes for MVP with pronounced expression levels in cardiovascular tissues, especially the heart and globally part of enriched GO terms related to cardiac development. Conclusions: We report an updated meta-analysis genome-wide association study for MVP using dense imputation coverage and an improved case-control sample. We describe several loci and genes with MVP spanning biological mechanisms highly relevant to MVP, especially during valve and heart development.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Ju ◽  
Iain Mathieson

AbstractSkin pigmentation is a classic example of a polygenic trait that has experienced directional selection in humans. Genome-wide association studies have identified well over a hundred pigmentation-associated loci, and genomic scans in present-day and ancient populations have identified selective sweeps for a small number of light pigmentation-associated alleles in Europeans. It is unclear whether selection has operated on all the genetic variation associated with skin pigmentation as opposed to just a small number of large-effect variants. Here, we address this question using ancient DNA from 1158 individuals from West Eurasia covering a period of 40,000 years combined with genome-wide association summary statistics from the UK Biobank. We find a robust signal of directional selection in ancient West Eurasians on skin pigmentation variants ascertained in the UK Biobank, but find this signal is driven mostly by a limited number of large-effect variants. Consistent with this observation, we find that a polygenic selection test in present-day populations fails to detect selection with the full set of variants; rather, only the top five show strong evidence of selection. Our data allow us to disentangle the effects of admixture and selection. Most notably, a large-effect variant at SLC24A5 was introduced to Europe by migrations of Neolithic farming populations but continued to be under selection post-admixture. This study shows that the response to selection for light skin pigmentation in West Eurasia was driven by a relatively small proportion of the variants that are associated with present-day phenotypic variation.SignificanceSome of the genes responsible for the evolution of light skin pigmentation in Europeans show signals of positive selection in present-day populations. Recently, genome-wide association studies have highlighted the highly polygenic nature of skin pigmentation. It is unclear whether selection has operated on all of these genetic variants or just a subset. By studying variation in over a thousand ancient genomes from West Eurasia covering 40,000 years we are able to study both the aggregate behavior of pigmentation-associated variants and the evolutionary history of individual variants. We find that the evolution of light skin pigmentation in Europeans was driven by frequency changes in a relatively small fraction of the genetic variants that are associated with variation in the trait today.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas D. Ward ◽  
Ho-Chou Tu ◽  
Chelsea Quenneville ◽  
Alexander O. Flynn-Carroll ◽  
Margaret M. Parker ◽  
...  

AbstractTo better understand molecular pathways underlying liver health and disease, we performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on circulating levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) across 408,300 subjects from four ethnic groups in the UK Biobank, focusing on variants associating with both enzymes. Of these variants, the strongest effect is a rare (MAF in White British = 0.12%) missense variant in the gene encoding manganese efflux transporter SLC30A10, Thr95Ile (rs188273166), associating with a 5.9% increase in ALT and a 4.2% increase in AST. Carriers have higher prevalence of all-cause liver disease (OR = 1.70; 95% CI = 1.24 to 2.34) and higher prevalence of extrahepatic bile duct cancer (OR = 23.8; 95% CI = 9.1 to 62.1) compared to non-carriers. Over 4% of the cases of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in the UK Biobank carry SLC30A10 Thr95Ile. Unlike variants in SLC30A10 known to cause the recessive syndrome hypermanganesemia with dystonia-1 (HMNDYT1), the Thr95Ile variant has a detectable effect even in the heterozygous state. Also unlike HMNDYT1-causing variants, Thr95Ile results in a protein that is properly trafficked to the plasma membrane when expressed in HeLa cells. These results suggest that coding variation in SLC30A10 impacts liver health in more individuals than the small population of HMNDYT1 patients.


Author(s):  
Mathew Vithayathil ◽  
Paul Carter ◽  
Siddhartha Kar ◽  
Amy M. Mason ◽  
Stephen Burgess ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTObjectivesTo investigate the casual role of body mass index, body fat composition and height in cancer.DesignTwo stage mendelian randomisation studySettingPrevious genome wide association studies and the UK BiobankParticipantsGenetic instrumental variables for body mass index (BMI), fat mass index (FMI), fat free mass index (FFMI) and height from previous genome wide association studies and UK Biobank. Cancer outcomes from 367 586 participants of European descent from the UK Biobank.Main outcome measuresOverall cancer risk and 22 site-specific cancers risk for genetic instrumental variables for BMI, FMI, FFMI and height.ResultsGenetically predicted BMI (per 1 kg/m2) was not associated with overall cancer risk (OR 0.99; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0-98-1.00, p=0.105). Elevated BMI was associated with increased risk of stomach cancer (OR 1.15, 95% (CI) 1.05-1.26; p=0.003) and melanoma (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.92-1.00; p=0.044). For sex-specific cancers, BMI was positively associated with uterine cancer (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.01-1.14; p=0.015) but inversely associated with breast (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.92-0.98; p=0.001), prostate (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.92-0.99; p=0.007) and testicular cancer (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.81-0.98; p=0.017). Elevated FMI (per 1 kg/m2) was associated with gastrointestinal cancer (stomach cancer OR 4.23, 95% CI 1.18-15.13, p=0.027; colorectal cancer OR 1.94, 95% CI 1.23-3.07; p=0.004). Increased height (per 1 standard deviation, approximately 6.5cm) was associated with increased risk of overall cancer (OR 1.06; 95% 1.04-1.09; p = 2.97×10-8) and most site-specific cancers with the strongest estimates for kidney, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, colorectal, lung, melanoma and breast cancer.ConclusionsThere is little evidence for BMI as a casual risk factor for cancer. BMI may have a causal role for sex-specific cancers, although with inconsistent directions of effect, and FMI for gastrointestinal malignancies. Elevated height is a risk factor for overall cancer and multiple site cancers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 1396-1404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weihua Meng ◽  
Brian W Chan ◽  
Cameron Harris ◽  
Maxim B Freidin ◽  
Harry L Hebert ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Common types of musculoskeletal conditions include pain in the neck and shoulder areas. This study seeks to identify the genetic variants associated with neck or shoulder pain based on a genome-wide association approach using 203 309 subjects from the UK Biobank cohort and look for replication evidence from the Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS) and TwinsUK. Methods A genome-wide association study was performed adjusting for age, sex, BMI and nine population principal components. Significant and independent genetic variants were then sent to GS:SFHS and TwinsUK for replication. Results We identified three genetic loci that were associated with neck or shoulder pain in the UK Biobank samples. The most significant locus was in an intergenic region in chromosome 17, rs12453010, having P = 1.66 × 10−11. The second most significant locus was located in the FOXP2 gene in chromosome 7 with P = 2.38 × 10−10 for rs34291892. The third locus was located in the LINC01572 gene in chromosome 16 with P = 4.50 × 10−8 for rs62053992. In the replication stage, among four significant and independent genetic variants, rs2049604 in the FOXP2 gene and rs62053992 in the LINC01572 gene were weakly replicated in GS:SFHS (P = 0.0240 and P = 0.0202, respectively). Conclusions We have identified three loci associated with neck or shoulder pain in the UK Biobank cohort, two of which were weakly supported in a replication cohort. Further evidence is needed to confirm their roles in neck or shoulder pain.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeda Wu ◽  
Enda M. Byrne ◽  
Zhili Zheng ◽  
Kathryn E. Kemper ◽  
Loic Yengo ◽  
...  

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