scholarly journals The genomic architecture of blood metabolites based on a decade of genome-wide analyses

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona A. Hagenbeek ◽  
René Pool ◽  
Jenny van Dongen ◽  
Harmen H.M. Draisma ◽  
Jouke Jan Hottenga ◽  
...  

AbstractMetabolomics examines the small molecules involved in cellular metabolism. Approximately 50% of total phenotypic differences in metabolite levels is due to genetic variance, but heritability estimates differ across metabolite classes and lipid species. We performed a review of all genetic association studies, and identified > 800 class-specific metabolite loci that influence metabolite levels. In a twin-family cohort (N= 5,117), these metabolite loci were leveraged to simultaneously estimate total heritability (h2total), and the proportion of heritability captured by known metabolite loci (h2Metabolite-hits) for 309 lipids and 52 organic acids. Our study revealed significant differences inh2Metabolite-hitsamong different classes of lipids and organic acids. Furthermore, phosphatidylcholines with a high degree of unsaturation had higherh2Metabolite-hitsestimates than phosphatidylcholines with a low degree of unsaturation. This study highlights the importance of common genetic variants for metabolite levels, and elucidates the genetic architecture of metabolite classes and lipid species.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona A. Hagenbeek ◽  
◽  
René Pool ◽  
Jenny van Dongen ◽  
Harmen H. M. Draisma ◽  
...  

AbstractMetabolomics examines the small molecules involved in cellular metabolism. Approximately 50% of total phenotypic differences in metabolite levels is due to genetic variance, but heritability estimates differ across metabolite classes. We perform a review of all genome-wide association and (exome-) sequencing studies published between November 2008 and October 2018, and identify >800 class-specific metabolite loci associated with metabolite levels. In a twin-family cohort (N = 5117), these metabolite loci are leveraged to simultaneously estimate total heritability (h2total), and the proportion of heritability captured by known metabolite loci (h2Metabolite-hits) for 309 lipids and 52 organic acids. Our study reveals significant differences in h2Metabolite-hits among different classes of lipids and organic acids. Furthermore, phosphatidylcholines with a high degree of unsaturation have higher h2Metabolite-hits estimates than phosphatidylcholines with low degrees of unsaturation. This study highlights the importance of common genetic variants for metabolite levels, and elucidates the genetic architecture of metabolite classes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin N Beaumont ◽  
Isabelle K Mayne ◽  
Rachel M Freathy ◽  
Caroline F Wright

Abstract Birth weight is an important factor in newborn survival; both low and high birth weights are associated with adverse later-life health outcomes. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 190 loci associated with maternal or fetal effects on birth weight. Knowledge of the underlying causal genes is crucial to understand how these loci influence birth weight and the links between infant and adult morbidity. Numerous monogenic developmental syndromes are associated with birth weights at the extreme ends of the distribution. Genes implicated in those syndromes may provide valuable information to prioritize candidate genes at the GWAS loci. We examined the proximity of genes implicated in developmental disorders (DDs) to birth weight GWAS loci using simulations to test whether they fall disproportionately close to the GWAS loci. We found birth weight GWAS single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) fall closer to such genes than expected both when the DD gene is the nearest gene to the birth weight SNP and also when examining all genes within 258 kb of the SNP. This enrichment was driven by genes causing monogenic DDs with dominant modes of inheritance. We found examples of SNPs in the intron of one gene marking plausible effects via different nearby genes, highlighting the closest gene to the SNP not necessarily being the functionally relevant gene. This is the first application of this approach to birth weight, which has helped identify GWAS loci likely to have direct fetal effects on birth weight, which could not previously be classified as fetal or maternal owing to insufficient statistical power.


2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (20) ◽  
pp. 2494-2505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuhito Nannya ◽  
Kenjiro Taura ◽  
Mineo Kurokawa ◽  
Shigeru Chiba ◽  
Seishi Ogawa

Neurology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (24) ◽  
pp. e3331-e3343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria J. Knol ◽  
Dongwei Lu ◽  
Matthew Traylor ◽  
Hieab H.H. Adams ◽  
José Rafael J. Romero ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo identify common genetic variants associated with the presence of brain microbleeds (BMBs).MethodsWe performed genome-wide association studies in 11 population-based cohort studies and 3 case–control or case-only stroke cohorts. Genotypes were imputed to the Haplotype Reference Consortium or 1000 Genomes reference panel. BMBs were rated on susceptibility-weighted or T2*-weighted gradient echo MRI sequences, and further classified as lobar or mixed (including strictly deep and infratentorial, possibly with lobar BMB). In a subset, we assessed the effects of APOE ε2 and ε4 alleles on BMB counts. We also related previously identified cerebral small vessel disease variants to BMBs.ResultsBMBs were detected in 3,556 of the 25,862 participants, of which 2,179 were strictly lobar and 1,293 mixed. One locus in the APOE region reached genome-wide significance for its association with BMB (lead single nucleotide polymorphism rs769449; odds ratio [OR]any BMB [95% confidence interval (CI)] 1.33 [1.21–1.45]; p = 2.5 × 10−10). APOE ε4 alleles were associated with strictly lobar (OR [95% CI] 1.34 [1.19–1.50]; p = 1.0 × 10−6) but not with mixed BMB counts (OR [95% CI] 1.04 [0.86–1.25]; p = 0.68). APOE ε2 alleles did not show associations with BMB counts. Variants previously related to deep intracerebral hemorrhage and lacunar stroke, and a risk score of cerebral white matter hyperintensity variants, were associated with BMB.ConclusionsGenetic variants in the APOE region are associated with the presence of BMB, most likely due to the APOE ε4 allele count related to a higher number of strictly lobar BMBs. Genetic predisposition to small vessel disease confers risk of BMB, indicating genetic overlap with other cerebral small vessel disease markers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 2455-2467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim B. Bigdeli ◽  
◽  
Giulio Genovese ◽  
Penelope Georgakopoulos ◽  
Jacquelyn L. Meyers ◽  
...  

Abstract Schizophrenia is a common, chronic and debilitating neuropsychiatric syndrome affecting tens of millions of individuals worldwide. While rare genetic variants play a role in the etiology of schizophrenia, most of the currently explained liability is within common variation, suggesting that variation predating the human diaspora out of Africa harbors a large fraction of the common variant attributable heritability. However, common variant association studies in schizophrenia have concentrated mainly on cohorts of European descent. We describe genome-wide association studies of 6152 cases and 3918 controls of admixed African ancestry, and of 1234 cases and 3090 controls of Latino ancestry, representing the largest such study in these populations to date. Combining results from the samples with African ancestry with summary statistics from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) study of schizophrenia yielded seven newly genome-wide significant loci, and we identified an additional eight loci by incorporating the results from samples with Latino ancestry. Leveraging population differences in patterns of linkage disequilibrium, we achieve improved fine-mapping resolution at 22 previously reported and 4 newly significant loci. Polygenic risk score profiling revealed improved prediction based on trans-ancestry meta-analysis results for admixed African (Nagelkerke’s R2 = 0.032; liability R2 = 0.017; P < 10−52), Latino (Nagelkerke’s R2 = 0.089; liability R2 = 0.021; P < 10−58), and European individuals (Nagelkerke’s R2 = 0.089; liability R2 = 0.037; P < 10−113), further highlighting the advantages of incorporating data from diverse human populations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1528-1528
Author(s):  
Heena Desai ◽  
Anh Le ◽  
Ryan Hausler ◽  
Shefali Verma ◽  
Anurag Verma ◽  
...  

1528 Background: The discovery of rare genetic variants associated with cancer have a tremendous impact on reducing cancer morbidity and mortality when identified; however, rare variants are found in less than 5% of cancer patients. Genome wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of common genetic variants significantly associated with a number of cancers, but the clinical utility of individual variants or a polygenic risk score (PRS) derived from multiple variants is still unclear. Methods: We tested the ability of polygenic risk score (PRS) models developed from genome-wide significant variants to differentiate cases versus controls in the Penn Medicine Biobank. Cases for 15 different cancers and cancer-free controls were identified using electronic health record billing codes for 11,524 European American and 5,994 African American individuals from the Penn Medicine Biobank. Results: The discriminatory ability of the 15 PRS models to distinguish their respective cancer cases versus controls ranged from 0.68-0.79 in European Americans and 0.74-0.93 in African Americans. Seven of the 15 cancer PRS trended towards an association with their cancer at a p<0.05 (Table), and PRS for prostate, thyroid and melanoma were significantly associated with their cancers at a bonferroni corrected p<0.003 with OR 1.3-1.6 in European Americans. Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that common variants with significant associations from GWAS studies can distinguish cancer cases versus controls for some cancers in an unselected biobank population. Given the small effects, future studies are needed to determine how best to incorporate PRS with other risk factors in the precision prediction of cancer risk. [Table: see text]


Cephalalgia ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 489-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale R Nyholt ◽  
Verneri Anttila ◽  
Bendik S Winsvold ◽  
Tobias Kurth ◽  
Hreinn Stefansson ◽  
...  

Background There has been intensive debate whether migraine with aura (MA) and migraine without aura (MO) should be considered distinct subtypes or part of the same disease spectrum. There is also discussion to what extent migraine cases collected in specialised headache clinics differ from cases from population cohorts, and how female cases differ from male cases with respect to their migraine. To assess the genetic overlap between these migraine subgroups, we examined genome-wide association (GWA) results from analysis of 23,285 migraine cases and 95,425 population-matched controls. Methods Detailed heterogeneity analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) effects (odds ratios) between migraine subgroups was performed for the 12 independent SNP loci significantly associated ( p < 5 × 10−8; thus surpassing the threshold for genome-wide significance) with migraine susceptibility. Overall genetic overlap was assessed using SNP effect concordance analysis (SECA) at over 23,000 independent SNPs. Results Significant heterogeneity of SNP effects ( phet < 1.4 × 10−3) was observed between the MA and MO subgroups (for SNP rs9349379), and between the clinic- and population-based subgroups (for SNPs rs10915437, rs6790925 and rs6478241). However, for all 12 SNPs the risk-increasing allele was the same, and SECA found the majority of genome-wide SNP effects to be in the same direction across the subgroups. Conclusions Any differences in common genetic risk across these subgroups are outweighed by the similarities. Meta-analysis of additional migraine GWA datasets, regardless of their major subgroup composition, will identify new susceptibility loci for migraine.


2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 307-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Lasky-Su ◽  
C. Lange

AbstractThe etiology of suicide is complex in nature with both environmental and genetic causes that are extremely diverse. This extensive heterogeneity weakens the relationship between genotype and phenotype and as a result, we face many challenges when studying the genetic etiology of suicide. We are now in the midst of a genetics revolution, where genotyping costs are decreasing and genotyping speed is increasing at a fast rate, allowing genetic association studies to genotype thousands to millions of SNPs that cover the entire human genome. As such, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are now the norm. In this article we address several statistical challenges that occur when studying the genetic etiology of suicidality in the age of the genetics revolution. These challenges include: (1) the large number of statistical tests; (2) complex phenotypes that are difficult to quantify; and (3) modest genetic effect sizes. We address these statistical issues in the context of family-based study designs. Specifically, we discuss several statistical extensions of family-based association tests (FBATs) that work to alleviate these challenges. As our intention is to describe how statistical methodology may work to identify disease variants for suicidality, we avoid the mathematical details of the methodologies presented.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 1927-1941
Author(s):  
Jiyuan Hu ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Xinmin Li ◽  
Dongdong Pan ◽  
Qizhai Li

In the past decade, genome-wide association studies have identified thousands of susceptible variants associated with complex human diseases and traits. Conducting follow-up genetic association studies has become a standard approach to validate the findings of genome-wide association studies. One problem of high interest in genetic association studies is to accurately estimate the strength of the association, which is often quantified by odds ratios in case-control studies. However, estimating the association directly by follow-up studies is inefficient since this approach ignores information from the genome-wide association studies. In this article, an estimator called GFcom, which integrates information from genome-wide association studies and follow-up studies, is proposed. The estimator includes both the point estimate and corresponding confidence interval. GFcom is more efficient than competing estimators regarding MSE and the length of confidence intervals. The superiority of GFcom is particularly evident when the genome-wide association study suffers from severe selection bias. Comprehensive simulation studies and applications to three real follow-up studies demonstrate the performance of the proposed estimator. An R package, “GFcom”, implementing our method is publicly available at https://github.com/JiyuanHu/GFcom .


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damian Brzyski ◽  
Christine B. Peterson ◽  
Piotr Sobczyk ◽  
Emmanuel J. Candés ◽  
Malgorzata Bogdan ◽  
...  

AbstractWith the rise of both the number and the complexity of traits of interest, control of the false discovery rate (FDR) in genetic association studies has become an increasingly appealing and accepted target for multiple comparison adjustment. While a number of robust FDR controlling strategies exist, the nature of this error rate is intimately tied to the precise way in which discoveries are counted, and the performance of FDR controlling procedures is satisfactory only if there is a one-to-one correspondence between what scientists describe as unique discoveries and the number of rejected hypotheses. The presence of linkage disequilibrium between markers in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) often leads researchers to consider the signal associated to multiple neighboring SNPs as indicating the existence of a single genomic locus with possible influence on the phenotype. This a posteriori aggregation of rejected hypotheses results in inflation of the relevant FDR. We propose a novel approach to FDR control that is based on pre-screening to identify the level of resolution of distinct hypotheses. We show how FDR controlling strategies can be adapted to account for this initial selection both with theoretical results and simulations that mimic the dependence structure to be expected in GWAS. We demonstrate that our approach is versatile and useful when the data are analyzed using both tests based on single marker and multivariate regression. We provide an R package that allows practitioners to apply our procedure on standard GWAS format data, and illustrate its performance on lipid traits in the NFBC66 cohort study.


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