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Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory skin condition and prior genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 71 associated loci. In the current study we conducted the largest AD GWAS to date (discovery N = 1,086,394, replication N = 3,604,027), combining previously reported cohorts with additional available data. We identified 81 loci (29 novel) in the European-only analysis (which all replicated in a separate European analysis) and 10 additional loci in the multi-ancestry analysis (3 novel). Eight variants from the multi-ancestry analysis replicated in at least one of the populations tested (European, Latino or African), while two may be specific to individuals of Japanese ancestry. AD loci showed enrichment for DNAse I hypersensitivity and eQTL associations in blood. At each locus we prioritised candidate genes by integrating multi-omic data. The implicated genes are predominantly in immune pathways of relevance to atopic inflammation and some offer drug repurposing opportunities., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

Background: While polygenic risk scores hold significant promise in estimating an individual's risk of developing a complex trait such as obesity, their application in the clinic has, to date, been limited by a lack of data from non-European populations. As a collaboration model of the International Hundred K+ Cohorts Consortium (IHCC), we endeavored to develop a globally applicable trans-ethnic PRS for body mass index (BMI) through this relatively new international effort., Methods: The polygenic risk score (PRS) model was developed, trained and tested at the Center for Applied Genomics (CAG) of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) based on a BMI meta-analysis from the GIANT consortium. The validated PRS models were subsequently disseminated to the participating sites. Scores were generated by each site locally on their cohorts and summary statistics returned to CAG for final analysis., Results: We show that in the absence of a well powered trans-ethnic GWAS from which to derive marker SNPs and effect estimates for PRS, trans-ethnic scores can be generated from European ancestry GWAS using Bayesian approaches such as LDpred, by adjusting the summary statistics using trans-ethnic linkage disequilibrium reference panels. The ported trans-ethnic scores outperform population specific-PRS across all non-European ancestry populations investigated including East Asians and three-way admixed Brazilian cohort., Conclusions: Here we show that for a truly polygenic trait such as BMI adjusting the summary statistics of a well powered European ancestry study using trans-ethnic LD reference results in a score that is predictive across a range of ancestries including East Asians and three-way admixed Brazilians., (© 2023 The Authors. Clinical and Translational Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Shanghai Institute of Clinical Bioinformatics.)

Leveraging linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns as representative of population substructure enables the discovery of additive association signals in genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Standard GWASs are well-powered to interrogate additive models; however, new approaches are required for invesigating other modes of inheritance such as dominance and epistasis. Epistasis, or non-additive interaction between genes, exists across the genome but often goes undetected because of a lack of statistical power. Furthermore, the adoption of LD pruning as customary in standard GWASs excludes detection of sites that are in LD but might underlie the genetic architecture of complex traits. We hypothesize that uncovering long-range interactions between loci with strong LD due to epistatic selection can elucidate genetic mechanisms underlying common diseases. To investigate this hypothesis, we tested for associations between 23 common diseases and 5,625,845 epistatic SNP-SNP pairs (determined by Ohta's D statistics) in long-range LD (>0.25 cM). Across five disease phenotypes, we identified one significant and four near-significant associations that replicated in two large genotype-phenotype datasets (UK Biobank and eMERGE). The genes that were most likely involved in the replicated associations were (1) members of highly conserved gene families with complex roles in multiple pathways, (2) essential genes, and/or (3) genes that were associated in the literature with complex traits that display variable expressivity. These results support the highly pleiotropic and conserved nature of variants in long-range LD under epistatic selection. Our work supports the hypothesis that epistatic interactions regulate diverse clinical mechanisms and might especially be driving factors in conditions with a wide range of phenotypic outcomes., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2023 American Society of Human Genetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Improved copy number variation (CNV) detection remains an area of heavy emphasis for algorithm development; however, both CNV curation and disease association approaches remain in its infancy. The current practice of focusing on candidate CNVs, where researchers study specific CNVs they believe to be pathological while discarding others, refrains from considering the full spectrum of CNVs in a hypothesis-free GWAS. To address this, we present a next-generation approach to CNV association by natively supporting the popular VCF specification for sequencing-derived variants as well as SNP array calls using a PennCNV format. The code is fast and efficient, allowing for the analysis of large (>100,000 sample) cohorts without dividing up the data on a compute cluster. The scripts are condensed into a single tool to promote simplicity and best practices. CNV curation pre and post-association is rigorously supported and emphasized to yield reliable results of highest quality. We benchmarked two large datasets, including the UK Biobank (n > 450,000) and CAG Biobank (n > 350,000) both of which are genotyped at >0.5 M probes, for our input files. ParseCNV has been actively supported and developed since 2008. ParseCNV2 presents a critical addition to formalizing CNV association for inclusion with SNP associations in GWAS Catalog. Clinical CNV prioritization, interactive quality control (QC), and adjustment for covariates are revolutionary new features of ParseCNV2 vs. ParseCNV. The software is freely available at: https://github.com/CAG-CNV/ParseCNV2 ., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to European Society of Human Genetics.)

Background: Asthma is a complex condition largely attributed to the interactions among genes and environments as a heterogeneous phenotype. Obesity is significantly associated with asthma development, and genetic studies on obese vs. non-obese asthma are warranted., Methods: To investigate asthma in the minority African American (AA) population with or without obesity, we performed a whole genome sequencing (WGS) study on blood-derived DNA of 4289 AA individuals, included 2226 asthma patients (1364 with obesity and 862 without obesity) and 2006 controls without asthma. The burden analysis of functional rare coding variants was performed by comparing asthma vs. controls and by stratified analysis of obese vs. non-obese asthma, respectively., Results: Among the top 66 genes with P < 0.01 in the asthma vs. control analysis, stratified analysis by obesity showed inverse correlation of natural logarithm (LN) of P value between obese and non-obese asthma (r = - 0.757, P = 1.90E-13). Five genes previously reported in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on asthma, including TSLP, SLC9A4, PSMB8, IGSF5, and IKZF4 were demonstrated association in the asthma vs. control analysis. The associations of IKZF4 and IGSF5 are only associated with obese asthma; and the association of SLC9A4 is only observed in non-obese asthma. In addition, the association of RSPH3 (the gene is related to primary ciliary dyskinesia) is observed in non-obese asthma., Conclusions: These findings highlight genetic heterogeneity between obese and non-obese asthma in patients of AA ancestry., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: Not all cells in a given individual are identical in their genomic makeup. Mosaicism describes such a phenomenon where a mixture of genotypic states in certain genomic segments exists within the same individual. Mosaicism is a prevalent and impactful class of non-integer state copy number variation (CNV). Mosaicism implies that certain cell types or subset of cells contain a CNV in a segment of the genome while other cells in the same individual do not. Several studies have investigated the impact of mosaicism in single patients or small cohorts but no comprehensive scan of mosaic CNVs has been undertaken to accurately detect such variants and interpret their impact on human health and disease., Results: We developed a tool called Montage to improve the accuracy of detection of mosaic copy number variants in a high throughput fashion. Montage directly interfaces with ParseCNV2 algorithm to establish disease phenotype genome-wide association and determine which genomic ranges had more or less than expected frequency of mosaic events. We screened for mosaic events in over 350,000 samples using 1% allele frequency as the detection limit. Additionally, we uncovered disease associations of multiple phenotypes with mosaic CNVs at several genomic loci. We additionally investigated the allele imbalance observations genome-wide to define non-diploid and non-integer copy number states., Conclusions: Our novel algorithm presents an efficient tool with fast computational runtime and high levels of accuracy of mosaic CNV detection. A curated mosaic CNV callset of 3716 events in 2269 samples is presented with comparability to previous reports and disease phenotype associations. The new algorithm can be freely accessed via: https://github.com/CAG-CNV/MONTAGE .

Background: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Consequently, individuals who are genetically predisposed for high risk of cardiovascular disease would benefit most from prevention and early intervention approaches. Among common health risk factors affecting adult populations, we evaluated 23 cardiovascular disease-related traits, including BMI, glucose levels and lipid profiling to determine their associations with low-frequency recurrent copy number variations (CNV) (population frequency < 5%)., Results: We examined 10,619 unrelated subjects of European ancestry from the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) Network who were genotyped with 657,366 markers genome-wide on the Illumina Infinium Quad 660 array. We performed CNV calling based on array marker intensity and evaluated data quality, ancestry stratification, and relatedness to ensure unbiased association discovery. Using a segment-based scoring approach, we assessed the association of all CNVs with each trait. In this large genome-wide analysis of low-frequency CNVs, we observed 11 novel genome-wide significant associations of low-frequency CNVs with major cardiovascular disease traits., Conclusion: In one of the largest genome-wide studies for low-frequency recurrent CNVs, we identified 11 loci associated with cardiovascular disease and related traits at the genome-wide significance level that may serve as biomarkers for prevention and early intervention studies in subjects who are at elevated risk. Our study further supports the role of low-frequency recurrent CNVs in the pathogenesis of common complex disease traits., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Proteomic approaches allow measurement of thousands of proteins in a single specimen, which can accelerate biomarker discovery. However, applying these technologies to massive biobanks is not currently feasible because of the practical barriers and costs of implementing such assays at scale. To overcome these challenges, we used a "virtual proteomic" approach, linking genetically predicted protein levels to clinical diagnoses in >40 000 individuals., Methods: We used genome-wide association data from the Framingham Heart Study (n=759) to construct genetic predictors for 1129 plasma protein levels. We validated the genetic predictors for 268 proteins and used them to compute predicted protein levels in 41 288 genotyped individuals in the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) cohort. We tested associations for each predicted protein with 1128 clinical phenotypes. Lead associations were validated with directly measured protein levels and either low-density lipoprotein cholesterol or subclinical atherosclerosis in the MDCS (Malmö Diet and Cancer Study; n=651)., Results: In the virtual proteomic analysis in eMERGE, 55 proteins were associated with 89 distinct diagnoses at a false discovery rate q<0.1. Among these, 13 associations involved lipid (n=7) or atherosclerosis (n=6) phenotypes. We tested each association for validation in MDCS using directly measured protein levels. At Bonferroni-adjusted significance thresholds, levels of apolipoprotein E isoforms were associated with hyperlipidemia, and circulating C-type lectin domain family 1 member B and platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β predicted subclinical atherosclerosis. Odds ratios for carotid atherosclerosis were 1.31 (95% CI, 1.08-1.58; P=0.006) per 1-SD increment in C-type lectin domain family 1 member B and 0.79 (0.66-0.94; P=0.008) per 1-SD increment in platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β., Conclusions: We demonstrate a biomarker discovery paradigm to identify candidate biomarkers of cardiovascular and other diseases.

Phenome-wide association studies (PheWAS) have been proposed as a possible aid in drug development through elucidating mechanisms of action, identifying alternative indications, or predicting adverse drug events (ADEs). Here, we select 25 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) linked through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to 19 candidate drug targets for common disease indications. We interrogate these SNPs by PheWAS in four large cohorts with extensive health information (23andMe, UK Biobank, FINRISK, CHOP) for association with 1683 binary endpoints in up to 697,815 individuals and conduct meta-analyses for 145 mapped disease endpoints. Our analyses replicate 75% of known GWAS associations (P < 0.05) and identify nine study-wide significant novel associations (of 71 with FDR < 0.1). We describe associations that may predict ADEs, e.g., acne, high cholesterol, gout, and gallstones with rs738409 (p.I148M) in PNPLA3 and asthma with rs1990760 (p.T946A) in IFIH1. Our results demonstrate PheWAS as a powerful addition to the toolkit for drug discovery.

Rationale: Albuterol, a bronchodilator medication, is the first-line therapy for asthma worldwide. There are significant racial/ethnic differences in albuterol drug response., Objectives: To identify genetic variants important for bronchodilator drug response (BDR) in racially diverse children., Methods: We performed the first whole-genome sequencing pharmacogenetics study from 1,441 children with asthma from the tails of the BDR distribution to identify genetic association with BDR., Measurements and Main Results: We identified population-specific and shared genetic variants associated with BDR, including genome-wide significant (P < 3.53 × 10 -7 ) and suggestive (P < 7.06 × 10 -6 ) loci near genes previously associated with lung capacity (DNAH5), immunity (NFKB1 and PLCB1), and β-adrenergic signaling (ADAMTS3 and COX18). Functional analyses of the BDR-associated SNP in NFKB1 revealed potential regulatory function in bronchial smooth muscle cells. The SNP is also an expression quantitative trait locus for a neighboring gene, SLC39A8. The lack of other asthma study populations with BDR and whole-genome sequencing data on minority children makes it impossible to perform replication of our rare variant associations. Minority underrepresentation also poses significant challenges to identify age-matched and population-matched cohorts of sufficient sample size for replication of our common variant findings., Conclusions: The lack of minority data, despite a collaboration of eight universities and 13 individual laboratories, highlights the urgent need for a dedicated national effort to prioritize diversity in research. Our study expands the understanding of pharmacogenetic analyses in racially/ethnically diverse populations and advances the foundation for precision medicine in at-risk and understudied minority populations.

Many studies have attempted to investigate the genetic susceptibility of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but without much success. The present study aimed to analyze both single-nucleotide and copy-number variants contributing to the genetic architecture of ADHD. We generated exome data from 30 Brazilian trios with sporadic ADHD. We also analyzed a Brazilian sample of 503 children/adolescent controls from a High Risk Cohort Study for the Development of Childhood Psychiatric Disorders, and also previously published results of five CNV studies and one GWAS meta-analysis of ADHD involving children/adolescents. The results from the Brazilian trios showed that cases with de novo SNVs tend not to have de novo CNVs and vice-versa. Although the sample size is small, we could also see that various comorbidities are more frequent in cases with only inherited variants. Moreover, using only genes expressed in brain, we constructed two "in silico" protein-protein interaction networks, one with genes from any analysis, and other with genes with hits in two analyses. Topological and functional analyses of genes in this network uncovered genes related to synapse, cell adhesion, glutamatergic and serotoninergic pathways, both confirming findings of previous studies and capturing new genes and genetic variants in these pathways.

Magnesium ions are essential to the basic metabolic processes in the human body. Previous genetic studies indicate that serum magnesium levels are highly heritable, and a few genetic loci have been reported involving regulation of serum magnesium in adults. In this study, we examined if additional loci influence serum magnesium levels in children. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 2,267 European-American children genotyped on the Illumina HumanHap550 or Quad610 arrays, sharing over 500,000 markers, as the discovery cohort and 257 European-American children genotyped on the Illumina Human OmniExpress arrays as the replication cohort. After genotype imputation, the strongest associations uncovered were with imputed SNPs residing within the FGFR2 (rs1219515, P = 1.1 × 10(-5)) and PAPSS2 (rs1969821, P = 7.2 × 10(-6)) loci in the discovery cohort, both of which were robustly replicated in our independent patient cohort (rs1219515, P = 3.5 × 10(-3); rs1969821, P = 1.2 × 10(-2)). The associations at the FGFR2 locus were also weakly replicated in a dataset from a previous GWAS of serum magnesium in European adults. Our results indicate that FGFR2 and PAPSS2 may play an important role in the regulation of magnesium homeostasis in children of European-American ancestry.

Calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, chloride and phosphorus are the major dietary minerals involved in various biological functions and are commonly measured in the blood serum. Sufficient mineral intake is especially important for children due to their rapid growth. Currently, the genetic mechanisms influencing serum mineral levels are poorly understood, especially for children. We carried out a genome-wide association (GWA) study on 5,602 European-American children and 4,706 African-American children who had mineral measures available in their electronic medical records (EMR). While no locus met the criteria for genome-wide significant association, our results demonstrated a nominal association of total serum calcium levels with a missense variant in the calcium -sensing receptor (CASR) gene on 3q13 (rs1801725, P = 1.96 × 10(-3)) in the African-American pediatric cohort, a locus previously reported in Caucasians. We also confirmed the association result in our pediatric European-American cohort (P = 1.38 × 10(-4)). We further replicated two other loci associated with serum calcium levels in the European-American cohort (rs780094, GCKR, P = 4.26 × 10(-3); rs10491003, GATA3, P = 0.02). In addition, we replicated a previously reported locus on 1q21, demonstrating association of serum magnesium levels with MUC1 (rs4072037, P = 2.04 × 10(-6)). Moreover, in an extended gene-based association analysis we uncovered evidence for association of calcium levels with the previously reported gene locus DGKD in both European-American children and African-American children. Taken together, our results support a role for CASR and DGKD mediated calcium regulation in both African-American and European-American children, and corroborate the association of calcium levels with GCKR and GATA3, and the association of magnesium levels with MUC1 in the European-American children.

Lung function is a heritable trait and serves as an important clinical predictor of morbidity and mortality for pulmonary conditions in adults, however, despite its importance, no studies have focused on uncovering pediatric-specific loci influencing lung function. To identify novel genetic determinants of pediatric lung function, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of four pulmonary function traits, including FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC and FEF25-75% in 1556 children. Further, we carried out gene network analyses for each trait including all SNPs with a P-value of <1.0 × 10(-3) from the individual GWAS. The GWAS identified SNPs with notable trends towards association with the pulmonary function measures, including the previously described INTS12 locus association with FEV1 (pmeta=1.41 × 10(-7)). The gene network analyses identified 34 networks of genes associated with pulmonary function variables in Caucasians. Of those, the glycoprotein gene network reached genome-wide significance for all four variables. P-value range pmeta=6.29 × 10(-4) - 2.80 × 10(-8) on meta-analysis. In this study, we report on specific pathways that are significantly associated with pediatric lung function at genome-wide significance. In addition, we report the first loci associated with lung function in both pediatric Caucasian and African American populations.

Laboratory red blood cell (RBC) measurements are clinically important, heritable and differ among ethnic groups. To identify genetic variants that contribute to RBC phenotypes in African Americans (AAs), we conducted a genome-wide association study in up to ~16 500 AAs. The alpha-globin locus on chromosome 16pter [lead SNP rs13335629 in ITFG3 gene; P < 1E-13 for hemoglobin (Hgb), RBC count, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), MCH and MCHC] and the G6PD locus on Xq28 [lead SNP rs1050828; P < 1E - 13 for Hgb, hematocrit (Hct), MCV, RBC count and red cell distribution width (RDW)] were each associated with multiple RBC traits. At the alpha-globin region, both the common African 3.7 kb deletion and common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) appear to contribute independently to RBC phenotypes among AAs. In the 2p21 region, we identified a novel variant of PRKCE distinctly associated with Hct in AAs. In a genome-wide admixture mapping scan, local European ancestry at the 6p22 region containing HFE and LRRC16A was associated with higher Hgb. LRRC16A has been previously associated with the platelet count and mean platelet volume in AAs, but not with Hgb. Finally, we extended to AAs the findings of association of erythrocyte traits with several loci previously reported in Europeans and/or Asians, including CD164 and HBS1L-MYB. In summary, this large-scale genome-wide analysis in AAs has extended the importance of several RBC-associated genetic loci to AAs and identified allelic heterogeneity and pleiotropy at several previously known genetic loci associated with blood cell traits in AAs.

Hematological traits are important clinical indicators, the genetic determinants of which have not been fully investigated. Common measures of hematological traits include red blood cell (RBC) count, hemoglobin concentration (HGB), hematocrit (HCT), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), MCH concentration (MCHC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), platelet count (PLT) and white blood cell (WBC) count. We carried out a genome-wide association study of the eight common hematological traits among 7943 African-American children and 6234 Caucasian children. In African Americans, we report five novel associations of HBE1 variants with HCT and MCHC, the alpha-globin gene cluster variants with RBC and MCHC, and a variant at the ARHGEF3 locus with PLT, as well as replication of four previously reported loci at genome-wide significance. In Caucasians, we report a novel association of variants at the COPZ1 locus with PLT as well as replication of four previously reported loci at genome-wide significance. Extended analysis of an association observed between MCH and the alpha-globin gene cluster variants demonstrated independent effects and epistatic interaction at the locus, impacting the risk of iron deficiency anemia in African Americans with specific genotype states. In summary, we extend the understanding of genetic variants underlying hematological traits based on analyses in African-American children.

Multiple genetic variants have been associated with adult obesity and a few with severe obesity in childhood; however, less progress has been made in establishing genetic influences on common early-onset obesity. We performed a North American, Australian and European collaborative meta-analysis of 14 studies consisting of 5,530 cases (≥95th percentile of body mass index (BMI)) and 8,318 controls (<50th percentile of BMI) of European ancestry. Taking forward the eight newly discovered signals yielding association with P < 5 × 10(-6) in nine independent data sets (2,818 cases and 4,083 controls), we observed two loci that yielded genome-wide significant combined P values near OLFM4 at 13q14 (rs9568856; P = 1.82 × 10(-9); odds ratio (OR) = 1.22) and within HOXB5 at 17q21 (rs9299; P = 3.54 × 10(-9); OR = 1.14). Both loci continued to show association when two extreme childhood obesity cohorts were included (2,214 cases and 2,674 controls). These two loci also yielded directionally consistent associations in a previous meta-analysis of adult BMI(1).

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a commonly occurring chronic skin disease with high heritability. Apart from filaggrin (FLG), the genes influencing atopic dermatitis are largely unknown. We conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 5,606 affected individuals and 20,565 controls from 16 population-based cohorts and then examined the ten most strongly associated new susceptibility loci in an additional 5,419 affected individuals and 19,833 controls from 14 studies. Three SNPs reached genome-wide significance in the discovery and replication cohorts combined, including rs479844 upstream of OVOL1 (odds ratio (OR) = 0.88, P = 1.1 × 10(-13)) and rs2164983 near ACTL9 (OR = 1.16, P = 7.1 × 10(-9)), both of which are near genes that have been implicated in epidermal proliferation and differentiation, as well as rs2897442 in KIF3A within the cytokine cluster at 5q31.1 (OR = 1.11, P = 3.8 × 10(-8)). We also replicated association with the FLG locus and with two recently identified association signals at 11q13.5 (rs7927894; P = 0.008) and 20q13.33 (rs6010620; P = 0.002). Our results underline the importance of both epidermal barrier function and immune dysregulation in atopic dermatitis pathogenesis.

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a movement disorder with prominent tau neuropathology. Brain diseases with abnormal tau deposits are called tauopathies, the most common of which is Alzheimer's disease. Environmental causes of tauopathies include repetitive head trauma associated with some sports. To identify common genetic variation contributing to risk for tauopathies, we carried out a genome-wide association study of 1,114 individuals with PSP (cases) and 3,247 controls (stage 1) followed by a second stage in which we genotyped 1,051 cases and 3,560 controls for the stage 1 SNPs that yielded P ≤ 10(-3). We found significant previously unidentified signals (P < 5 × 10(-8)) associated with PSP risk at STX6, EIF2AK3 and MOBP. We confirmed two independent variants in MAPT affecting risk for PSP, one of which influences MAPT brain expression. The genes implicated encode proteins for vesicle-membrane fusion at the Golgi-endosomal interface, for the endoplasmic reticulum unfolded protein response and for a myelin structural component.

Background: Human height is considered highly heritable and correlated with certain disorders, such as type 2 diabetes and cancer. Despite environmental influences, genetic factors are known to play an important role in stature determination. A number of genetic determinants of adult height have already been established through genome wide association studies., Methods: To examine 51 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) corresponding to the 46 previously reported genomic loci for height in 8,184 European American children with height measurements. We leveraged genotyping data from our ongoing GWA study of height variation in children in order to query the 51 SNPs in this pediatric cohort., Results: Sixteen of these SNPs yielded at least nominally significant association to height, representing fifteen different loci including EFEMP1-PNPT1, GPR126, C6orf173, SPAG17, Histone class 1, HLA class III and GDF5-UQCC. Other loci revealed no evidence for association, including HMGA1 and HMGA2. For the 16 associated variants, the genotype score explained 1.64% of the total variation for height z-score., Conclusion: Among 46 loci that have been reported to associate with adult height to date, at least 15 also contribute to the determination of height in childhood.

Background: Asthma is a complex disease characterized by striking ethnic disparities not explained entirely by environmental, social, cultural, or economic factors. Of the limited genetic studies performed on populations of African descent, notable differences in susceptibility allele frequencies have been observed., Objectives: We sought to test the hypothesis that some genes might contribute to the profound disparities in asthma., Methods: We performed a genome-wide association study in 2 independent populations of African ancestry (935 African American asthmatic cases and control subjects from the Baltimore-Washington, DC, area and 929 African Caribbean asthmatic subjects and their family members from Barbados) to identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with asthma., Results: A meta-analysis combining these 2 African-ancestry populations yielded 3 SNPs with a combined P value of less than 10(-5) in genes of potential biologic relevance to asthma and allergic disease: rs10515807, mapping to the alpha-1B-adrenergic receptor (ADRA1B) gene on chromosome 5q33 (3.57 x 10(-6)); rs6052761, mapping to the prion-related protein (PRNP) gene on chromosome 20pter-p12 (2.27 x 10(-6)); and rs1435879, mapping to the dipeptidyl peptidase 10 (DPP10) gene on chromosome 2q12.3-q14.2. The generalizability of these findings was tested in family and case-control panels of United Kingdom and German origin, respectively, but none of the associations observed in the African groups were replicated in these European studies. Evidence for association was also examined in 4 additional case-control studies of African Americans; however, none of the SNPs implicated in the discovery population were replicated., Conclusions: This study illustrates the complexity of identifying true associations for a complex and heterogeneous disease, such as asthma, in admixed populations, especially populations of African descent., (Copyright 2010 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Asthma is a complex disease that has genetic and environmental causes. The genetic factors associated with susceptibility to asthma remain largely unknown., Methods: We carried out a genomewide association study involving children with asthma. The sample included 793 North American children of European ancestry with persistent asthma who required daily inhaled glucocorticoid therapy and 1988 matched controls (the discovery set). We also tested for genomewide association in an independent cohort of 917 persons of European ancestry who had asthma and 1546 matched controls (the replication set). Finally, we tested for an association between 20 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at chromosome 1q31 and asthma in 1667 North American children of African ancestry who had asthma and 2045 ancestrally matched controls., Results: In our meta-analysis of all samples from persons of European ancestry, we observed an association, with genomewide significance, between asthma and SNPs at the previously reported locus on 17q21 and an additional eight SNPs at a novel locus on 1q31. The SNP most strongly associated with asthma was rs2786098 (P=8.55x10(-9)). We observed replication of the association of asthma with SNP rs2786098 in the independent series of persons of European ancestry (combined P=9.3x10(-11)). The alternative allele of each of the eight SNPs on chromosome 1q31 was strongly associated with asthma in the children of African ancestry (P=1.6x10(-13) for the comparison across all samples). The 1q31 locus contains the 1q31 locus contains DENND1B, a gene expressed by natural killer cells and dendritic cells. DENND1B protein is predicted to interact with the tumor necrosis factor α receptor [corrected]., Conclusions: We have identified a locus containing DENND1B on chromosome 1q31.3 that is associated with susceptibility to asthma., (2010 Massachusetts Medical Society)

Variability in response to short-acting β2-agonists (e.g., albuterol) among patients with asthma from diverse racial/ethnic groups may contribute to asthma disparities. We sought to identify genetic variants associated with bronchodilator response (BDR) to identify potential mechanisms of drug response and risk factors for worse asthma outcomes. Genome-wide association studies of bronchodilator response (BDR) were performed using TOPMed Whole Genome Sequencing data of the Asthma Translational Genomic Collaboration (ATGC), which corresponded to 1136 Puerto Rican, 656 Mexican and 4337 African American patients with asthma. With the population-specific GWAS results, a trans-ethnic meta-analysis was performed to identify BDR-associated variants shared across the three populations. Replication analysis was carried out in three pediatric asthma cohorts, including CAMP (Childhood Asthma Management Program; n = 560), GACRS (Genetics of Asthma in Costa Rica Study; n = 967) and HPR (Hartford-Puerto Rico; n = 417). A genome-wide significant locus (rs35661809; P = 3.61 × 10-8) in LINC02220, a non-coding RNA gene, was identified in Puerto Ricans. While this region was devoid of protein-coding genes, capture Hi-C data showed a distal interaction with the promoter of the DNAH5 gene in lung tissue. In replication analysis, the GACRS cohort yielded a nominal association (1-tailed P

Importance:Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by loss of upper and lower motor neurons. Although novel ALS genetic variants have been identified, the shared genetic risk between ALS and other neurodegenerative disorders remains poorly understood. Objectives:To examine whether there are common genetic variants that determine the risk for ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases and to identify their functional pathways. Design, Setting, and Participants:In this study conducted from December 1, 2016, to August 1, 2017, the genetic overlap between ALS, sporadic frontotemporal dementia (FTD), FTD with TDP-43 inclusions, Parkinson disease (PD), Alzheimer disease (AD), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) were systematically investigated in 124 876 cases and controls. No participants were excluded from this study. Diagnoses were established using consensus criteria. Main Outcomes and Measures:The primary outcomes were a list of novel loci and their functional pathways in ALS, FTD, PSP, and ALS mouse models. Results:Among 124 876 cases and controls, genome-wide conjunction analyses of ALS, FTD, PD, AD, CBD, and PSP revealed significant genetic overlap between ALS and FTD at known ALS loci: rs13302855 and rs3849942 (nearest gene, C9orf72; P = .03 for rs13302855 and P = .005 for rs3849942) and rs4239633 (nearest gene, UNC13A; P = .03). Significant genetic overlap was also found between ALS and PSP at rs7224296, which tags the MAPT H1 haplotype (nearest gene, NSF; P = .045). Shared risk genes were enriched for pathways involving neuronal function and development. At a conditional FDR P

The uptick in SARS-CoV-2 infection has resulted in a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, which has created troublesome health and economic problems. We performed case-control meta-analyses in both African and European ethnicity COVID-19 disease cases based on laboratory test and phenotypic criteria. The cases had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. We uniquely investigated COVID infection genetics in a pediatric population. Our cohort has a large African ancestry component, also unique to our study. We tested for genetic variant association in 498 cases vs. 1,533 controls of African ancestry and 271 cases vs. 855 controls of European ancestry. We acknowledge that the sample size is relatively small, owing to the low prevalence of COVID infection among pediatric individuals. COVID-19 cases averaged 13 years of age. Pediatric genetic studies enhance the ability to detect genetic associations with a limited possible environment impact. Our findings support the notion that some genetic variants, most notably at the SEMA6D, FMN1, ACTN1, PDS5B, NFIA, ADGRL3, MMP27, TENM3, SPRY4, MNS1, and RSU1 loci, play a role in COVID-19 infection susceptibility. The pediatric cohort also shows nominal replication of previously reported adult study results: CCR9, CXCR6, FYCO1, LZTFL1, TDGF1, CCR1, CCR2, CCR3, CCR5, MAPT-AS1, and IFNAR2 gene variants. Reviewing the biological roles of genes implicated here, NFIA looks to be the most interesting as it binds to a palindromic sequence observed in both viral and cellular promoters and in the adenovirus type 2 origin of replication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As complex common diseases, asthma and allergic diseases are caused by the interaction of multiple genetic variants with a variety of environmental factors. Candidate-gene studies have examined the involvement of a very large list of genes in asthma and allergy, demonstrating a role for more than 100 loci. These studies have elucidated several themes in the biology and pathogenesis of these diseases. A small number of genes have been associated with asthma or allergy through traditional linkage analyses. The publication of the first asthma-focused genome-wide association (GWA) study in 2007 has been followed by nearly 30 reports of GWA studies targeting asthma, allergy, or associated phenotypes and quantitative traits. GWA studies have confirmed several candidate genes and have identified new, unsuspected, and occasionally uncharacterized genes as asthma susceptibility loci. Issues of results replication persist, complicating interpretation and making conclusions difficult to draw, and much of the heritability of these diseases remains undiscovered. In the coming years studies of complex diseases like asthma and allergy will probably involve the use of high-throughput next-generation sequencing, which will bring a tremendous influx of new information as well as new problems in dealing with vast datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a heterogeneous disease. This study identified T1D cases with low polygenic risk score (PRS) to better represent T1D cases with less prominent autoimmune response (T1bD), and performed a gene-based association study to identify novel susceptibility loci in two independent cohorts, characterized by low PRS. The Notch ligand Delta-like 1 gene (DLL1) was identified with genome-wide significance in both cohorts, highlighting the roles of DLL1 genetic variants in T1D patients with low PRS, supported by functional evidence from a recent study by Rubey et al. • A small number of T1D cases present without autoantibodies and are considered non-autoimmune. • This study identified T1D cases with low PRS to better represent T1D cases with less prominent autoimmune response (T1bD). • We performed a gene-based association study to identify novel susceptibility loci in two independent cohorts with low PRS. • The Notch ligand Delta-like 1 gene (DLL1) was identified with genome-wide significance in both cohorts, highlighting the roles of DLL1 genetic variants in T1D patients with low PRS, supported by functional evidence from a recent study by Rubey et al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]