@article {87, title = {Allelic Heterogeneity at the CRP Locus Identified by Whole-Genome Sequencing in Multi-ancestry Cohorts.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {106}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 01 02}, pages = {112-120}, abstract = {

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) can improve assessment of low-frequency and rare variants, particularly in non-European populations that have been underrepresented in existing genomic studies. The genetic determinants of C-reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker of chronic inflammation, have been extensively studied, with existing genome-wide association studies (GWASs) conducted in >200,000 individuals of European ancestry. In order to discover novel loci associated with CRP levels, we examined a multi-ancestry population (n = 23,279) with WGS (\~{}38{\texttimes} coverage) from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. We found evidence for eight distinct associations at the CRP locus, including two variants that have not been identified previously (rs11265259 and rs181704186), both of which are non-coding and more common in individuals of African ancestry (\~{}10\% and \~{}1\% minor allele frequency, respectively, and rare or monomorphic in 1000 Genomes populations of East Asian, South Asian, and European ancestry). We show that the minor (G) allele of rs181704186 is associated with lower CRP levels and decreased transcriptional activity and protein binding in~vitro, providing a plausible molecular mechanism for this African ancestry-specific signal. The individuals homozygous for rs181704186-G have a mean CRP level of 0.23~mg/L, in contrast to individuals heterozygous for rs181704186 with mean CRP of 2.97~mg/L and major allele homozygotes with mean CRP of 4.11~mg/L. This study demonstrates the utility of WGS in multi-ethnic populations to drive discovery of complex trait associations of large effect and to identify functional alleles in noncoding regulatory regions.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, C-Reactive Protein, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2019.12.002}, author = {Raffield, Laura M and Iyengar, Apoorva K and Wang, Biqi and Gaynor, Sheila M and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Zhong, Xue and Kowalski, Madeline H and Salimi, Shabnam and Polfus, Linda M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bis, Joshua C and Bowler, Russell and Cade, Brian E and Choi, Won Jung and Comellas, Alejandro P and Correa, Adolfo and Cruz, Pedro and Doddapaneni, Harsha and Durda, Peter and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Jain, Deepti and Kim, Ryan W and Kral, Brian G and Lange, Leslie A and Larson, Martin G and Laurie, Cecelia and Lee, Jiwon and Lee, Seonwook and Lewis, Joshua P and Metcalf, Ginger A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Momin, Zeineen and Muzny, Donna M and Pankratz, Nathan and Park, Cheol Joo and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Ryan, Kathleen and Seo, Daekwan and Tracy, Russell P and Viaud-Martinez, Karine A and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhao, Lue Ping and Lin, Xihong and Li, Bingshan and Li, Yun and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Reiner, Alexander P and Mohlke, Karen L and Auer, Paul L} } @article {128, title = {A phenome-wide association study of 26 mendelian genes reveals phenotypic expressivity of common and rare variants within the general population.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {16}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 11}, pages = {e1008802}, abstract = {

The clinical evaluation of a genetic syndrome relies upon recognition of a characteristic pattern of signs or symptoms to guide targeted genetic testing for confirmation of the diagnosis. However, individuals displaying a single phenotype of a complex syndrome may not meet criteria for clinical diagnosis or genetic testing. Here, we present a phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) approach to systematically explore the phenotypic expressivity of common and rare alleles in genes associated with four well-described syndromic diseases (Alagille (AS), Marfan (MS), DiGeorge (DS), and Noonan (NS) syndromes) in the general population. Using human phenotype ontology (HPO) terms, we systematically mapped 60 phenotypes related to AS, MS, DS and NS in 337,198 unrelated white British from the UK Biobank (UKBB) based on their hospital admission records, self-administrated questionnaires, and physiological measurements. We performed logistic regression adjusting for age, sex, and the first 5 genetic principal components, for each phenotype and each variant in the target genes (JAG1, NOTCH2 FBN1, PTPN1 and RAS-opathy genes, and genes in the 22q11.2 locus) and performed a gene burden test. Overall, we observed multiple phenotype-genotype correlations, such as the association between variation in JAG1, FBN1, PTPN11 and SOS2 with diastolic and systolic blood pressure; and pleiotropy among multiple variants in syndromic genes. For example, rs11066309 in PTPN11 was significantly associated with a lower body mass index, an increased risk of hypothyroidism and a smaller size for gestational age, all in concordance with NS-related phenotypes. Similarly, rs589668 in FBN1 was associated with an increase in body height and blood pressure, and a reduced body fat percentage as observed in Marfan syndrome. Our findings suggest that the spectrum of associations of common and rare variants in genes involved in syndromic diseases can be extended to individual phenotypes within the general population.

}, keywords = {Alagille Syndrome, Alleles, Biological Variation, Population, DiGeorge Syndrome, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Testing, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Marfan Syndrome, Noonan Syndrome, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, United Kingdom}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1008802}, author = {Tcheandjieu, Catherine and Aguirre, Matthew and Gustafsson, Stefan and Saha, Priyanka and Potiny, Praneetha and Haendel, Melissa and Ingelsson, Erik and Rivas, Manuel A and Priest, James R} } @article {89, title = {A positively selected FBN1 missense variant reduces height in Peruvian individuals.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {582}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 06}, pages = {234-239}, abstract = {

On average, Peruvian individuals are among the shortest in the world. Here we show that Native American ancestry is associated with reduced height in an ethnically diverse group of Peruvian individuals, and identify a population-specific, missense variant in the FBN1 gene (E1297G) that is significantly associated with lower height. Each copy of the minor allele (frequency of 4.7\%) reduces height by 2.2~cm (4.4~cm in homozygous individuals). To our knowledge, this is the largest effect size known for a common height-associated variant. FBN1 encodes the extracellular matrix protein fibrillin~1, which is a major structural component of microfibrils. We observed less densely packed fibrillin-1-rich microfibrils with irregular edges in the skin of individuals who were homozygous for G1297 compared with individuals who were homozygous for E1297. Moreover, we show that the E1297G locus is under positive selection in non-African populations, and that the E1297 variant shows subtle evidence of positive selection specifically within the Peruvian population. This variant is also significantly more frequent in coastal Peruvian populations than in populations from the Andes or the Amazon, which suggests that short stature might be the result of adaptation to factors that are associated with the coastal environment in Peru.

}, keywords = {Body Height, Female, Fibrillin-1, Gene Frequency, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heredity, Humans, Indians, South American, Male, Microfibrils, Mutation, Missense, Peru, Selection, Genetic}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-020-2302-0}, author = {Asgari, Samira and Luo, Yang and Akbari, Ali and Belbin, Gillian M and Li, Xinyi and Harris, Daniel N and Selig, Martin and Bartell, Eric and Calderon, Roger and Slowikowski, Kamil and Contreras, Carmen and Yataco, Rosa and Galea, Jerome T and Jimenez, Judith and Coit, Julia M and Farro{\~n}ay, Chandel and Nazarian, Rosalynn M and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Timothy D and Dietz, Harry C and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Guio, Heinner and Lecca, Leonid and Kenny, Eimear E and Freeman, Esther E and Murray, Megan B and Raychaudhuri, Soumya} } @article {90, title = {Rare protein-altering variants in ANGPTL7 lower intraocular pressure and protect against glaucoma.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {16}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 05}, pages = {e1008682}, abstract = {

Protein-altering variants that are protective against human disease provide in vivo validation of therapeutic targets. Here we use genotyping data from UK Biobank (n = 337,151 unrelated White British individuals) and FinnGen (n = 176,899) to conduct a search for protein-altering variants conferring lower intraocular pressure (IOP) and protection against glaucoma. Through rare protein-altering variant association analysis, we find a missense variant in ANGPTL7 in UK Biobank (rs28991009, p.Gln175His, MAF = 0.8\%, genotyped in 82,253 individuals with measured IOP and an independent set of 4,238 glaucoma patients and 250,660 controls) that significantly lowers IOP (β = -0.53 and -0.67 mmHg for heterozygotes, -3.40 and -2.37 mmHg for homozygotes, P = 5.96 x 10-9 and 1.07 x 10-13 for corneal compensated and Goldman-correlated IOP, respectively) and is associated with 34\% reduced risk of glaucoma (P = 0.0062). In FinnGen, we identify an ANGPTL7 missense variant at a greater than 50-fold increased frequency in Finland compared with other populations (rs147660927, p.Arg220Cys, MAF Finland = 4.3\%), which was genotyped in 6,537 glaucoma patients and 170,362 controls and is associated with a 29\% lower glaucoma risk (P = 1.9 x 10-12 for all glaucoma types and also protection against its subtypes including exfoliation, primary open-angle, and primary angle-closure). We further find three rarer variants in UK Biobank, including a protein-truncating variant, which confer a strong composite lowering of IOP (P = 0.0012 and 0.24 for Goldman-correlated and corneal compensated IOP, respectively), suggesting the protective mechanism likely resides in the loss of interaction or function. Our results support inhibition or down-regulation of ANGPTL7 as a therapeutic strategy for glaucoma.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Angiopoietin-like Proteins, Biological Specimen Banks, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Female, Finland, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetics, Population, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glaucoma, Humans, Intraocular Pressure, Loss of Function Mutation, Male, Middle Aged, Mutation, Missense, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, United Kingdom}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1008682}, author = {Tanigawa, Yosuke and Wainberg, Michael and Karjalainen, Juha and Kiiskinen, Tuomo and Venkataraman, Guhan and Lemmel{\"a}, Susanna and Turunen, Joni A and Graham, Robert R and Havulinna, Aki S and Perola, Markus and Palotie, Aarno and Daly, Mark J and Rivas, Manuel A} } @article {48, title = {Quantification of frequency-dependent genetic architectures in 25 UK Biobank traits reveals action of negative selection.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 02 15}, pages = {790}, abstract = {

Understanding the role of rare variants is important in elucidating the genetic basis of human disease. Negative selection can cause rare variants to have larger per-allele effect sizes than common variants. Here, we develop a method to estimate the minor allele frequency (MAF) dependence of SNP effect sizes. We use a model in which per-allele effect sizes have variance proportional to [p(1 - p)], where p is the MAF and negative values of α imply larger effect sizes for rare variants. We estimate α for 25 UK Biobank diseases and complex traits. All traits produce negative α estimates, with best-fit mean of -0.38 (s.e. 0.02) across traits. Despite larger rare variant effect sizes, rare variants (MAF < 1\%) explain less than 10\% of total SNP-heritability for most traits analyzed. Using evolutionary modeling and forward simulations, we validate the α model of MAF-dependent trait effects and assess plausible values of relevant evolutionary parameters.

}, keywords = {Algorithms, Alleles, Biological Specimen Banks, Gene Frequency, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Models, Genetic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait, Heritable, Selection, Genetic, United Kingdom}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-019-08424-6}, author = {Schoech, Armin P and Jordan, Daniel M and Loh, Po-Ru and Gazal, Steven and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Luke J and Balick, Daniel J and Palamara, Pier F and Finucane, Hilary K and Sunyaev, Shamil R and Price, Alkes L} } @article {44, title = {Fine-mapping and functional studies highlight potential causal variants for rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 10}, pages = {1366-1374}, abstract = {

To define potentially causal variants for autoimmune disease, we fine-mapped 76 rheumatoid arthritis (11,475 cases, 15,870 controls) and type 1 diabetes loci (9,334 cases, 11,111 controls). After sequencing 799 1-kilobase regulatory (H3K4me3) regions within these loci in 568 individuals, we observed accurate imputation for 89\% of common variants. We defined credible sets of <=5 causal variants at 5 rheumatoid arthritis and 10 type 1 diabetes loci. We identified potentially causal missense variants at DNASE1L3, PTPN22, SH2B3, and TYK2, and noncoding variants at MEG3, CD28-CTLA4, and IL2RA. We also identified potential candidate causal variants at SIRPG and TNFAIP3. Using functional assays, we confirmed allele-specific protein binding and differential enhancer activity for three variants: the CD28-CTLA4 rs117701653 SNP, MEG3 rs34552516 indel, and TNFAIP3 rs35926684 indel.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Case-Control Studies, CD28 Antigens, Chromosome Mapping, CTLA-4 Antigen, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Jurkat Cells, Mutation, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, RNA, Long Noncoding, Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha-Induced Protein 3}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0216-7}, author = {Westra, Harm-Jan and Mart{\'\i}nez-Bonet, Marta and Onengut-Gumuscu, Suna and Lee, Annette and Luo, Yang and Teslovich, Nikola and Worthington, Jane and Martin, Javier and Huizinga, Tom and Klareskog, Lars and Rantapaa-Dahlqvist, Solbritt and Chen, Wei-Min and Quinlan, Aaron and Todd, John A and Eyre, Steve and Nigrovic, Peter A and Gregersen, Peter K and Rich, Stephen S and Raychaudhuri, Soumya} } @article {40, title = {Functional architecture of low-frequency variants highlights strength of negative selection across coding and non-coding annotations.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 11}, pages = {1600-1607}, abstract = {

Common variant heritability has been widely reported to be concentrated in variants within cell-type-specific non-coding functional annotations, but little is known about low-frequency variant functional architectures. We partitioned the heritability of both low-frequency (0.5\%<= minor allele frequency <5\%) and common (minor allele frequency >=5\%) variants in 40 UK Biobank traits across a broad set of functional annotations. We determined that non-synonymous coding variants explain 17 {\textpm} 1\% of low-frequency variant heritability ([Formula: see text]) versus 2.1 {\textpm} 0.2\% of common variant heritability ([Formula: see text]). Cell-type-specific non-coding annotations that were significantly enriched for [Formula: see text] of corresponding traits were similarly enriched for [Formula: see text] for most traits, but more enriched for brain-related annotations and traits. For example, H3K4me3 marks in brain dorsolateral prefrontal cortex explain 57 {\textpm} 12\% of [Formula: see text] versus 12 {\textpm} 2\% of [Formula: see text] for neuroticism. Forward simulations confirmed that low-frequency variant enrichment depends on the mean selection coefficient of causal variants in the annotation, and can be used to predict effect size variance of causal rare variants (minor allele frequency <0.5\%).

}, keywords = {Alleles, Biological Specimen Banks, European Continental Ancestry Group, Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genetics, Population, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Molecular Sequence Annotation, Open Reading Frames, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Selection, Genetic, United Kingdom}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0231-8}, author = {Gazal, Steven and Loh, Po-Ru and Finucane, Hilary K and Ganna, Andrea and Schoech, Armin and Sunyaev, Shamil and Price, Alkes L} } @article {7, title = {The Effects of Migration and Assortative Mating on Admixture Linkage Disequilibrium.}, journal = {Genetics}, volume = {205}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jan}, pages = {375-383}, abstract = {

Statistical models in medical and population genetics typically assume that individuals assort randomly in a population. While this simplifies model complexity, it contradicts an increasing body of evidence of nonrandom mating in human populations. Specifically, it has been shown that assortative mating is significantly affected by genomic ancestry. In this work, we examine the effects of ancestry-assortative mating on the linkage disequilibrium between local ancestry tracks of individuals in an admixed population. To accomplish this, we develop an extension to the Wright-Fisher model that allows for ancestry-based assortative mating. We show that ancestry-assortment perturbs the distribution of local ancestry linkage disequilibrium (LAD) and the variance of ancestry in a population as a function of the number of generations since admixture. This assortment effect can induce errors in demographic inference of admixed populations when methods assume random mating. We derive closed form formulae for LAD under an assortative-mating model with and without migration. We observe that LAD depends on the correlation of global ancestry of couples in each generation, the migration rate of each of the ancestral populations, the initial proportions of ancestral populations, and the number of generations since admixture. We also present the first direct evidence of ancestry-assortment in African Americans and examine LAD in simulated and real admixed population data of African Americans. We find that demographic inference under the assumption of random mating significantly underestimates the number of generations since admixture, and that accounting for assortative mating using the patterns of LAD results in estimates that more closely agrees with the historical narrative.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Black or African American, Datasets as Topic, Gene Frequency, Genetics, Population, Genomics, Human Migration, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Models, Genetic, Models, Statistical, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1943-2631}, doi = {10.1534/genetics.116.192138}, author = {Zaitlen, Noah and Huntsman, Scott and Hu, Donglei and Spear, Melissa and Eng, Celeste and Oh, Sam S and White, Marquitta J and Mak, Angel and Davis, Adam and Meade, Kelly and Brigino-Buenaventura, Emerita and LeNoir, Michael A and Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten and Burchard, Esteban G and Halperin, Eran} } @article {11, title = {Estimating the selective effects of heterozygous protein-truncating variants from human exome data.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {49}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May}, pages = {806-810}, abstract = {

The evolutionary cost of gene loss is a central question in genetics and has been investigated in model organisms and human cell lines. In humans, tolerance of the loss of one or both functional copies of a gene is related to the gene{\textquoteright}s causal role in disease. However, estimates of the selection and dominance coefficients in humans have been elusive. Here we analyze exome sequence data from 60,706 individuals to make genome-wide estimates of selection against heterozygous loss of gene function. Using this distribution of selection coefficients for heterozygous protein-truncating variants (PTVs), we provide corresponding Bayesian estimates for individual genes. We find that genes under the strongest selection are enriched in embryonic lethal mouse knockouts, Mendelian disease-associated genes, and regulators of transcription. Screening by essentiality, we find a large set of genes under strong selection that are likely to have crucial functions but have not yet been thoroughly characterized.

}, keywords = {Algorithms, Animals, Bayes Theorem, Exome, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heterozygote, Humans, Mice, Knockout, Models, Genetic, Mutation, Selection, Genetic, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3831}, author = {Cassa, Christopher A and Weghorn, Donate and Balick, Daniel J and Jordan, Daniel M and Nusinow, David and Samocha, Kaitlin E and O{\textquoteright}Donnell-Luria, Anne and MacArthur, Daniel G and Daly, Mark J and Beier, David R and Sunyaev, Shamil R} }