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The trans-ancestral genomic architecture of glycemic traits

Chen, J. ; Lyssenko, Valeriya LU ; Franks, Paul LU ; Elmståhl, Sölve LU ; Groop, Leif LU and van Duijn, C. (2021) In Nature Genetics 53(6). p.840-860
Abstract
Glycemic traits are used to diagnose and monitor type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic health. To date, most genetic studies of glycemic traits have focused on individuals of European ancestry. Here we aggregated genome-wide association studies comprising up to 281,416 individuals without diabetes (30% non-European ancestry) for whom fasting glucose, 2-h glucose after an oral glucose challenge, glycated hemoglobin and fasting insulin data were available. Trans-ancestry and single-ancestry meta-analyses identified 242 loci (99 novel; P < 5 × 10−8), 80% of which had no significant evidence of between-ancestry heterogeneity. Analyses restricted to individuals of European ancestry with equivalent sample size would have led to 24 fewer new... (More)
Glycemic traits are used to diagnose and monitor type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic health. To date, most genetic studies of glycemic traits have focused on individuals of European ancestry. Here we aggregated genome-wide association studies comprising up to 281,416 individuals without diabetes (30% non-European ancestry) for whom fasting glucose, 2-h glucose after an oral glucose challenge, glycated hemoglobin and fasting insulin data were available. Trans-ancestry and single-ancestry meta-analyses identified 242 loci (99 novel; P < 5 × 10−8), 80% of which had no significant evidence of between-ancestry heterogeneity. Analyses restricted to individuals of European ancestry with equivalent sample size would have led to 24 fewer new loci. Compared with single-ancestry analyses, equivalent-sized trans-ancestry fine-mapping reduced the number of estimated variants in 99% credible sets by a median of 37.5%. Genomic-feature, gene-expression and gene-set analyses revealed distinct biological signatures for each trait, highlighting different underlying biological pathways. Our results increase our understanding of diabetes pathophysiology by using trans-ancestry studies for improved power and resolution. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc. (Less)
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@article{c245cd5b-81e9-43a1-bdc6-4daf3398393a,
  abstract     = {{Glycemic traits are used to diagnose and monitor type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic health. To date, most genetic studies of glycemic traits have focused on individuals of European ancestry. Here we aggregated genome-wide association studies comprising up to 281,416 individuals without diabetes (30% non-European ancestry) for whom fasting glucose, 2-h glucose after an oral glucose challenge, glycated hemoglobin and fasting insulin data were available. Trans-ancestry and single-ancestry meta-analyses identified 242 loci (99 novel; P &lt; 5 × 10−8), 80% of which had no significant evidence of between-ancestry heterogeneity. Analyses restricted to individuals of European ancestry with equivalent sample size would have led to 24 fewer new loci. Compared with single-ancestry analyses, equivalent-sized trans-ancestry fine-mapping reduced the number of estimated variants in 99% credible sets by a median of 37.5%. Genomic-feature, gene-expression and gene-set analyses revealed distinct biological signatures for each trait, highlighting different underlying biological pathways. Our results increase our understanding of diabetes pathophysiology by using trans-ancestry studies for improved power and resolution. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc.}},
  author       = {{Chen, J. and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Franks, Paul and Elmståhl, Sölve and Groop, Leif and van Duijn, C.}},
  issn         = {{1546-1718}},
  keywords     = {{glycosylated hemoglobin; allele; Caucasian; chromosomal mapping; gene expression profiling; genetic epigenesis; genetics; genome-wide association study; glucose blood level; human; human genome; metabolism; multifactorial inheritance; quantitative trait; quantitative trait locus; Alleles; Blood Glucose; Epigenesis, Genetic; European Continental Ancestry Group; Gene Expression Profiling; Genome, Human; Genome-Wide Association Study; Glycated Hemoglobin A; Humans; Multifactorial Inheritance; Physical Chromosome Mapping; Quantitative Trait Loci; Quantitative Trait, Heritable}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{840--860}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Genetics}},
  title        = {{The trans-ancestral genomic architecture of glycemic traits}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00852-9}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41588-021-00852-9}},
  volume       = {{53}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}