Common Variants in the GDF5-UQCC Region Are Associated with Variation in Human Height
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LETTERS Common variants in the GDF5-UQCC region are associated with variation in human height Serena Sanna1,2,19, Anne U Jackson1,19, Ramaiah Nagaraja3, Cristen J Willer1, Wei-Min Chen1,4, Lori L Bonnycastle5, Haiqing Shen6, Nicholas Timpson7,8, Guillaume Lettre9, Gianluca Usala2, Peter S Chines5, Heather M Stringham1, Laura J Scott1, Mariano Dei2, Sandra Lai2, Giuseppe Albai2, Laura Crisponi2, Silvia Naitza2, Kimberly F Doheny10, Elizabeth W Pugh10, Yoav Ben-Shlomo7, Shah Ebrahim11, Debbie A Lawlor7,8, Richard N Bergman12, Richard M Watanabe12,13, Manuela Uda2, Jaakko Tuomilehto14, Josef Coresh15, Joel N Hirschhorn9, Alan R Shuldiner6,16, David Schlessinger3, Francis S Collins5, George Davey Smith7,8, Eric Boerwinkle17, Antonio Cao2, Michael Boehnke1, Gonc¸alo R Abecasis1 & http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics Karen L Mohlke18 Identifying genetic variants that influence human height be genetically determined3,4. Rare mutations with large effects on will advance our understanding of skeletal growth and height in mendelian syndromes have been identified in the genes development. Several rare genetic variants have been FBN1, FGFR3, GH1, EVC, EVC2 and GPC3 (MIM 154700, 100800, convincingly and reproducibly associated with height in 262400, 225500 and 312870 (corresponding syndromes, respectively)). mendelian syndromes, and common variants in the Despite the high heritability, numerous candidate gene and linkage transcription factor gene HMGA2 are associated with variation studies to identify loci influencing height in individuals of ‘normal in height in the general population1. Here we report genome- stature’ have been inconclusive5. Overall, variation in human height is Nature Publishing Group Group Nature Publishing wide association analyses, using genotyped and imputed likely to be polygenic and heterogeneous. The first genome-wide 8 markers, of 6,669 individuals from Finland and Sardinia, and association study (GWAS) of height1 identified common variants in 200 follow-up analyses in an additional 28,801 individuals. We HMGA2 that are associated with normal variation in height both in À16 À6 © show that common variants in the osteoarthritis-associated adults (P ¼ 4 Â 10 ) and in children (P ¼ 1 Â 10 ). These variants locus2 GDF5-UQCC contribute to variation in height with an account for a small fraction (B0.3%) of the overall variation in height. estimated additive effect of 0.44 cm (overall P o 10À15). Our To identify additional genetic variants associated with height, we results indicate that there may be a link between the genetic analyzed genome-wide SNP data on 2,371 Finns from the Finland– basis of height and osteoarthritis, potentially mediated through United States Investigation of NIDDM Genetics (FUSION) study6 and alterations in bone growth and development. on 4,298 Sardinians from the SardiNIA study7 (Table 1), a long- itudinal study on aging-related conditions in Sardinia. The two Height is a complex trait that is influenced by genes and various samples were originally genotyped with distinct sets of markers. We environmental factors, including diet and the prenatal environment3. used genotype imputation methods6 to facilitate comparison of Heritability estimates suggest that Z80% of variation in height may the two studies and to evaluate an association between height and 1Center for Statistical Genetics, Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA. 2Istituto di Neurogenetica e Neurofarmacologia (INN), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, c/o Cittadella Universitaria di Monserrato, Monserrato, Cagliari 09042, Italy. 3Gerontology Research Center, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA. 4Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908, USA. 5Genome Technology Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. 6Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA. 7Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, Bristol BS8 2PR, UK. 8Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, Bristol BS8 2PR, UK. 9Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Seven Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. 10Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR), Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA. 11London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, London WC1E 7HT, UK. 12Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90033, USA. 13Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA. 14Diabetes Unit, Department of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention, National Public Health Institute, 00300 Helsinki, and Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland. 15Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA. 16Geriatric Research and Education Center, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA. 17Human Genetics Center and Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas 77225, USA. 18Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. 19These authors contributed equally to this work. Correspondence should be addressed to K.L.M. ([email protected]) or G.R.A. ([email protected]). Received 19 September 2007; accepted 29 November 2007; published online 13 January 2008; doi:10.1038/ng.74 198 VOLUME 40 [ NUMBER 2 [ FEBRUARY 2008 NATURE GENETICS LETTERS Table 1 Subject characteristics Study population Gender (M/F) Study age (years)a Standing height (cm)a Sitting height (cm)a Body mass index (kg/m2)a FUSION T2D stage 1 617/467 62.7 (7.6) 167.3 (9.0) – 30.2 (4.7) FUSION NGT stage 1 640/647 60.9 (11.2) 167.4 (9.3) – 27.0 (3.9) SardiNIA 1,883/2,415 43.6 (17.5) 159.9 (9.0) – 25.3 (4.7) FUSION T2D stage 2 718/490 59.4 (8.7) 168.9 (9.6) – 30.9 (5.4) FUSION NGT stage 2 768/490 58.4 (7.7) 169.1 (9.3) – 26.9 (3.9) DGI T2D 772/745 58.8 (10.0) 167.7 (9.1) – 28.5 (4.4) DGI controls 709/759 64.2 (10.0) 168.9 (8.9) – 26.7 (3.7) Old Order Amish 1,253/1,458 49.6 (16.9) 164.9 (8.8) – 27.2 (5.1) ARIC European Americans 5,374/5,996 54.4 (5.7) 168.6 (9.4) 89.4 (4.7) 27.0 (4.9) ARIC African Americans 1,600/2,595 53.6 (5.8) 168.1 (8.9) 86.2 (4.4) 29.6 (6.2) Caerphilly 1,389/0 56.7 (4.3) 171.2 (6.4) 91.1 (3.3) 26.3 (3.5) BWHHS 0/3,685 68.9 (5.5) 158.7 (6.1) 83.0 (3.6) 27.6 (5.0) Total samples 15,723/19,747 aValues are the mean (s.d.). B2.28 million common genetic variants. After verifying the overall The five loci showing the most significant evidence of association in accuracy of imputed genotypes in a few markers, we conducted our study are listed in Supplementary Table 2 online. To our knowl- within-study analyses with a rapid variance components-based asso- edge, common variants in these loci have not previously been ciation test8 and then carried out a meta-analysis of the two studies associated with height. http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics (Supplementary Fig. 1 online). The genes located on chromosome 20 near our strongest signal Our results provided confirmatory evidence of the association of (P o 2 Â 10À7) have a plausible biological role in human height. height with rs1042725 and rs7968682, two common variants in Rare variants in growth differentiation factor 5 (GDF5)havebeen HMGA2 (P ¼ 0.031 and 0.0093, respectively, both in the same associated with disorders of skeletal development (see below), and direction as the original report1; Supplementary Table 1 online). UQCC (also known as BFZB or C20orf44)encodesaZIC-binding Table 2 Association between rs6060369 and heighta Study population n C/C C/T T/T Allele freq. (C) Effect (s.e.m.) cm Effect (s.e.m.) standardizedb P value FUSION T2D stage 1c 1,084 167.4 (8.8) 167.5 (8.9) 167.0 (9.2) 0.426 0.382 (0.259) 0.081 (0.045) 0.072 Nature Publishing Group Group Nature Publishing 8 FUSION NGT stage 1c 1,287 167.5 (9.7) 167.7 (9.2) 166.7 (9.0) 0.449 0.634 (0.241) 0.124 (0.041) 0.0024 SardiNIAd 4,298 158.8 (8.2)d 158.5 (8.3)d 158.0 (8.7)d 0.384 0.700 (0.186) 0.083 (0.021) 4.35 Â 10À4 200 © 6,669 Stage 1 meta-analysis 9.73 Â 10À7 FUSION T2D stage 2 1,154 168.8 (9.3) 169.4 (9.8) 168.5 (9.5) 0.458 0.477 (0.262) 0.071 (0.041) 0.084 FUSION NGT stage 2 1,203 170.3 (9.4) 168.6 (9.2) 168.9 (9.3) 0.451 0.456 (0.244) 0.103 (0.040) 0.0090 DGI T2Dc 1,517 168.4 (9.3) 167.6 (9.1) 167.4 (9.1) 0.447 0.449 (0.234) 0.062 (0.038) 0.044 DGI controlsc 1,468 169.0 (8.6) 169.1 (9.0) 168.3 (8.8) 0.425 0.323 (0.249) 0.069 (0.042) 0.038 Old Order Amish 2,711 165.4 (9.1) 165.3 (9.0) 164.2 (8.5) 0.383 0.424 (0.178) 0.044 (0.020) 0.028 ARIC European Americans 10,882 168.9 (9.3) 168.7 (9.4) 168.3 (9.5) 0.398 0.252 (0.085) 0.029 (0.009) 0.0020 ARIC African Americans 3,860 168.4 (9.1) 167.9 (8.7) 167.3 (8.5) 0.710 0.254 (0.160) 0.025 (0.019) 0.169 Caerphilly 1,097 171.6 (6.6) 171.3 (6.5) 170.8 (6.2) 0.370 0.522 (0.270) 0.083 (0.042) 0.055 BWHHS 3,652 159.1 (6.0) 159.0 (6.1) 158.2 (6.2) 0.362 0.560 (0.147) 0.093 (0.240) 9.71 Â 10À5 27,544 Stage 2 meta-analysis 1.05 Â 10À11 34,213 Standing height overall meta-analysis 2.22 Â 10À16 Sitting height ARIC European Americans 10,863 89.6 (4.6) 89.4 (4.6) 89.3 (4.6) 0.398 0.137 (0.046) 0.029 (0.009) 0.0036 ARIC African Americans 3,857 86.3 (4.5) 86.3 (4.2) 86.1 (4.1) 0.710 À0.043 (0.085) À0.008 (0.019) 0.679 Caerphilly 1,092 91.3 (3.4) 91.2 (3.4) 90.9 (3.2) 0.370 0.275 (0.138) 0.087 (0.041) 0.038 BWHHS 3,655 83.3 (3.6) 83.2 (3.6) 82.7 (3.4) 0.362 0.345 (0.083) 0.100 (0.023) 1.73 Â 10À5 19,467 Sitting height meta-analysis 1.40 Â 10À5 aAssociation results are shown for an additive genetic model.