Structural variation is thought to play a major etiological role in the development of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), and numerous studies documenting the relevance of copy number variants (CNVs) in ASD have been published since 2006. To determine if large ASD families harbor high-impact CNVs that may have broader impact in the general ASD population, we used the Affymetrix genome-wide human SNP array 6.0 to identify 153 putative autism-specific CNVs present in 55 individuals with ASD from 9 multiplex ASD pedigrees. To evaluate the actual prevalence of these CNVs as well as 185 CNVs reportedly associated with ASD from published studies many of which are insufficiently powered, we designed a custom Illumina array and used it to interrogate these CNVs in 3,000 ASD cases and 6,000 controls. Additional single nucleotide variants (SNVs) on the array identified 25 CNVs that we did not detect in our family studies at the standard SNP array resolution. After molecular validation, our results demonstrated that 15 CNVs identified in high-risk ASD families also were found in two or more ASD cases with odds ratios greater than 2.0, strengthening their support as ASD risk variants. In addition, of the 25 CNVs identified using SNV probes on our custom array, 9 also had odds ratios greater than 2.0, suggesting that these CNVs also are ASD risk variants. Eighteen of the validated CNVs have not been reported previously in individuals with ASD and three have only been observed once. Finally, we confirmed the association of 31 of 185 published ASD-associated CNVs in our dataset with odds ratios greater than 2.0, suggesting they may be of clinical relevance in the evaluation of children with ASDs. Taken together, these data provide strong support for the existence and application of high-impact CNVs in the clinical genetic evaluation of children with ASD.

Neuroblastoma is a childhood cancer of the sympathetic nervous system that accounts for approximately 10% of all paediatric oncology deaths1,2. To identify genetic risk factors for neuroblastoma, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 2,251 patients and 6,097 control subjects of European ancestry from four case series. Here we report a significant association within LIM domain only 1 (LMO1) at 11p15.4 (rs110419, combined P = 5.2 × 10−16, odds ratio of risk allele = 1.34 (95% confidence interval 1.25–1.44)). The signal was enriched in the subset of patients with the most aggressive form of the disease. LMO1 encodes a cysteine-rich transcriptional regulator, and its paralogues (LMO2, LMO3 and LMO4) have each been previously implicated in cancer. In parallel, we analysed genome-wide DNA copy number alterations in 701 primary tumours. We found that the LMO1 locus was aberrant in 12.4% through a duplication event, and that this event was associated with more advanced disease (P < 0.0001) and survival (P = 0.041). The germline single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) risk alleles and somatic copy number gains were associated with increased LMO1 expression in neuroblastoma cell lines and primary tumours, consistent with a gain-of-function role in tumorigenesis. Short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated depletion of LMO1 inhibited growth of neuroblastoma cells with high LMO1 expression, whereas forced expression of LMO1 in neuroblastoma cells with low LMO1 expression enhanced proliferation. These data show that common polymorphisms at the LMO1 locus are strongly associated with susceptibility to developing neuroblastoma, but also may influence the likelihood of further somatic alterations at this locus, leading to malignant progression.

Background

The two genome-wide association studies published by us and by the Wellcome Trust Case-Control Consortium (WTCCC) revealed a number of novel loci but neither had the statistical power to elucidate all of the genetic components of type 1 diabetes risk, a task for which larger effective sample sizes are needed.

Methods

We analyzed data from two sources: 1) The previously published second stage of our study, with a total sample size of the two stages consisting of 1,046 Canadian case-parent trios and 538 multiplex families with 929 affected offspring from the Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium (T1DGC); 2) The RR2 project of the T1DGC, which genotyped 4,417 individuals from 1,062 non-overlapping families, including 2,059 affected individuals (mostly sibling pairs) for the 1,536 markers with the highest statistical significance for type 1 diabetes in the WTCCC results.

Results

One locus, mapping to an LD block at chr15q14, reached statistical significance by combining results from two markers (rs17574546 and rs7171171) in perfect linkage disequilibrium (LD) with each other (r2=1). We obtained a joint p value of 1.3 ×10−6, which exceeds by an order of magnitude the conservative threshold of 3.26×10−5 obtained by correcting for the 1,536 SNPs tested in our study. Meta-analysis with the original WTCCC genome-wide data produced a p value of 5.83×10−9.

Conclusions

A novel type 1 diabetes locus was discovered. It involves RASGRP1, a gene known to play a crucial role in thymocyte differentiation and TCR signaling by activating the Ras signaling pathway.

The inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are common causes of morbidity in children and young adults in the western world. Here we report the results of a genome-wide association study in early-onset IBD involving 3,426 affected individuals and 11,963 genetically matched controls recruited through international collaborations in Europe and North America, thereby extending the results from a previous study of 1,011 individuals with early-onset IBD1. We have identified five new regions associated with early-onset IBD susceptibility, including 16p11 near the cytokine gene IL27 (rs8049439, P = 2.41 × 10−9), 22q12 (rs2412973, P = 1.55 × 10−9), 10q22 (rs1250550, P = 5.63 × 10−9), 2q37 (rs4676410, P = 3.64 × 10−8) and 19q13.11 (rs10500264, P = 4.26 × 10−10). Our scan also detected associations at 23 of 32 loci previously implicated in adult-onset Crohn’s disease and at 8 of 17 loci implicated in adult-onset ulcerative colitis, highlighting the close pathogenetic relationship between early- and adult-onset IBD.

Diabetes impacts approximately 200 million people worldwide, of whom approximately 10% are affected by type 1 diabetes (T1D). The application of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has robustly revealed dozens of genetic contributors to the pathogenesis of T1D, with the most recent meta-analysis identifying in excess of 40 loci. To identify additional genetic loci for T1D susceptibility, we examined associations in the largest meta-analysis to date between the disease and ∼2.54 million SNPs in a combined cohort of 9,934 cases and 16,956 controls. Targeted follow-up of 53 SNPs in 1,120 affected trios uncovered three new loci associated with T1D that reached genome-wide significance. The most significantly associated SNP (rs539514, P = 5.66×10−11) resides in an intronic region of the LMO7 (LIM domain only 7) gene on 13q22. The second most significantly associated SNP (rs478222, P = 3.50×10−9) resides in an intronic region of the EFR3B (protein EFR3 homolog B) gene on 2p23; however, the region of linkage disequilibrium is approximately 800 kb and harbors additional multiple genes, including NCOA1, C2orf79, CENPO, ADCY3, DNAJC27, POMC, and DNMT3A. The third most significantly associated SNP (rs924043, P = 8.06×10−9) lies in an intergenic region on 6q27, where the region of association is approximately 900 kb and harbors multiple genes including WDR27, C6orf120, PHF10, TCTE3, C6orf208, LOC154449, DLL1, FAM120B, PSMB1, TBP, and PCD2. These latest associated regions add to the growing repertoire of gene networks predisposing to T1D.

Author Summary

Despite the fact that there is clearly a large genetic component to type 1 diabetes (T1D), uncovering the genes contributing to this disease has proven challenging. However, in the past three years there has been relatively major progress in this regard, with advances in genetic screening technologies allowing investigators to scan the genome for variants conferring risk for disease without prior hypotheses. Such genome-wide association studies have revealed multiple regions of the genome to be robustly and consistently associated with T1D. More recent findings have been a consequence of combining of multiple datasets from independent investigators in meta-analyses, which have more power to pick up additional variants contributing to the trait. In the current study, we describe the largest meta-analysis of T1D genome-wide genotyped datasets to date, which combines six large studies. As a consequence, we have uncovered three new signals residing at the chromosomal locations 13q22, 2p23, and 6q27, which went on to be replicated in independent sample sets. These latest associated regions add to the growing repertoire of gene networks predisposing to T1D.

Inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), and type 1 diabetes (T1D) are autoimmune diseases that may share common susceptibility pathways. We examined known susceptibility loci for these diseases in a cohort of 1689 CD cases, 777 UC cases, 989 T1D cases and 6197 shared control subjects of European ancestry, who were genotyped by the Illumina HumanHap550 SNP arrays. We identified multiple previously unreported or unconfirmed disease associations, including known CD loci (ICOSLG and TNFSF15) and T1D loci (TNFAIP3) that confer UC risk, known UC loci (HERC2 and IL26) that confer T1D risk and known UC loci (IL10 and CCNY) that confer CD risk. Additionally, we show that T1D risk alleles residing at the PTPN22, IL27, IL18RAP and IL10 loci protect against CD. Furthermore, the strongest risk alleles for T1D within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) confer strong protection against CD and UC; however, given the multi-allelic nature of the MHC haplotypes, sequencing of the MHC locus will be required to interpret this observation. These results extend our current knowledge on genetic variants that predispose to autoimmunity, and suggest that many loci involved in autoimmunity may be under a balancing selection due to antagonistic pleiotropic effect. Our analysis implies that variants with opposite effects on different diseases may facilitate the maintenance of common susceptibility alleles in human populations, making autoimmune diseases especially amenable to genetic dissection by genome-wide association studies.

OBJECTIVE

A number of studies have found that BMI in early life influences the risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. Our goal was to investigate if any type 2 diabetes variants uncovered through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) impact BMI in childhood.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Using data from an ongoing GWAS of pediatric BMI in our cohort, we investigated the association of pediatric BMI with 20 single nucleotide polymorphisms at 18 type 2 diabetes loci uncovered through GWAS, consisting of ADAMTS9, CDC123-CAMK1D, CDKAL1, CDKN2A/B, EXT2, FTO, HHEX-IDE, IGF2BP2, the intragenic region on 11p12, JAZF1, KCNQ1, LOC387761, MTNR1B, NOTCH2, SLC30A8, TCF7L2, THADA, and TSPAN8-LGR5. We randomly partitioned our cohort exactly in half in order to have a discovery cohort (n = 3,592) and a replication cohort (n = 3,592).

RESULTS

Our data show that the major type 2 diabetes risk–conferring G allele of rs7923837 at the HHEX-IDE locus was associated with higher pediatric BMI in both the discovery (P = 0.0013 and survived correction for 20 tests) and replication (P = 0.023) sets (combined P = 1.01 × 10−4). Association was not detected with any other known type 2 diabetes loci uncovered to date through GWAS except for the well-established FTO.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data show that the same genetic HHEX-IDE variant, which is associated with type 2 diabetes from previous studies, also influences pediatric BMI.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common psychiatric and behavioral disorder. To discover novel variants conferring risk to MDD, we conducted a whole-genome scan of copy number variation (CNV), including 1,693 MDD cases and 4,506 controls genotyped on the Perlegen 600K platform. The most significant locus was observed on 5q35.1, harboring the SLIT3 gene (P = 2×10−3). Extending the controls with 30,000 subjects typed on the Illumina 550 k array, we found the CNV to remain exclusive to MDD cases (P = 3.2×10−9). Duplication was observed in 5 unrelated MDD cases encompassing 646 kb with highly similar breakpoints. SLIT3 is integral to repulsive axon guidance based on binding to Roundabout receptors. Duplication of 5q35.1 is a highly penetrant variation accounting for 0.7% of the subset of 647 cases harboring large CNVs, using a threshold of a minimum of 10 SNPs and 100 kb. This study leverages a large dataset of MDD cases and controls for the analysis of CNVs with matched platform and ethnicity. SLIT3 duplication is a novel association which explains a definitive proportion of the largely unknown etiology of MDD.

Background

Heart failure results from abnormalities in multiple biological processes that contribute to cardiac dysfunction. We tested the hypothesis that inherited variation in genes of known importance to cardiovascular biology would thus contribute to heart failure risk.

Methods and Results

We utilized the ITMAT/Broad/CARe (IBC) cardiovascular SNP-array to screen referral populations of advanced heart failure patients for variants in ~2,000 genes of predicted importance to cardiovascular biology. Our design was a two-stage case-control study. In Stage 1, genotypes in Caucasian heart failure patients (n=1,590; ejection fraction 32±16%) were compared to those in unaffected controls (n=577; ejection fraction 67±8%) recruited from the same referral centers. Associations were tested for independent replication in Stage 2 (n=308 cases, 2,314 controls). Two intronic SNPs showed replicated associations with all-cause heart failure: rs1739843 in HSPB7 (combined P=3.09×10−6) and rs6787362 in FRMD4B (P=6.09×10−6). For both SNPs the minor allele was protective. In subgroup analyses, rs1739843 associated with both ischemic and nonischemic heart failure, whereas rs6787362 associated principally with ischemic heart failure. Linkage disequilibrium surrounding rs1739843 suggested that the causal variant resides in a region containing HSPB7 and a neighboring gene, CLCNKA, whereas the causal variant near rs6787362 is probably within FRMD4B. Allele frequencies for these SNPs were substantially different in African Americans (n=635 cases, 714 controls) and showed no association with heart failure in this population.

Conclusions

Our findings identify regions containing HSPB7 and FRMD4B as novel susceptibility loci for advanced heart failure. More broadly, in an era of genome-wide association studies, we demonstrate how knowledge of candidate genes can be leveraged as a complementary strategy to discern the genetics of complex disorders.

OBJECTIVE

A number of studies have found that reduced birth weight is associated with type 2 diabetes later in life; however, the underlying mechanism for this correlation remains unresolved. Recently, association has been demonstrated between low birth weight and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the CDKAL1 and HHEX-IDE loci, regions that were previously implicated in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. In order to investigate whether type 2 diabetes risk–conferring alleles associate with low birth weight in our Caucasian childhood cohort, we examined the effects of 20 such loci on this trait.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Using data from an ongoing genome-wide association study in our cohort of 5,465 Caucasian children with recorded birth weights, we investigated the association of the previously reported type 2 diabetes–associated variation at 20 loci including TCF7L2, HHEX-IDE, PPARG, KCNJ11, SLC30A8, IGF2BP2, CDKAL1, CDKN2A/2B, and JAZF1 with birth weight.

RESULTS

Our data show that the minor allele of rs7756992 (P = 8 × 10−5) at the CDKAL1 locus is strongly associated with lower birth weight, whereas a perfect surrogate for variation previously implicated for the trait at the same locus only yielded nominally significant association (P = 0.01; r2 rs7756992 = 0.677). However, association was not detected with any of the other type 2 diabetes loci studied.

CONCLUSIONS

We observe association between lower birth weight and type 2 diabetes risk–conferring alleles at the CDKAL1 locus. Our data show that the same genetic locus that has been identified as a marker for type 2 diabetes in previous studies also influences birth weight.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) represent a group of childhood neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by deficits in verbal communication, impairment of social interaction, and restricted and repetitive patterns of interests and behaviour. To identify common genetic risk factors underlying ASDs, here we present the results of genome-wide association studies on a cohort of 780 families (3,101 subjects) with affected children, and a second cohort of 1,204 affected subjects and 6,491 control subjects, all of whom were of European ancestry. Six single nucleotide polymorphisms between cadherin 10 (CDH10) and cadherin 9 (CDH9)—two genes encoding neuronal cell-adhesion molecules—revealed strong association signals, with the most significant SNP being rs4307059 (P = 3.4 × 10−8, odds ratio = 1.19). These signals were replicated in two independent cohorts, with combined P values ranging from 7.4 × 10−8 to 2.1 × 10−10. Our results implicate neuronal cell-adhesion molecules in the pathogenesis of ASDs, and represent, to our knowledge, the first demonstration of genome-wide significant association of common variants with susceptibility to ASDs.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are childhood neurodevelopmental disorders with complex genetic origins1–4. Previous studies focusing on candidate genes or genomic regions have identified several copy number variations (CNVs) that are associated with an increased risk of ASDs5–9. Here we present the results from a whole-genome CNV study on a cohort of 859 ASD cases and 1,409 healthy children of European ancestry who were genotyped with ~550,000 single nucleotide polymorphism markers, in an attempt to comprehensively identify CNVs conferring susceptibility to ASDs. Positive findings were evaluated in an independent cohort of 1,336 ASD cases and 1,110 controls of European ancestry. Besides previously reported ASD candidate genes, such as NRXN1 (ref. 10) and CNTN4 (refs 11, 12), several new susceptibility genes encoding neuronal cell-adhesion molecules, including NLGN1 and ASTN2, were enriched with CNVs in ASD cases compared to controls (P = 9.5 × 10−3). Furthermore, CNVs within or surrounding genes involved in the ubiquitin pathways, including UBE3A, PARK2, RFWD2 and FBXO40, were affected by CNVs not observed in controls (P = 3.3 × 10−3). We also identified duplications 55 kilobases upstream of complementary DNA AK123120 (P = 3.6 × 10−6). Although these variants may be individually rare, they target genes involved in neuronal cell-adhesion or ubiquitin degradation, indicating that these two important gene networks expressed within the central nervous system may contribute to the genetic susceptibility of ASD.

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.

The prevalence of obesity in children and adults in the United States has increased dramatically over the past decade. Besides environmental factors, genetic factors are known to play an important role in the pathogenesis of obesity. A number of genetic determinants of adult BMI have already been established through genome wide association studies. In this study, we examined 25 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) corresponding to thirteen previously reported genomic loci in 6,078 children with measures of BMI. Fifteen of these SNPs yielded at least nominally significant association to BMI, representing nine different loci including INSIG2, FTO, MC4R, TMEM18, GNPDA2, NEGR1, BDNF, KCTD15 and 1q25. Other loci revealed no evidence for association, namely at MTCH2, SH2B1, 12q13 and 3q27. For the 15 associated variants, the genotype score explained 1.12% of the total variation for BMI z-score. We conclude that among thirteen loci that have been reported to associate with adult BMI, at least nine also contribute to the determination of BMI in childhood as demonstrated by their associations in our pediatric cohort.

Recently a modest, but consistently, replicated association was demonstrated between obesity and the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs17782313, 3’ of the MC4R locus as a consequence of a meta-analysis of genome wide association (GWA) studies of the disease in Caucasian populations. We investigated the association in the context of the childhood form of the disease utilizing data from our ongoing GWA study in a cohort of 728 European American (EA) obese children (BMI ≥ 95th percentile) and 3,960 EA controls (BMI < 95th percentile), as well as 1,008 African American (AA) obese children and 2,715 AA controls. rs571312, rs10871777 and rs476828 (perfect surrogates for rs17782313) yielded odds ratios in the EA cohort of 1.142 (P = 0.045), 1.137 (P = 0.054) and 1.145 (P = 0.042); however, there was no significant association with these SNPs in the AA cohort. When investigating all thirty SNPs present on the Illumina BeadChip at this locus, again there was no evidence for association in AA cases when correcting for the number of tests employed. As such, variants 3’ to the MC4R locus present on the genotyping platform utilized confer a similar magnitude of risk of obesity in Caucasian children as to their adult Caucasian counterparts but this observation did not extend to African Americans.

OBJECTIVE—Two recent genome-wide association (GWA) studies have revealed novel loci for type 1 diabetes, a common multifactorial disease with a strong genetic component. To fully utilize the GWA data that we had obtained by genotyping 563 type 1 diabetes probands and 1,146 control subjects, as well as 483 case subject–parent trios, using the Illumina HumanHap550 BeadChip, we designed a full stage 2 study to capture other possible association signals.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—From our existing datasets, we selected 982 markers with P < 0.05 in both GWA cohorts. Genotyping these in an independent set of 636 nuclear families with 974 affected offspring revealed 75 markers that also had P < 0.05 in this third cohort. Among these, six single nucleotide polymorphisms in five novel loci also had P < 0.05 in the Wellcome Trust Case-Control Consortium dataset and were further tested in 1,303 type 1 diabetes probands from the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (DCCT/EDIC) plus 1,673 control subjects.

RESULTS—Two markers (rs9976767 and rs3757247) remained significant after adjusting for the number of tests in this last cohort; they reside in UBASH3A (OR 1.16; combined P = 2.33 × 10−8) and BACH2 (1.13; combined P = 1.25 × 10−6).

CONCLUSIONS—Evaluation of a large number of statistical GWA candidates in several independent cohorts has revealed additional loci that are associated with type 1 diabetes. The two genes at these respective loci, UBASH3A and BACH2, are both biologically relevant to autoimmunity.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a common inflammatory disorder with complex etiology that involves both genetic and environmental triggers, including but not limited to defects in bacterial clearance, defective mucosal barrier and persistent dysregulation of the immune response to commensal intestinal bacteria. IBD is characterized by two distinct phenotypes: Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Previously reported GWA studies have identified genetic variation accounting for a small portion of the overall genetic susceptibility to CD and an even smaller contribution to UC pathogenesis. We hypothesized that stratification of IBD by age of onset might identify additional genes associated with IBD. To that end, we carried out a GWA analysis in a cohort of 1,011 individuals with pediatric-onset IBD and 4,250 matched controls. We identified and replicated significantly associated, previously unreported loci on chromosomes 20q13 (rs2315008[T] and rs4809330[A]; P = 6.30 × 10−8 and 6.95 × 10−8, respectively; odds ratio (OR) = 0.74 for both) and 21q22 (rs2836878[A]; P = 6.01 × 10−8; OR = 0.73), located close to the TNFRSF6B and PSMG1 genes, respectively.

Background

Neuroblastoma is a malignancy of the developing sympathetic nervous system that most commonly affects young children and is often lethal. The etiology of this embryonal cancer is not known.

Methods

We performed a genome-wide association study by first genotyping 1,032 neuroblastoma patients and 2,043 controls of European descent using the Illumina HumanHap550 BeadChip. Three independent groups of neuroblastoma cases (N=720) and controls (N=2128) were then genotyped to replicate significant associations.

Results

We observed highly significant association between neuroblastoma and the common minor alleles of three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within a 94.2 kilobase (Kb) linkage disequilibrium block at chromosome band 6p22 containing the predicted genes FLJ22536 and FLJ44180 (P-value range = 1.71×10-9-7.01×10-10; allelic odds ratio range 1.39-1.40). Homozygosity for the at-risk G allele of the most significantly associated SNP, rs6939340, resulted in an increased likelihood of developing neuroblastoma of 1.97 (95% CI 1.58-2.44). Subsequent genotyping of these 6p22 SNPs in the three independent case series confirmed our observation of association (P=9.33×10-15 at rs6939340 for joint analysis). Furthermore, neuroblastoma patients homozygous for the risk alleles at 6p22 were more likely to develop metastatic (Stage 4) disease (P=0.02), show amplification of the MYCN oncogene in the tumor cells (P=0.006), and to have disease relapse (P=0.01).

Conclusion

Common genetic variation at chromosome band 6p22 is associated with susceptibility to neuroblastoma.

OBJECTIVE—To search for a possible association of type 1 diabetes with 10 validated type 2 diabetes loci, i.e., PPARG, KCNJ11, WFS1, HNF1B, IDE/HHEX, SLC30A8, CDKAL1, CDKN2A/B, IGF2BP2, and FTO/RPGRIP1L.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Two European population samples were studied: 1) one case-control cohort of 514 type 1 diabetic subjects and 2,027 control subjects and 2) one family cohort of 483 complete type 1 diabetic case-parent trios (total 997 affected). A total of 13 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the 10 type 2 diabetes loci were analyzed for type 1 diabetes association.

RESULTS—No association of type 1 diabetes was found with any of the 10 type 2 diabetes loci, and no age-at-onset effect was detected. By combined analysis using the Wellcome Trust Case-Control Consortium type 1 diabetes data, SNP rs1412829 in the CDKN2A/B locus bordered on significance (P = 0.039) (odds ratio 0.929 [95% CI 0.867–0.995]), which did not reach the statistical significance threshold adjusted for 13 tests (α = 0.00385).

CONCLUSIONS—This study suggests that the type 2 diabetes loci do not play any obvious role in type 1 diabetes genetic susceptibility. The distinct molecular mechanisms of the two diseases highlighted the importance of differentiation diagnosis and different treatment principles.

A wealth of genetic associations for cardiovascular and metabolic phenotypes in humans has been accumulating over the last decade, in particular a large number of loci derived from recent genome wide association studies (GWAS). True complex disease-associated loci often exert modest effects, so their delineation currently requires integration of diverse phenotypic data from large studies to ensure robust meta-analyses. We have designed a gene-centric 50 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array to assess potentially relevant loci across a range of cardiovascular, metabolic and inflammatory syndromes. The array utilizes a “cosmopolitan” tagging approach to capture the genetic diversity across ∼2,000 loci in populations represented in the HapMap and SeattleSNPs projects. The array content is informed by GWAS of vascular and inflammatory disease, expression quantitative trait loci implicated in atherosclerosis, pathway based approaches and comprehensive literature searching. The custom flexibility of the array platform facilitated interrogation of loci at differing stringencies, according to a gene prioritization strategy that allows saturation of high priority loci with a greater density of markers than the existing GWAS tools, particularly in African HapMap samples. We also demonstrate that the IBC array can be used to complement GWAS, increasing coverage in high priority CVD-related loci across all major HapMap populations. DNA from over 200,000 extensively phenotyped individuals will be genotyped with this array with a significant portion of the generated data being released into the academic domain facilitating in silico replication attempts, analyses of rare variants and cross-cohort meta-analyses in diverse populations. These datasets will also facilitate more robust secondary analyses, such as explorations with alternative genetic models, epistasis and gene-environment interactions.

Recently an association was demonstrated between the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs9939609, within the FTO locus and obesity as a consequence of a genome wide association (GWA) study of type 2 diabetes in adults. We examined the effects of two perfect surrogates for this SNP plus 11 other SNPs at this locus with respect to our childhood obesity cohort, consisting of both Caucasians and African Americans (AA). Utilizing data from our ongoing GWA study in our cohort of 418 Caucasian obese children (BMI≥95th percentile), 2,270 Caucasian controls (BMI<95th percentile), 578 AA obese children and 1,424 AA controls, we investigated the association of the previously reported variation at the FTO locus with the childhood form of this disease in both ethnicities. The minor allele frequencies (MAF) of rs8050136 and rs3751812 (perfect surrogates for rs9939609 i.e. both r2 = 1) in the Caucasian cases were 0.448 and 0.443 respectively while they were 0.391 and 0.386 in Caucasian controls respectively, yielding for both an odds ratio (OR) of 1.27 (95% CI 1.08–1.47; P = 0.0022). Furthermore, the MAFs of rs8050136 and rs3751812 in the AA cases were 0.449 and 0.115 respectively while they were 0.436 and 0.090 in AA controls respectively, yielding an OR of 1.05 (95% CI 0.91–1.21; P = 0.49) and of 1.31 (95% CI 1.050–1.643; P = 0.017) respectively. Investigating all 13 SNPs present on the Illumina HumanHap550 BeadChip in this region of linkage disequilibrium, rs3751812 was the only SNP conferring significant risk in AA. We have therefore replicated and refined the association in an AA cohort and distilled a tag-SNP, rs3751812, which captures the ancestral origin of the actual mutation. As such, variants in the FTO gene confer a similar magnitude of risk of obesity to children as to their adult counterparts and appear to have a global impact.