Background

Studies of copy number variation (CNV) have successfully characterized loci and molecular pathways involved in a range of neuropsychiatric conditions. We conducted an analysis of rare CNVs in Tourette Syndrome (TS) to identify novel risk regions and relevant molecular pathways, evaluate the burden of structural variation in cases versus controls, and to assess the overlap of identified variations with those implicated in other neuropsychiatric syndromes.

Methods

We conducted a case-control study of 460 individuals with TS, including 148 parent-child trios and 1131 controls. CNV analysis was undertaken using 370K to 1M probe arrays, and genome-wide genotyping data was used to match cases and controls for ancestry. Transmitted and de novo CNVs present in < 1% of the population were evaluated.

Results

While there was no significant increase in the number of de novo or transmitted rare CNVs in cases versus controls, pathway analysis using multiple algorithms showed enrichment of genes within histamine receptor (H1R and H2R) signaling pathways (p=5.8×10-4-1.6×10-2) as well as “axon guidance”, “cell adhesion”, “nervous system development” and “synaptic structure and function” processes. Genes mapping within rare CNVs in TS showed significant overlap with those previously identified in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but not intellectual disability or schizophrenia. Three large, likely-pathogenic, de novo events were identified, including one disrupting multiple gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor genes.

Conclusions

We identify further evidence supporting recent findings regarding the involvement of histaminergic and GABAergic mechanisms in the etiology of TS and show an overlap of rare CNVs in TS and ASD.

Longevity has a strong genetic component evidenced by family-based studies. Lipoprotein metabolism, FOXO proteins, and insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathways in model systems have shown polygenic variations predisposing to shorter lifespan. To test the hypothesis that rare variants could influence lifespan, we compared the rates of CNVs in healthy children (0–18 years of age) with individuals 67 years or older. CNVs at a significantly higher frequency in the pediatric cohort were considered risk variants impacting lifespan, while those enriched in the geriatric cohort were considered longevity protective variants. We performed a whole-genome CNV analysis on 7,313 children and 2,701 adults of European ancestry genotyped with 302,108 SNP probes. Positive findings were evaluated in an independent cohort of 2,079 pediatric and 4,692 geriatric subjects. We detected 8 deletions and 10 duplications that were enriched in the pediatric group (P = 3.33×10−8–1.6×10−2 unadjusted), while only one duplication was enriched in the geriatric cohort (P = 6.3×10−4). Population stratification correction resulted in 5 deletions and 3 duplications remaining significant (P = 5.16×10−5–4.26×10−2) in the replication cohort. Three deletions and four duplications were significant combined (combined P = 3.7×10−4−3.9×10−2). All associated loci were experimentally validated using qPCR. Evaluation of these genes for pathway enrichment demonstrated ∼50% are involved in alternative splicing (P = 0.0077 Benjamini and Hochberg corrected). We conclude that genetic variations disrupting RNA splicing could have long-term biological effects impacting lifespan.

Exome sequencing has identified the causes of several Mendelian diseases, although it has rarely been used in a clinical setting to diagnose the genetic cause of an idiopathic disorder in a single patient. We performed exome sequencing on a pedigree with several members affected with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in an effort to identify candidate variants predisposing to this complex disease. While we did identify some rare variants that might predispose to ADHD, we have not yet proven the causality for any of them. However, over the course of the study, one subject was discovered to have idiopathic hemolytic anemia (IHA), which was suspected to be genetic in origin. Analysis of this subject’s exome readily identified two rare non-synonymous mutations in PKLR gene as the most likely cause of the IHA, although these two mutations had not been documented before in a single individual. We further confirmed the deficiency by functional biochemical testing, consistent with a diagnosis of red blood cell pyruvate kinase deficiency. Our study implies that exome and genome sequencing will certainly reveal additional rare variation causative for even well-studied classical Mendelian diseases, while also revealing variants that might play a role in complex diseases. Furthermore, our study has clinical and ethical implications for exome and genome sequencing in a research setting; how to handle unrelated findings of clinical significance, in the context of originally planned complex disease research, remains a largely uncharted area for clinicians and researchers.

A number of copy number variation (CNV) calling algorithms exist; however, comprehensive software tools for CNV association studies are lacking. We describe ParseCNV, unique software that takes CNV calls and creates probe-based statistics for CNV occurrence in both case–control design and in family based studies addressing both de novo and inheritance events, which are then summarized based on CNV regions (CNVRs). CNVRs are defined in a dynamic manner to allow for a complex CNV overlap while maintaining precise association region. Using this approach, we avoid failure to converge and non-monotonic curve fitting weaknesses of programs, such as CNVtools and CNVassoc, and although Plink is easy to use, it only provides combined CNV state probe-based statistics, not state-specific CNVRs. Existing CNV association methods do not provide any quality tracking information to filter confident associations, a key issue which is fully addressed by ParseCNV. In addition, uncertainty in CNV calls underlying CNV associations is evaluated to verify significant results, including CNV overlap profiles, genomic context, number of probes supporting the CNV and single-probe intensities. When optimal quality control parameters are followed using ParseCNV, 90% of CNVs validate by polymerase chain reaction, an often problematic stage because of inadequate significant association review. ParseCNV is freely available at http://parsecnv.sourceforge.net.

While it is apparent that rare variation can play an important role in the genetic architecture of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), the contribution of common variation to the risk of developing ASD is less clear. To produce a more comprehensive picture, we report Stage 2 of the Autism Genome Project genome-wide association study, adding 1301 ASD families and bringing the total to 2705 families analysed (Stages 1 and 2). In addition to evaluating the association of individual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we also sought evidence that common variants, en masse, might affect the risk. Despite genotyping over a million SNPs covering the genome, no single SNP shows significant association with ASD or selected phenotypes at a genome-wide level. The SNP that achieves the smallest P-value from secondary analyses is rs1718101. It falls in CNTNAP2, a gene previously implicated in susceptibility for ASD. This SNP also shows modest association with age of word/phrase acquisition in ASD subjects, of interest because features of language development are also associated with other variation in CNTNAP2. In contrast, allele scores derived from the transmission of common alleles to Stage 1 cases significantly predict case status in the independent Stage 2 sample. Despite being significant, the variance explained by these allele scores was small (Vm< 1%). Based on results from individual SNPs and their en masse effect on risk, as inferred from the allele score results, it is reasonable to conclude that common variants affect the risk for ASD but their individual effects are modest.

Admixture mapping based on recently admixed populations is a powerful method to detect disease variants with substantial allele frequency differences in ancestral populations. We performed admixture mapping analysis for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), followed by trait-marker association analysis, in 6303 unrelated African-American participants of the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) consortium. We identified five genomic regions (P< 0.001) harboring genetic variants contributing to inter-individual BP variation. In follow-up association analyses, correcting for all tests performed in this study, three loci were significantly associated with SBP and one significantly associated with DBP (P< 10−5). Further analyses suggested that six independent single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) contributed to the phenotypic variation observed in the admixture mapping analysis. These six SNPs were examined for replication in multiple, large, independent studies of African-Americans [Women's Health Initiative (WHI), Maywood, Genetic Epidemiology Network of Arteriopathy (GENOA) and Howard University Family Study (HUFS)] as well as one native African sample (Nigerian study), with a total replication sample size of 11 882. Meta-analysis of the replication set identified a novel variant (rs7726475) on chromosome 5 between the SUB1 and NPR3 genes, as being associated with SBP and DBP (P< 0.0015 for both); in meta-analyses combining the CARe samples with the replication data, we observed P-values of 4.45 × 10−7 for SBP and 7.52 × 10−7 for DBP for rs7726475 that were significant after accounting for all the tests performed. Our study highlights that admixture mapping analysis can help identify genetic variants missed by genome-wide association studies because of drastically reduced number of tests in the whole genome.

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.

Recombination, together with mutation, is the ultimate source of genetic variation in populations. We leverage the recent mixture of people of African and European ancestry in the Americas to build a genetic map measuring the probability of crossing-over at each position in the genome, based on about 2.1 million crossovers in 30,000 unrelated African Americans. At intervals of more than three megabases it is nearly identical to a map built in Europeans. At finer scales it differs significantly, and we identify about 2,500 recombination hotspots that are active in people of West African ancestry but nearly inactive in Europeans. The probability of a crossover at these hotspots is almost fully controlled by the alleles an individual carries at PRDM9 (P<10−245). We identify a 17 base pair DNA sequence motif that is enriched in these hotspots, and is an excellent match to the predicted binding target of African-enriched alleles of PRDM9.

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.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly heritable disorder of complex and heterogeneous aetiology. It is primarily characterized by altered cognitive ability including impaired language and communication skills and fundamental deficits in social reciprocity. Despite some notable successes in neuropsychiatric genetics, overall, the high heritability of ASD (~90%) remains poorly explained by common genetic risk variants. However, recent studies suggest that rare genomic variation, in particular copy number variation, may account for a significant proportion of the genetic basis of ASD. We present a large scale analysis to identify candidate genes which may contain low-frequency recessive variation contributing to ASD while taking into account the potential contribution of population differences to the genetic heterogeneity of ASD. Our strategy, homozygous haplotype (HH) mapping, aims to detect homozygous segments of identical haplotype structure that are shared at a higher frequency amongst ASD patients compared to parental controls. The analysis was performed on 1,402 Autism Genome Project trios genotyped for 1 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We identified 25 known and 1,218 novel ASD candidate genes in the discovery analysis including CADM2, ABHD14A, CHRFAM7A, GRIK2, GRM3, EPHA3, FGF10, KCND2, PDZK1, IMMP2L and FOXP2. Furthermore, 10 of the previously reported ASD genes and 300 of the novel candidates identified in the discovery analysis were replicated in an independent sample of 1,182 trios. Our results demonstrate that regions of HH are significantly enriched for previously reported ASD candidate genes and the observed association is independent of gene size (odds ratio 2.10). Our findings highlight the applicability of HH mapping in complex disorders such as ASD and offer an alternative approach to the analysis of genome-wide association data.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00439-011-1094-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

OBJECTIVE

Obesity is an increasingly common disorder that predisposes to several medical conditions, including type 2 diabetes. We investigated whether large and rare copy-number variations (CNVs) differentiate moderate to extreme obesity from never-overweight control subjects.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays, we performed a genome-wide CNV survey on 430 obese case subjects (BMI >35 kg/m2) and 379 never-overweight control subjects (BMI <25 kg/m2). All subjects were of European ancestry and were genotyped on the Illumina HumanHap550 arrays with ∼550,000 SNP markers. The CNV calls were generated by PennCNV software.

RESULTS

CNVs >1 Mb were found to be overrepresented in case versus control subjects (odds ratio [OR] = 1.5 [95% CI 0.5–5]), and CNVs >2 Mb were present in 1.3% of the case subjects but were absent in control subjects (OR = infinity [95% CI 1.2–infinity]). When focusing on rare deletions that disrupt genes, even more pronounced effect sizes are observed (OR = 2.7 [95% CI 0.5–27.1] for CNVs >1 Mb). Interestingly, obese case subjects who carry these large CNVs have moderately high BMI and do not appear to be extreme cases. Several CNVs disrupt known candidate genes for obesity, such as a 3.3-Mb deletion disrupting NAP1L5 and a 2.1-Mb deletion disrupting UCP1 and IL15.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that large CNVs, especially rare deletions, confer risk of obesity in patients with moderate obesity and that genes impacted by large CNVs represent intriguing candidates for obesity that warrant further study.

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.

Background

Inter-individual variation in response to anti-TNFα therapy may be explained by genetic variability in disease pathogenesis or mechanism of action. Recent genome wide association studies (GWAS) in IBD have increased our understanding of the genetic susceptibility to IBD.

Aim

Test associations of known IBD susceptibility loci and novel “pharmacogenetic” GWAS identified loci with primary non-response to anti-TNFα in pediatric IBD patients and develop a predictive model of primary non-response.

Methods

Primary non response was defined using the HBI for CD and partial Mayo score for UC. Genotyping was performed using the Illumina Infinium platform. Chi square analysis tested associations of phenotype and genotype with primary non-response. Genetic associations were identified by testing known IBD susceptibility loci and by performing a GWAS for primary non-response. Step-wise multiple logistic regression was performed to build predictive models.

Results

Non-response occurred in 22 of 94 subjects. Six known susceptibility loci were associated with primary non-response (p < 0.05). Only the 21q22.2/BRWDI loci remained significant in the predictive model. The most predictive model included 3 novel “pharmacogenetic” GWAS loci, the previously identified BRWD1, pANCA and a UC diagnosis (R2 =0.82 and AUC = 0.98%). The relative risk of non-response increased 15 fold when number of risk factors increased from 0–2 to ≥ 3.

Conclusion

The combination of phenotype and genotype is most predictive of primary non response to anti-TNFα in pediatric IBD. Defining predictors of response to anti-TNFα may allow the identification of patients who will not benefit from this class of therapy.

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.

Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified many loci associated with body mass index (BMI), but few studies focused on obesity as a binary trait. Here we report the results of a GWAS and candidate SNP genotyping study of obesity, including extremely obese cases and never overweight controls as well as families segregating extreme obesity and thinness. We first performed a GWAS on 520 cases (BMI>35 kg/m2) and 540 control subjects (BMI<25 kg/m2), on measures of obesity and obesity-related traits. We subsequently followed up obesity-associated signals by genotyping the top ∼500 SNPs from GWAS in the combined sample of cases, controls and family members totaling 2,256 individuals. For the binary trait of obesity, we found 16 genome-wide significant signals within the FTO gene (strongest signal at rs17817449, P = 2.5×10−12). We next examined obesity-related quantitative traits (such as total body weight, waist circumference and waist to hip ratio), and detected genome-wide significant signals between waist to hip ratio and NRXN3 (rs11624704, P = 2.67×10−9), previously associated with body weight and fat distribution. Our study demonstrated how a relatively small sample ascertained through extreme phenotypes can detect genuine associations in a GWAS.

Neuroblastoma is a malignant neoplasm of the developing sympathetic nervous system that is notable for its phenotypic diversity. High-risk patients typically have widely disseminated disease at diagnosis and a poor survival probability, but low-risk patients frequently have localized tumors that are almost always cured with little or no chemotherapy. Our genome-wide association study (GWAS) has identified common variants within FLJ22536, BARD1, and LMO1 as significantly associated with neuroblastoma and more robustly associated with high-risk disease. Here we show that a GWAS focused on low-risk cases identified SNPs within DUSP12 at 1q23.3 (P = 2.07×10−6), DDX4 and IL31RA both at 5q11.2 (P = 2.94×10−6 and 6.54×10−7 respectively), and HSD17B12 at 11p11.2 (P = 4.20×10−7) as being associated with the less aggressive form of the disease. These data demonstrate the importance of robust phenotypic data in GWAS analyses and identify additional susceptibility variants for neuroblastoma.

Author Summary

Neuroblastoma is the most common solid tumor outside the central nervous system and is accountable for 10% of the mortality rate of all children's cancers. It has distinctive clinical behaviors and is categorized into different risk groups: high-risk, intermediate-risk, and low-risk. Genome-wide association studies have reported a number of genetic variations predisposing to high-risk neuroblastoma. This study focuses on the low-risk neuroblastoma group and identifies four novel genes (DUSP12, DDX4, IL31RA, and HSD17B12) at three distinct genomic positions that harbor disease-causing variants. This study also reports several gene sets that are enriched in overall neuroblastoma as well as in both high-risk and low-risk groups. Also of importance is that this study adopts a new computational method that identifies genes, instead of only one single nucleotide polymorphism, as disease-causing variants. Shown to have superior power of detection genome-wide association signals for neuroblastoma, the methodology presented in this study has great potential applications in case-control association studies in other diseases.

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.

Objective

Recent genome-wide analysis identified a genetic variant on 5p14.1 (rs4307059), which is associated with risk for autism spectrum disorder. This study investigated whether rs4307059 also operates as a quantitative trait locus underlying a broader autism phenotype in the general population, focusing specifically on the social communication aspect of the spectrum.

Method

Study participants were 7,313 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Single-trait and joint-trait genotype associations were investigated for 29 measures related to language and communication, verbal intelligence, social interaction, and behavioral adjustment, assessed between ages 3 and 12 years. Analyses were performed in one-sided or directed mode and adjusted for multiple testing, trait interrelatedness, and random genotype dropout.

Results

Single phenotype analyses showed that an increased load of rs4307059 risk allele is associated with stereotyped conversation and lower pragmatic communication skills, as measured by the Children's Communication Checklist (at a mean age of 9.7 years). In addition a trend toward a higher frequency of identification of special educational needs (at a mean age of 11.8 years) was observed. Variation at rs4307059 was also associated with the phenotypic profile of studied traits. This joint signal was fully explained neither by single-trait associations nor by overall behavioral adjustment problems but suggested a combined effect, which manifested through multiple subthreshold social, communicative, and cognitive impairments.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that common variation at 5p14.1 is associated with social communication spectrum phenotypes in the general population and support the role of rs4307059 as a quantitative trait locus for autism spectrum disorder.

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.

Background/Aims

Limited access to large samples and independent replication cohorts precludes genome-wide association (GWA) studies of rare but complex traits. To localize candidate genes with family-based GWA, a novel exploratory analysis was first tested on 1,774 major histocompatibility complex single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 240 DNA samples from 80 children with primary liver transplantation (LTx), and their biological parents.

Methods/Results

Initially, 57 SNPs with large differences (p<0.05) in minor allele frequencies were selected, when parents of children with early rejection (Rejectors) were compared with parents of Non-Rejectors. In hypothesis-testing of selected SNPs, the gamete competition statistic identified the minor allele G (ancestral allele T) of the SNP rs9296068, near HLA-DOA, as being significantly different (p=0.018) in parent-to-child transmission between outcome groups. Subsequent simple association testing confirmed over- and under-transmission of rs9296068 based on 1) the most significant differences between outcome groups, of 1,774 SNPs tested (p=0.002), and 2) allele (G) frequencies that were greater among Rejectors (51.4 vs. 36.8%, p=0.015), and lower among Non-Rejectors (26.8 vs. 36.8%, p=0.074), compared with 400 normal control Caucasian children. In early functional validation, a) Rejectors demonstrated significant repression of the first HLA-DOA exon closest to rs9296068, and b) Rejectors with the risk allele showed 3-fold greater intragraft content of B-lymphocytes, whose antigen-presenting function is inhibited selectively by HLA-DOA, compared with Rejectors without the allele.

Conclusions

The minor allele of the SNP rs9296068 is significantly associated with LTx rejection, and with enhanced B-lymphocyte participation in rejection, likely due to a dysfunctional HLA-DOA gene product.

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.

Schizophrenia is associated with both common single-nucleotide polymorphisms at the MHC locus and rare copy-number variants affecting many genes.

Common variant single-nucleotide polymorphisms at the MHC locus have recently been associated with schizophrenia. Together with known associations with rare copy-number variants affecting many genes, this reveals the highly polygenic etiology of the disease.

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.