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To better understand the etiology of frailty, the authors perform a large genetic study. They identified 45 additional variants and implicated MET, CHST9, ILRUN, APOE, CGREF1 and PPP6C as potential causal genes, linking frailty to immune regulation, metabolism and cellular signaling.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias identifies new loci and enables generation of a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have become a key tool to discover genetic markers for complex traits; however, environmental factors that interact with genes are rarely considered. Here, the authors conduct a GWAS of obesity traits, and find that smoking may alter genetic susceptibilities.

John Perry and colleagues report the results of a large genome-wide association study meta-analysis to identify variants influencing age at natural menopause. They identify 54 independent signals and find enrichment near genes involved in delayed puberty and DNA damage response.

Patricia Munroe, Christopher Newton-Cheh, Andrew Morris and colleagues perform association studies in over 340,000 individuals of European ancestry and identify 66 loci, of which 17 are novel, involved in blood pressure regulation. The risk SNPs are enriched for cis-regulatory elements, particularly in vascular endothelial cells.

Whole-genome sequence analysis identifies five independent risk loci for Lewy body dementia and demonstrates overlapping genetic architecture with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

A genome-wide association study identifies 17 genetic loci that are associated with the risk of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), and shows that the modulation of haematopoietic stem cell function drives MPN risk.

Genome-wide analysis identifies variants associated with the volume of seven different subcortical brain regions defined by magnetic resonance imaging. Implicated genes are involved in neurodevelopmental and synaptic signaling pathways.

The influence of X chromosome genetic variation on blood lipids and coronary heart disease (CHD) is not well understood. Here, the authors analyse X chromosome sequencing data across 65,322 multi-ancestry individuals, identifying associations of the Xq23 locus with lipid changes and reduced risk of CHD and diabetes mellitus.

Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is highly heritable, yet not well understood from a genetic perspective. Here, the authors perform a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in 34,179 POAG cases, identifying 44 previously unreported risk loci and mapping effects across multiple ethnicities.

A genome-wide association study suggests 41 previously unreported loci on top of the 23 known loci that influence the disease risk for lumbar disc herniations. Many of these loci harbour genes implicated in disc structure and inflammation, as well as genes related to the nervous system and nerve function.

The fetal murine foregut develops into visceral organs via interactions between the mesoderm and endoderm, but how is unclear. Here, the authors use single cell RNAseq to show a diversity in organ specific splanchnic mesoderm cell-types, infer a signalling network governing organogenesis and use this to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells.

Luca Lotta, Robert Scott, Stephen O’Rahilly, Claudia Langenberg, David Savage, Nicholas Wareham, Inês Barroso and colleagues identify 53 genomic regions associated with insulin resistance phenotypes. Their findings suggest that limited storage capacity of peripheral adipose tissue is an important etiological component in insulin-resistant cardiometabolic disease and highlight genes and mechanisms underpinning this link.

The burden of mosaic chromosomal alterations in blood-derived DNA, a type of clonal hematopoiesis, is associated with an increased risk for diverse types of infections, including sepsis and pneumonia.

Joanna Howson and colleagues perform a genome-wide association study and meta-analysis for coronary artery disease in large, trans-ancestry cohorts. They identify 15 new loci and correlate these regions with cell-type-specific gene expression and plasma protein levels to find novel pathways and potential mechanisms of disease.

Narcolepsy has genetic and environmental risk factors, but the specific genetic risk loci and interaction with environmental triggers are not well understood. Here, the authors identify genetic loci for narcolepsy, suggesting infection as a trigger and dendritic and helper T cell involvement.

In a large and prospective cohort, higher polygenic risk is associated with higher risk and earlier age of onset for cardiometabolic disorders and cancer, and has added value to clinical risk scores in clinical disease prediction.

Many genetic factors that contribute to uterine leiomyomata (UL) - the most common tumours of the female genital tract - remain to be discovered. Here, the authors conduct a UL meta-genome-wide association study, and find loci related to altered muscle tissue biology that are associated with UL.

Nathan Pankratz, Santhi Ganesh and colleagues use exome chip data to identify rare and common variants influencing blood cell traits. They report associations at several loci, including a rare missense variant in S1PR4 associated with circulating neutrophil counts, and present functional studies supporting a role for S1PR4 in neutrophil recruitment and resolution in response to tissue injury.

Identifying women at high risk of breast cancer has important implications for screening. Here, the authors demonstrate that polygenic risk scores improve breast cancer risk prediction in the population, in women with mutations in high-risk genes and in women with close relatives with the disease.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are associated with plasma lipid levels. Here, Tabassum et al. perform genome-wide association studies for lipidomic profiles with 141 (non-standard) lipid species which highlights shared genetic loci with CVD and that traditional lipids have low genetic correlation with other lipids.

Audrey Chu, Matthew Steinhauser, Caroline Fox and colleagues report results of genome-wide association meta-analyses of ectopic-fat traits in individuals of European, African, Hispanic and Chinese ancestry. They identify seven new loci associated with ectopic-fat traits and present functional studies suggesting physiological roles for ATXN1 and UBE2E2 in adipogenesis.

Improved and robust procedures for a cyclodextrin-mediated preparation of asymmetric large unilamellar vesicles of diverse lipid compositions and the characterization of their degree of asymmetry and individual leaflet compositions with NMR and GC.

The largest meta-analysis of GWASs of hepcidin and sTfR identified 43 genomic loci, of which 15 new. Mendelian randomisation revealed associations of systemic iron status and iron-related loci with selected health outcomes across multiple domains.

A genome-wide association study identifies MFGE8 as protective against coronary atherosclerosis in European and East Asian populations.

Max Tamlander et al. combine polygenic risk scores and clinical assessments to improve prediction of coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes in European cohorts. Taken together, their results provide a useful method for preliminary cardiometabolic risk assessment in patients.