Abstract
A recent genome-wide association study has identified an association between leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and a locus at 3q26 that includes TERC. In order to evaluate the effects of the SNPs rs12696304 and rs16847897 near TERC in the population of mainland China, we conducted an association study of LTL focusing on these two candidate SNPs in a sample of 4016 Chinese Han individuals. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to evaluate the association of LTL with each SNP adjusted for age, gender and diabetes status. In the study, we confirmed the association of SNP rs12696304 and rs16847897 near TERC with LTL in the Chinese Han population (P∼4.5 × 10−3 and 9.5 × 10−5, respectively). Each copy of the major allele of rs12696304 and rs16847897 was associated with a shorter mean telomere length of 0.024 and 0.031 T/S respectively, which is equivalent to about 3 and 4 years of average age-related telomere attrition. Our short report confirmed the effects of SNPs near TERC on LTL in the Chinese Han population for the first time.
Similar content being viewed by others
Log in or create a free account to read this content
Gain free access to this article, as well as selected content from this journal and more on nature.com
or
References
Autexier C, Lue NF : The structure and function of telomerase reverse transcriptase. Annu Rev Biochem 2006; 75: 493–517.
Panossian LA, Porter VR, Valenzuela HF et al: Telomere shortening in T cells correlates with Alzheimer's disease status. Neurobiol Aging 2003; 24: 77–84.
von Zglinicki T, Serra V, Lorenz M et al: Short telomeres in patients with vascular dementia: an indicator of low antioxidative capacity and a possible risk factor? Lab Invest 2000; 80: 1739–1747.
Andrew T, Aviv A, Falchi M et al: Mapping genetic loci that determine leukocyte telomere length in a large sample of unselected female sibling pairs. Am J Hum Genet 2006; 78: 480–486.
Vasa-Nicotera M, Brouilette S, Mangino M et al: Mapping of a major locus that determines telomere length in humans. Am J Hum Genet 2005; 76: 147–151.
Njajou OT, Cawthon RM, Damcott CM et al: Telomere length is paternally inherited and is associated with parental lifespan. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2007; 104: 12135–12139.
Mangino M, Brouilette S, Braund P et al: A regulatory SNP of the BICD1 gene contributes to telomere length variation in humans. Hum Mol Genet 2008; 17: 2518–2523.
Codd V, Mangino M, van der Harst P et al: Common variants near TERC are associated with mean telomere length. Nat Genet 2010; 42: 197–199.
Levy D, Neuhausen SL, Hunt SC et al: Genome-wide association identifies OBFC1 as a locus involved in human leukocyte telomere biology. 2010; 107: 9293–9298.
Liu Y, Yu L, Zhang D et al: Positive association between variations in CDKAL1 and type 2 diabetes in Han Chinese individuals. Diabetologia 2008; 51: 2134–2137.
Gil ME, Coetzer TL : Real-time quantitative PCR of telomere length. Mol Biotechnol 2004; 27: 169–172.
Saxena R, Voight BF, Lyssenko V et al: Genome-wide association analysis identifies loci for type 2 diabetes and triglyceride levels. Science 2007; 316: 1331–1336.
Kathiresan S, Melander O, Guiducci C et al: Six new loci associated with blood low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol or triglycerides in humans. Nat Genet 2008; 40: 189–197.
Hara Y, Yamagata K, Oguchi K, Baba T : Nuclear localization of profilin III-ArpM1 complex in mouse spermiogenesis. FEBS Letters 2008; 582: 2998–3004.
Rabenau KE, O'Toole JM, Bassi R et al: DEGA/AMIGO-2, a leucine-rich repeat family member, differentially expressed in human gastric adenocarcinoma: effects on ploidy, chromosomal stability, cell adhesion/migration and tumorigenicity. Oncogene 2004; 23: 5056–5067.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by 973 Program (2010CB529600, 2007CB947300, 2006CB910601), the 863 Program (2006AA02A407, 2009AA022701), the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Science and Technology Program (09DJ1400601), the National Key Project for Investigational New Drug (2008ZX09312-003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30972529), the Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (B205) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (909190492, 30972529).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on European Journal of Human Genetics website
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shen, Q., Zhang, Z., Yu, L. et al. Common variants near TERC are associated with leukocyte telomere length in the Chinese Han population. Eur J Hum Genet 19, 721–723 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2011.4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2011.4
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Variability in newborn telomere length is explained by inheritance and intrauterine environment
BMC Medicine (2022)
-
TERT rs2736100 and TERC rs16847897 genotypes moderate the association between internalizing mental disorders and accelerated telomere length attrition among HIV+ children and adolescents in Uganda
BMC Medical Genomics (2021)
-
Telomere Maintenance Genes are associated with Type 2 Diabetes Susceptibility in Northwest Indian Population Group
Scientific Reports (2020)
-
Association between common telomere length genetic variants and telomere length in an African population and impacts of HIV and TB
Journal of Human Genetics (2019)
-
The contribution of parent-to-offspring transmission of telomeres to the heritability of telomere length in humans
Human Genetics (2019)
