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Hilma Holm et al. report a rare missense variant MYH6 that is associated with a high risk of sick sinus syndrome in Icelanders. This heart condition is found most often in elderly people and is the most frequent reason a heart pacemaker is implanted.

Hilma Holm and colleagues report genome-wide association studies to electrocardiographic measures of heart rate, PR interval, QRS duration and QT interval.

Multi-ancestry genome-wide and transcriptome-wide association studies of aortic stenosis identify more than 200 independent risk loci and provide insights into its genetic architecture.

Holm, Ivarsdottir, Olafsdottir et al. compare symptoms and physical measures between Icelanders post SARS-CoV-2 infection with uninfected controls. From reported symptoms, they estimate the prevalence of long COVID as 7% at a median of 8 months after infection, while objective differences between cases and controls in the physical measures were few.

Genome-wide association analyses identify new risk loci for heart failure and its subtypes, extending understanding of the underlying biological pathways and disease mechanisms.

Large-scale genome-wide analyses identify hundreds of genetic loci associated with hypothyroidism and thyroid hormone levels, demonstrating the potential of using polygenic risk scores to predict disease onset and progression.

Analysis of whole-genome sequencing data from Iceland and the UK Biobank identifies an excess burden of rare loss-of-function variants in HECTD2 and AKAP11 in individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

BMI contributes to various diseases, but it was unclear whether the risk was mediated by BMI itself. Here, the authors demonstrate that BMI mediates most of this risk, and suggest an upper bound on disease risk that can be mitigated by lowering BMI.

Kari Stefansson and colleagues report discovery of 13 variants with large effects on non-HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol or triglyceride lipid fractions. They further show that, among these lipid fractions, the non-HDL cholesterol genetic risk score associates most strongly with coronary disease and confers risk beyond that of LDL cholesterol and that, after accounting for non-HDL cholesterol, neither HDL cholesterol nor triglyceride genetic risk scores associate with coronary disease.

A genome-wide association meta-analysis study of blood lipid levels in roughly 1.6 million individuals demonstrates the gain of power attained when diverse ancestries are included to improve fine-mapping and polygenic score generation, with gains in locus discovery related to sample size.

Daniel Gudbjartsson and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for atrial fibrillation, a condition associated with increased risk of stroke. They report a variant in ZFHX3 associated with atrial fibrillation as well as ischemic stroke.

Whole-genome sequencing identifies a rare missense variant in IKBKB associated with high risk of cutaneous and systemic lupus erythematosus among people with African ancestry.

Understanding the underlying pathophysiology of obesity can help prevent this condition. Here, the authors perform a GWAS of BMI in diverse ancestries, finding four missense variants in FRS3 that affect BMI.

Genome-wide association analyses of migraine and its subtypes identify new susceptibility loci, including rare variants with large effects implicating PRRT2, SCN11A and KCNK5.

Urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UCAR) is associated with various clinical outcomes such as kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. Here, the authors report genome-wide meta-analysis in over 500,000 individuals and find 68 UACR loci, followed by statistical fine-mapping, gene prioritization and experimental validation in flies.

Analyses of genome and exome sequencing data identify rare coding and structural variants associated with atrial fibrillation and highlight genetic links between atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies.

A study reports whole-genome sequences for 490,640 participants from the UK Biobank and combines these data with phenotypic data to provide new insights into the relationship between human variation and sequence variation.

Genome-wide association analyses comprising 14,256 cases and 1,199,156 controls and incorporating correlated cardiac magnetic resonance imaging traits provide insights into the molecular etiology of dilated cardiomyopathy.

Genome-wide analyses identify loci associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, including rare, protective loss-of-function variants in MTARC1 and GPAM. Plasma proteomic analyses provide insight into proteins involved in disease pathogenesis.

Genome-wide association analyses identify 93 risk loci for venous thromboembolism (VTE). A polygenic score derived from these results identifies individuals at increased VTE risk equivalent to monogenic forms of the disease.

The corneal endothelium is crucial for proper vision. Here, Ivarsdottir et al. perform genome-wide association studies for various corneal endothelial cell measurements and find that an intergenic variant near ANAPC1 explains 24% of the variance of endothelial cell density and associates with corneal hysteresis.

Comparisons of phenotypic and genetic association with protein levels from Icelandic and UK Biobank cohorts show that using multiple analysis platforms and stratifying populations by ancestry improves the detection of associations and allows the refinement of their location within the genome.

Heart failure is a complex syndrome that is associated with many different underlying risk factors. Here, to increase power, the authors jointly analyse cases of heart failure of different aetiologies in a genome-wide association study and identify 11 loci of which ten had not been previously reported.

Genome-wide analyses identify variants associated with infertility and reproductive hormone levels but find limited polygenic overlap between reproductive hormone levels and infertility at the population level.

Julius Gudmundsson and colleagues report the association of two SNPs on chromosomes 9 and 14 with thyroid cancer in European populations. The variants are near FOXE1 and NKX2-1, both good biological candidates, and individuals who are homozygous for both risk variants have a 5.7-fold greater risk of thyroid cancer.

To measure selection on variants, whole-genome sequencing of approximately 150,000 individuals from the UK Biobank is used to rank sequence variants by their level of depletion.

Size and shape of bones are important for height and body shape. Here, Styrkarsdottir et al identify 12 loci in a GWAS for bone area derived from DXA scans and show that these loci associate with other bone-related phenotypes including osteoarthritis, height, bone mineral density and risk of hip fracture.

Christopher Newton-Cheh and colleagues report genome-wide association analyses for QT interval, an electrocardiographic measure reflecting myocardial repolarization, in 100,000 individuals. They identify 35 loci associated with QT interval and highlight a role for calcium regulation in myocardial repolarization.

Meta-analyses in up to 1.3 million individuals identify 87 rare-variant associations with blood pressure traits. On average, rare variants exhibit effects ~8 times larger than the mean effects of common variants and implicate candidate causal genes at associated regions.

Here, the authors conduct a GWAS for autoimmune thyroid disease, finding 225 loci including a start codon variant in LAG3 that confers a 3.4-fold risk of autoimmune thyroid disease and reduces expression and plasma levels of LAG−3.

Patrick Sulem and colleagues report a genome-wide association study of age at menarche, finding and replicating an association with LIN28B. The authors test a number of variants previously associated with height and BMI and find that five loci previously associated with BMI are also associated with age at menarche.

Daniel Gudbjartsson, Kari Stefansson and colleagues assess the effect of variants associated with mean fasting glucose levels on the variance in fasting glucose levels. They find that variants that increase both the levels and variance of fasting glucose increase type 2 diabetes risk, whereas those that increase the levels but reduce the variance do not.

Daniel Gudbjartsson, Kari Stefansson and colleagues propose a new weighted Bonferroni approach for determining significance thresholds for human genome-wide association studies (GWAS). They demonstrate that the weighted approach, which is based on sequence annotation enrichments, improves power over standard GWAS methods.

As the most common cardiac arrythmia, atrial fibrillation is of interest to physicians, and has recently been shown to have genetic components. Gudjbartsson et al. have conducted a genome-wide association scan in populations from around the globe, and find a strong link to a gene involved in early heart development. This gene, PITX2, could be a candidate for therapeutic intervention.

X-chromosomal genetic variants are understudied but can yield valuable insights into sexually dimorphic human traits and diseases such as chronic kidney disease (CKD). Here, the authors perform a sex-stratified, cross-ancestry X-chromosome-wide association meta-analysis of seven kidney-related traits, with results including identification of four novel loci associated with the CKD-defining trait eGFR.

A variant predicted to affect chromosome alignment in meiosis associates with intrachromosomal positioning of recombination and increases risk of detectable pregnancy loss by 22%, likely through missegregation of chromosomes.

Immunoglobulin G (IgG) is the main isotype of antibody in human blood. Here the authors describe 14 genetic variants that affect IgG levels in blood. The data provide new insight into the regulation of humoral immunity that could be useful in the development of antibody-based therapeutics.

Burden testing in three large European ancestry cohorts identifies new risk genes for a number of common cancer types, including pan-cancer protective variants in AURKB and breast cancer protective variants in PPP1R15A.

Genome-wide association meta-analysis of AAA identifies 121 independent risk loci and highlights potential therapeutic targets such as proprotein convertase, subtilisin/kexin-type 9 (PCSK9).

Allele-specific DNA methylation data in whole blood from 7,179 individuals sequenced by Nanopore, and gene expression profiles from 896 samples, show that DNA sequence variability accounts for most of the correlation between CpG methylation and gene expression.

The genetics and clinical consequences of resting heart rate (RHR) remain incompletely understood. Here, the authors discover new genetic variants associated with RHR and find that higher genetically predicted RHR decreases risk of atrial fibrillation and ischemic stroke.

Kari Stefansson and colleagues report the whole-genome sequencing of 2,636 individuals from Iceland to a median of 20× coverage, providing a valuable genomic resource for this population isolate. They characterize patterns of genetic variation and population structure and demonstrate the usefulness of this resource for genetic discovery for several disease phenotypes.

Lipid concentration in the serum is one of the most important risk factors for coronary artery disease and can be targeted for therapeutic intervention. A genome-wide association study in >100,000 individuals of European ancestry now finds 95 significantly associated loci that also affect lipid traits in non-European populations. Among associated loci are those involved in cholesterol metabolism, known targets of cholesterol-lowering drugs and those that contribute to normal variation in lipid traits and to extreme lipid phenotypes.

A multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of liver cirrhosis and its associated endophenotypes identifies and validates 14 risk variants. Integrative common and rare variant analyses provide insights into the genetic architecture of liver cirrhosis.

While the consequences of homozygous loss of function variants have been studied, the effect of missense variants is less understood. Here, the authors identify pathogenic genotypes through an observed deficit of homozygous carriers of missense variants in a population, elucidating previously unexplained recessive disease and miscarriage.

The concentration of SARS-CoV-2 changes during an individual’s infection, and mutations accumulate as viruses are transmitted between people. Here, the authors use data from Iceland to demonstrate how this information can be exploited at the population-level to determine the phase of the epidemic.

A genome-wide association study of plasma protein levels measured with 4,907 aptamers in 35,559 Icelanders highlights links with over 370 disease endpoints and other traits.

Genome-wide association analyses using parental and offspring genotypes provide insights into fetal and maternal genetic effects on fetal growth. The results show that maternal and fetal genomes influence birth weight through distinct mechanisms.

A barcode-based approach applied to UK Biobank and an Icelandic cohort identifies drivers of clonal hematopoiesis (CH) and finds associations between CH and multiple diseases. Genome-wide association analyses identify 25 loci associated with CH susceptibility.