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. 2016 Apr 9:16:80.
doi: 10.1186/s12877-016-0253-y.

Candidate gene resequencing to identify rare, pedigree-specific variants influencing healthy aging phenotypes in the long life family study

Todd E Druley  1   2 , Lihua Wang  1   3 , Shiow J Lin  1   3 , Joseph H Lee  4   5   6 , Qunyuan Zhang  1   3 , E Warwick Daw  1   3 , Haley J Abel  1   3 , Sara E Chasnoff  1   2 , Enrique I Ramos  1   2 , Benjamin T Levinson  1   2 , Bharat Thyagarajan  7 , Anne B Newman  8 , Kaare Christensen  9 , Richard Mayeux  10 , Michael A Province  11   12
Affiliations

Candidate gene resequencing to identify rare, pedigree-specific variants influencing healthy aging phenotypes in the long life family study

Todd E Druley et al. BMC Geriatr. .

Abstract

Background: The Long Life Family Study (LLFS) is an international study to identify the genetic components of various healthy aging phenotypes. We hypothesized that pedigree-specific rare variants at longevity-associated genes could have a similar functional impact on healthy phenotypes.

Methods: We performed custom hybridization capture sequencing to identify the functional variants in 464 candidate genes for longevity or the major diseases of aging in 615 pedigrees (4,953 individuals) from the LLFS, using a multiplexed, custom hybridization capture. Variants were analyzed individually or as a group across an entire gene for association to aging phenotypes using family based tests.

Results: We found significant associations to three genes and nine single variants. Most notably, we found a novel variant significantly associated with exceptional survival in the 3' UTR OBFC1 in 13 individuals from six pedigrees. OBFC1 (chromosome 10) is involved in telomere maintenance, and falls within a linkage peak recently reported from an analysis of telomere length in LLFS families. Two different algorithms for single gene associations identified three genes with an enrichment of variation that was significantly associated with three phenotypes (GSK3B with the Healthy Aging Index, NOTCH1 with diastolic blood pressure and TP53 with serum HDL).

Conclusions: Sequencing analysis of family-based associations for age-related phenotypes can identify rare or novel variants.

Keywords: Aging; Family; Genetics; Genomics; Geriatrics; Pedigrees; Sequencing.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The distribution of sequenced variants within different genomic region
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Variant-wise association results on chromosome 10 around OBFC1 for telomere length phenotype (gray) and exceptional survival score (green) on chromosome 10 using both 1000 Genomes Project hybrid and candidate gene sequenced genotypes. Two additional rare variants from genome-wide array results showed significant association with survival exceptionality score. The association p-value of rs77987791 with telomere length is 0.038
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Twenty-four rare variants within twenty-four genes clustered in two long-lived LLFS families (a) pedID 25609942 and (b) pedID 38652533. Individual 2418 and 4441 lived to 110 and 101 years of age, respectively. The longevity-associated genes harboring rare variants within these individuals (and their offspring) are listed below their symbol
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