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Meta-Analysis
. 2019 Oct 1;28(19):3327-3338.
doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddz161.

A trans-ancestral meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies reveals loci associated with childhood obesity

Jonathan P Bradfield  1   2 Suzanne Vogelezang  3   4   5 Janine F Felix  3   4   5 Alessandra Chesi  6   7 Øyvind Helgeland  8   9 Momoko Horikoshi  10   11   12 Ville Karhunen  13 Estelle Lowry  14 Diana L Cousminer  6   7   15 Tarunveer S Ahluwalia  16   17   18 Elisabeth Thiering  19   20 Eileen Tai-Hui Boh  21 Mohammad H Zafarmand  22   23 Natalia Vilor-Tejedor  4   24   25   26   27 Carol A Wang  28 Raimo Joro  29 Zhanghua Chen  30 William J Gauderman  30 Niina Pitkänen  31   32 Esteban J Parra  33 Lindsay Fernandez-Rhodes  34   35 Akram Alyass  36 Claire Monnereau  3   4   5 John A Curtin  37 Christian T Have  18 Shana E McCormack  38   39 Mette Hollensted  18 Christine Frithioff-Bøjsøe  18   40 Adan Valladares-Salgado  41 Jesus Peralta-Romero  41 Yik-Ying Teo  21   42   43   44   45 Marie Standl  19 Jaakko T Leinonen  46 Jens-Christian Holm  18   40   47 Triinu Peters  48 Jesus Vioque  25   49   50 Martine Vrijheid  51   24   25 Angela Simpson  37 Adnan Custovic  52 Marc Vaudel  8 Mickaël Canouil  53 Virpi Lindi  54 Mustafa Atalay  29 Mika Kähönen  55   56 Olli T Raitakari  31   32   57 Barbera D C van Schaik  23 Robert I Berkowitz  58 Shelley A Cole  59 V Saroja Voruganti  60 Yujie Wang  61 Heather M Highland  61 Anthony G Comuzzie  62 Nancy F Butte  63 Anne E Justice  61   64 Sheila Gahagan  65 Estela Blanco  65 Terho Lehtimäki  66   67 Timo A Lakka  29   68   69 Johannes Hebebrand  48 Amélie Bonnefond  53   70 Niels Grarup  18 Philippe Froguel  53   70 Leo-Pekka Lyytikäinen  66   67   71 Miguel Cruz  41 Sayuko Kobes  72 Robert L Hanson  72 Babette S Zemel  38   73 Anke Hinney  48 Koon K Teo  36   74 David Meyre  36   75 Kari E North  61   76 Frank D Gilliland  30 Hans Bisgaard  16 Mariona Bustamante  51   24   25 Klaus Bonnelykke  16 Craig E Pennell  28 Fernando Rivadeneira  3   4   77 André G Uitterlinden  4   77 Leslie J Baier  72 Tanja G M Vrijkotte  22 Joachim Heinrich  19   78   79 Thorkild I A Sørensen  18   80   81 Seang-Mei Saw  21   82 Oluf Pedersen  18 Torben Hansen  18 Johan Eriksson  83   84   85 Elisabeth Widén  46 Mark I McCarthy  10   11   86 Pål R Njølstad  8   87 Christine Power  88 Elina Hyppönen  88   89   90 Sylvain Sebert  14   91   92 Christopher D Brown  93 Marjo-Riitta Järvelin  13   14   91   94   95 Nicholas J Timpson  81 Stefan Johansson  8   96 Hakon Hakonarson  1   97 Vincent W V Jaddoe  3   4   5 Early Growth Genetics ConsortiumS F A Grant
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

A trans-ancestral meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies reveals loci associated with childhood obesity

Jonathan P Bradfield et al. Hum Mol Genet. .

Abstract

Although hundreds of genome-wide association studies-implicated loci have been reported for adult obesity-related traits, less is known about the genetics specific for early-onset obesity and with only a few studies conducted in non-European populations to date. Searching for additional genetic variants associated with childhood obesity, we performed a trans-ancestral meta-analysis of 30 studies consisting of up to 13 005 cases (≥95th percentile of body mass index (BMI) achieved 2-18 years old) and 15 599 controls (consistently <50th percentile of BMI) of European, African, North/South American and East Asian ancestry. Suggestive loci were taken forward for replication in a sample of 1888 cases and 4689 controls from seven cohorts of European and North/South American ancestry. In addition to observing 18 previously implicated BMI or obesity loci, for both early and late onset, we uncovered one completely novel locus in this trans-ancestral analysis (nearest gene, METTL15). The variant was nominally associated with only the European subgroup analysis but had a consistent direction of effect in other ethnicities. We then utilized trans-ancestral Bayesian analysis to narrow down the location of the probable causal variant at each genome-wide significant signal. Of all the fine-mapped loci, we were able to narrow down the causative variant at four known loci to fewer than 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (FAIM2, GNPDA2, MC4R and SEC16B loci). In conclusion, an ethnically diverse setting has enabled us to both identify an additional pediatric obesity locus and further fine-map existing loci.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Manhattan plot of the trans-ancestral meta-analysis of the childhood obesity Stage 1 results. BF <0 have been represented by a value of 0. The y-axis is the log10 of the BF. Sentinel SNPs from loci that achieved at least log10 BF ≥ 4 were taken forward to Stage 2.

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