Rare and low-frequency coding variants alter human adult height

Eirini Marouli, Mariaelisa Graff, Carolina Medina-Gomez, Ken Sin Lo, Andrew R Wood, Troels R Kjaer, Rebecca S Fine, Yingchang Lu, Claudia Schurmann, Heather M Highland, Sina Rüeger, Gudmar Thorleifsson, Anne E Justice, David Lamparter, Kathleen E Stirrups, Valérie Turcot, Kristin L Young, Thomas W Winkler, Tõnu Esko, Tugce KaraderiAdam E Locke, Nicholas G D Masca, Maggie C Y Ng, Poorva Mudgal, Manuel A Rivas, Sailaja Vedantam, Anubha Mahajan, Xiuqing Guo, Goncalo Abecasis, Katja K Aben, Kristine H Allin, Emil V. Appel, Lia E Bang, Marianne Benn, Jette Bork-Jensen, Ruth Frikke-Schmidt, Niels Grarup, Torben Hansen, Mette Hollensted, Gorm B Jensen, Marit E Jørgensen, Torben Jørgensen, Pia R Kamstrup, Allan Linneberg, Sune F Nielsen, Børge G Nordestgaard, Oluf Pedersen, Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen, Henrik Vestergaard, Tune H Pers, EPIC-InterAct Consortium

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

428 Citationer (Scopus)

Abstract

Height is a highly heritable, classic polygenic trait with approximately 700 common associated variants identified through genome-wide association studies so far. Here, we report 83 height-associated coding variants with lower minor-allele frequencies (in the range of 0.1-4.8%) and effects of up to 2 centimetres per allele (such as those in IHH, STC2, AR and CRISPLD2), greater than ten times the average effect of common variants. In functional follow-up studies, rare height-increasing alleles of STC2 (giving an increase of 1-2 centimetres per allele) compromised proteolytic inhibition of PAPP-A and increased cleavage of IGFBP-4 in vitro, resulting in higher bioavailability of insulin-like growth factors. These 83 height-associated variants overlap genes that are mutated in monogenic growth disorders and highlight new biological candidates (such as ADAMTS3, IL11RA and NOX4) and pathways (such as proteoglycan and glycosaminoglycan synthesis) involved in growth. Our results demonstrate that sufficiently large sample sizes can uncover rare and low-frequency variants of moderate-to-large effect associated with polygenic human phenotypes, and that these variants implicate relevant genes and pathways.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftNature
Vol/bind542
Udgave nummer7640
Sider (fra-til)186-190
Antal sider5
ISSN0028-0836
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 9 feb. 2017

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