Mutations generate sequence diversity and provide a substrate for selection. The rate of de novo mutations is therefore of major importance to evolution. Here we conduct a study of genome-wide ...mutation rates by sequencing the entire genomes of 78 Icelandic parent-offspring trios at high coverage. We show that in our samples, with an average father's age of 29.7, the average de novo mutation rate is 1.20 × 10(-8) per nucleotide per generation. Most notably, the diversity in mutation rate of single nucleotide polymorphisms is dominated by the age of the father at conception of the child. The effect is an increase of about two mutations per year. An exponential model estimates paternal mutations doubling every 16.5 years. After accounting for random Poisson variation, father's age is estimated to explain nearly all of the remaining variation in the de novo mutation counts. These observations shed light on the importance of the father's age on the risk of diseases such as schizophrenia and autism.
The prevalence of dementia in the Western world in people over the age of 60 has been estimated to be greater than 5%, about two-thirds of which are due to Alzheimer's disease. The age-specific ...prevalence of Alzheimer's disease nearly doubles every 5 years after age 65, leading to a prevalence of greater than 25% in those over the age of 90 (ref. 3). Here, to search for low-frequency variants in the amyloid-β precursor protein (APP) gene with a significant effect on the risk of Alzheimer's disease, we studied coding variants in APP in a set of whole-genome sequence data from 1,795 Icelanders. We found a coding mutation (A673T) in the APP gene that protects against Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline in the elderly without Alzheimer's disease. This substitution is adjacent to the aspartyl protease β-site in APP, and results in an approximately 40% reduction in the formation of amyloidogenic peptides in vitro. The strong protective effect of the A673T substitution against Alzheimer's disease provides proof of principle for the hypothesis that reducing the β-cleavage of APP may protect against the disease. Furthermore, as the A673T allele also protects against cognitive decline in the elderly without Alzheimer's disease, the two may be mediated through the same or similar mechanisms.
Uncertainty about the phase of strings of SNPs creates complications in genetic analysis, although methods have been developed for phasing population-based samples. However, these methods can only ...phase a small number of SNPs effectively and become unreliable when applied to SNPs spanning many linkage disequilibrium (LD) blocks. Here we show how to phase more than 1,000 SNPs simultaneously for a large fraction of the 35,528 Icelanders genotyped by Illumina chips. Moreover, haplotypes that are identical by descent (IBD) between close and distant relatives, for example, those separated by ten meioses or more, can often be reliably detected. This method is particularly powerful in studies of the inheritance of recurrent mutations and fine-scale recombinations in large sample sets. A further extension of the method allows us to impute long haplotypes for individuals who are not genotyped.
Hair, skin and eye colors are highly heritable and visible traits in humans. We carried out a genome-wide association scan for variants associated with hair and eye pigmentation, skin sensitivity to ...sun and freckling among 2,986 Icelanders. We then tested the most closely associated SNPs from six regions--four not previously implicated in the normal variation of human pigmentation--and replicated their association in a second sample of 2,718 Icelanders and a sample of 1,214 Dutch. The SNPs from all six regions met the criteria for genome-wide significance. A variant in SLC24A4 is associated with eye and hair color, a variant near KITLG is associated with hair color, two coding variants in TYR are associated with eye color and freckles, and a variant on 6p25.3 is associated with freckles. The fifth region provided refinements to a previously reported association in OCA2, and the sixth encompasses previously described variants in MC1R.
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder affecting ∼1% of the world population, with heritability of up to 80%. To identify new common genetic risk factors, we performed a genome-wide association ...study (GWAS) in the Han Chinese population. The discovery sample set consisted of 3,750 individuals with schizophrenia and 6,468 healthy controls (1,578 cases and 1,592 controls from northern Han Chinese, 1,238 cases and 2,856 controls from central Han Chinese, and 934 cases and 2,020 controls from the southern Han Chinese). We further analyzed the strongest association signals in an additional independent cohort of 4,383 cases and 4,539 controls from the Han Chinese population. Meta-analysis identified common SNPs that associated with schizophrenia with genome-wide significance on 8p12 (rs16887244, P = 1.27 × 10(-10)) and 1q24.2 (rs10489202, P = 9.50 × 10(-9)). Our findings provide new insights into the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.
We present results from a genome-wide association study for variants associated with human pigmentation characteristics among 5,130 Icelanders, with follow-up analyses in 2,116 Icelanders and 1,214 ...Dutch individuals. Two coding variants in TPCN2 are associated with hair color, and a variant at the ASIP locus shows strong association with skin sensitivity to sun, freckling and red hair, phenotypic characteristics similar to those affected by well-known mutations in MC1R.
Abstract Background Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder with a strong genetic influence where copy number variations are suggested to play a role in disease ...pathogenesis. In a previous small-scale copy number variation study of a GTS cohort ( n = 111), recurrent exon-affecting microdeletions of four genes, including the gene encoding arylacetamide deacetylase ( AADAC ), were observed and merited further investigations. Methods We screened a Danish cohort of 243 GTS patients and 1571 control subjects for submicroscopic deletions and duplications of these four genes. The most promising candidate gene, AADAC , identified in this Danish discovery sample was further investigated in cohorts from Iceland, the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, and Italy, and a final meta-analysis, including a total of 1181 GTS patients and 118,730 control subjects from these six European countries, was performed. Subsequently, expression of the candidate gene in the central nervous system was investigated using human and mouse brain tissues. Results In the Danish cohort, we identified eight patients with overlapping deletions of AADAC . Investigation of the additional five countries showed a significant association between the AADAC deletion and GTS, and a final meta-analysis confirmed the significant association ( p = 4.4 × 10−4 ; odds ratio = 1.9; 95% confidence interval = 1.33–2.71). Furthermore, RNA in situ hybridization and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction studies revealed that AADAC is expressed in several brain regions previously implicated in GTS pathology. Conclusions AADAC is a candidate susceptibility factor for GTS and the present findings warrant further genomic and functional studies to investigate the role of this gene in the pathogenesis of GTS.
Background Genome-wide association studies using several hundred thousand anonymous markers present limited statistical power. Alternatively, association studies restricted to common nonsynonymous ...single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) have the advantage of strongly reducing the multiple testing problem, while increasing the probability of testing functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Methods We performed a case-control association study of common nsSNPs in Galician (northwest Spain) samples using the Affymetrix GeneChip Human 20k cSNP Kit, followed by a replication study of the more promising results. After quality control procedures, the discovery sample consisted of 5100 nsSNPs at minor allele frequency >5% analyzed in 476 schizophrenia patients and 447 control subjects. The replication sample consisted of 4069 cases and 15,128 control subjects of European origin. We also performed multilocus analysis, using aggregated scores of nsSNPs at liberal significance thresholds and cross-validation procedures. Results The 5 independent nsSNPs with false discovery rate q ≤ .25, as well as 13 additional nsSNPs at p < .01 and located in functional candidate genes, were genotyped in the replication samples. One SNP, rs13107325, located at the metal ions transporter gene SLC39A8 , reached significance in the combined sample after Bonferroni correction (trend test, p = 2.7 × 10−6 , allelic odds ratio = 1.32). This SNP presents minor allele frequency of 5% to 10% in many European populations but is rare outside Europe. We also confirmed the polygenic component of susceptibility. Conclusions Taking into account that another metal ions transporter gene, SLC39A3 , is associated to bipolar disorder, our findings reveal a role for brain metal homeostasis in psychosis.
Introduction
The objective of the study was to follow up and to test whether 12 previously identified migraine-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms were associated as risk factors and/or ...modifying factors for severe migraine traits in a Danish clinic-based population.
Methods
Semi-structured migraine interviews, blood sampling and genotyping were performed on 1806 unrelated migraineurs recruited from the Danish Headache Center. Genotyping was also performed on a control group of 6415 people with no history of migraine. Association analyses were carried out using logistic regression and odds ratios were calculated assuming an additive model for risk. The proxies for severe migraine traits (early onset of migraine; many lifetime attacks, prolonged migraine and tendency to chronification of migraine) were tested against the 12 single nucleotide polymorphisms and a combined genetic score in both a case-control and case-only logistic regression model.
Results
We successfully replicated five out of the 12 previously reported loci and confirmed the same direction of effects for all the 12 single nucleotide polymorphisms. In line with the recently published genome-wide association meta-analysis, the associations were significant for all migraine and migraine without aura but not for migraine with typical aura. Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs2274316 and rs11172113) conferred risk of many lifetime attacks inthe case-control analysis. In the case-only analysis, only three single nucleotide polymorphisms showed nominal association with many lifetime attacks and prolonged migraine attacks.
Conclusion
Our study supports previously reported findings on the association of several single nucleotide polymorphisms with migraine. It also suggests that the migraine susceptibility loci may be risk factors for severe migraine traits.
Sequence variants, including the ε4 allele of apolipoprotein E, have been associated with the risk of the common late-onset form of Alzheimer's disease. Few rare variants affecting the risk of ...late-onset Alzheimer's disease have been found.
We obtained the genome sequences of 2261 Icelanders and identified sequence variants that were likely to affect protein function. We imputed these variants into the genomes of patients with Alzheimer's disease and control participants and then tested for an association with Alzheimer's disease. We performed replication tests using case-control series from the United States, Norway, The Netherlands, and Germany. We also tested for a genetic association with cognitive function in a population of unaffected elderly persons.
A rare missense mutation (rs75932628-T) in the gene encoding the triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2), which was predicted to result in an R47H substitution, was found to confer a significant risk of Alzheimer's disease in Iceland (odds ratio, 2.92; 95% confidence interval CI, 2.09 to 4.09; P=3.42×10(-10)). The mutation had a frequency of 0.46% in controls 85 years of age or older. We observed the association in additional sample sets (odds ratio, 2.90; 95% CI, 2.16 to 3.91; P=2.1×10(-12) in combined discovery and replication samples). We also found that carriers of rs75932628-T between the ages of 80 and 100 years without Alzheimer's disease had poorer cognitive function than noncarriers (P=0.003).
Our findings strongly implicate variant TREM2 in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Given the reported antiinflammatory role of TREM2 in the brain, the R47H substitution may lead to an increased predisposition to Alzheimer's disease through impaired containment of inflammatory processes. (Funded by the National Institute on Aging and others.).
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