Directional dominance on stature and cognition in diverse human populations.

Joshi PK, Esko T, Mattsson H, Eklund N, Gandin I, Nutile T, Jackson AU, Schurmann C, Smith AV, Zhang W, Okada Y, Stančáková A, Faul JD, Zhao W, Bartz TM, Concas MP, Franceschini N, Enroth S, Vitart V, Trompet S, Guo X, Chasman DI, O'Connel JR, Corre T, Nongmaithem SS, Chen Y, Mangino M, Ruggiero D, Traglia M, Farmaki AE, Kacprowski T, Bjonnes A, van der Spek A, Wu Y, Giri AK, Yanek LR, Wang L, Hofer E, Rietveld CA, McLeod O, Cornelis MC, Pattaro C, Verweij N, Baumbach C, Abdellaoui A, Warren HR, Vuckovic D, Mei H, Bouchard C, Perry JR, Cappellani S, Mirza SS, Benton MC, Broeckel U, Medland SE, Lind PA, Malerba G, Drong A, Yengo L, Bielak LF, Zhi D, van der Most PJ, Shriner D, Mägi R, Hemani G, Karaderi T, Wang Z, Liu T, Demuth I, Zhao JH, Meng W, Lataniotis L, van der Laan SW, Bradfield JP, Wood AR, Bonnefond A, Ahluwalia TS, Hall LM, Salvi E, Yazar S, Carstensen L, de Haan HG, Abney M, Afzal U, Allison MA, Amin N, Asselbergs FW, Bakker SJ, Barr RG, Baumeister SE, Benjamin DJ, Bergmann S, Boerwinkle E, Bottinger EP, Campbell A, Chakravarti A, Chan Y, Chanock SJ, Chen C, Chen YD, Collins FS, Connell J, Correa A, Cupples LA, Smith GD, Davies G, Dörr M, Ehret G, Ellis SB, Feenstra B, Feitosa MF, Ford I, Fox CS, Frayling TM, Friedrich N, Geller F, Scotland G, Gillham-Nasenya I, Gottesman O, Graff M, Grodstein F, Gu C, Haley C, Hammond CJ, Harris SE, Harris TB, Hastie ND, Heard-Costa NL, Heikkilä K, Hocking LJ, Homuth G, Hottenga JJ, Huang J, Huffman JE, Hysi PG, Ikram MA, Ingelsson E, Joensuu A, Johansson Å, Jousilahti P, Jukema JW, Kähönen M, Kamatani Y, Kanoni S, Kerr SM, Khan NM, Koellinger P, Koistinen HA, Kooner MK, Kubo M, Kuusisto J, Lahti J, Launer LJ, Lea RA, Lehne B, Lehtimäki T, Liewald DC, Lind L, Loh M, Lokki ML, London SJ, Loomis SJ, Loukola A, Lu Y, Lumley T, Lundqvist A, Männistö S, Marques-Vidal P, Masciullo C, Matchan A, Mathias RA, Matsuda K, Meigs JB, Meisinger C, Meitinger T, Menni C, Mentch FD, Mihailov E, Milani L, Montasser ME, Montgomery GW, Morrison A, Myers RH, Nadukuru R, Navarro P, Nelis M, Nieminen MS, Nolte IM, O'Connor GT, Ogunniyi A, Padmanabhan S, Palmas WR, Pankow JS, Patarcic I, Pavani F, Peyser PA, Pietilainen K, Poulter N, Prokopenko I, Ralhan S, Redmond P, Rich SS, Rissanen H, Robino A, Rose LM, Rose R, Sala C, Salako B, Salomaa V, Sarin AP, Saxena R, Schmidt H, Scott LJ, Scott WR, Sennblad B, Seshadri S, Sever P, Shrestha S, Smith BH, Smith JA, Soranzo N, Sotoodehnia N, Southam L, Stanton AV, Stathopoulou MG, Strauch K, Strawbridge RJ, Suderman MJ, Tandon N, Tang ST, Taylor KD, Tayo BO, Töglhofer AM, Tomaszewski M, Tšernikova N, Tuomilehto J, Uitterlinden AG, Vaidya D, van Hylckama Vlieg A, van Setten J, Vasankari T, Vedantam S, Vlachopoulou E, Vozzi D, Vuoksimaa E, Waldenberger M, Ware EB, Wentworth-Shields W, Whitfield JB, Wild S, Willemsen G, Yajnik CS, Yao J, Zaza G, Zhu X, BioBank Japan Project , Salem RM, Melbye M, Bisgaard H, Samani NJ, Cusi D, Mackey DA, Cooper RS, Froguel P, Pasterkamp G, Grant SF, Hakonarson H, Ferrucci L, Scott RA, Morris AD, Palmer CN, Dedoussis G, Deloukas P, Bertram L, Lindenberger U, Berndt SI, Lindgren CM, Timpson NJ, Tönjes A, Munroe PB, Sørensen TI, Rotimi CN, Arnett DK, Oldehinkel AJ, Kardia SL, Balkau B, Gambaro G, Morris AP, Eriksson JG, Wright MJ, Martin NG, Hunt SC, Starr JM, Deary IJ, Griffiths LR, Tiemeier H, Pirastu N, Kaprio J, Wareham NJ, Pérusse L, Wilson JG, Girotto G, Caulfield MJ, Raitakari O, Boomsma DI, Gieger C, van der Harst P, Hicks AA, Kraft P, Sinisalo J, Knekt P, Johannesson M, Magnusson PK, Hamsten A, Schmidt R, Borecki IB, Vartiainen E, Becker DM, Bharadwaj D, Mohlke KL, Boehnke M, van Duijn CM, Sanghera DK, Teumer A, Zeggini E, Metspalu A, Gasparini P, Ulivi S, Ober C, Toniolo D, Rudan I, Porteous DJ, Ciullo M, Spector TD, Hayward C, Dupuis J, Loos RJ, Wright AF, Chandak GR, Vollenweider P, Shuldiner AR, Ridker PM, Rotter JI, Sattar N, Gyllensten U, North KE, Pirastu M, Psaty BM, Weir DR, Laakso M, Gudnason V, Takahashi A, Chambers JC, Kooner JS, Strachan DP, Campbell H, Hirschhorn JN, Perola M, Polašek O, Wilson JF

Nature 523 (7561) 459-462 [2015-07-23; online 2015-07-02]

Homozygosity has long been associated with rare, often devastating, Mendelian disorders, and Darwin was one of the first to recognize that inbreeding reduces evolutionary fitness. However, the effect of the more distant parental relatedness that is common in modern human populations is less well understood. Genomic data now allow us to investigate the effects of homozygosity on traits of public health importance by observing contiguous homozygous segments (runs of homozygosity), which are inferred to be homozygous along their complete length. Given the low levels of genome-wide homozygosity prevalent in most human populations, information is required on very large numbers of people to provide sufficient power. Here we use runs of homozygosity to study 16 health-related quantitative traits in 354,224 individuals from 102 cohorts, and find statistically significant associations between summed runs of homozygosity and four complex traits: height, forced expiratory lung volume in one second, general cognitive ability and educational attainment (P < 1 × 10(-300), 2.1 × 10(-6), 2.5 × 10(-10) and 1.8 × 10(-10), respectively). In each case, increased homozygosity was associated with decreased trait value, equivalent to the offspring of first cousins being 1.2 cm shorter and having 10 months' less education. Similar effect sizes were found across four continental groups and populations with different degrees of genome-wide homozygosity, providing evidence that homozygosity, rather than confounding, directly contributes to phenotypic variance. Contrary to earlier reports in substantially smaller samples, no evidence was seen of an influence of genome-wide homozygosity on blood pressure and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, or ten other cardio-metabolic traits. Since directional dominance is predicted for traits under directional evolutionary selection, this study provides evidence that increased stature and cognitive function have been positively selected in human evolution, whereas many important risk factors for late-onset complex diseases may not have been.

NGI Uppsala (SNP&SEQ Technology Platform)

National Genomics Infrastructure

PubMed 26131930

DOI 10.1038/nature14618

Crossref 10.1038/nature14618

pii: nature14618
pmc: PMC4516141
mid: EMS63641


Publications 9.5.0