The impact of low-frequency and rare variants on lipid levels.

Surakka I, Horikoshi M, Mägi R, Sarin AP, Mahajan A, Lagou V, Marullo L, Ferreira T, Miraglio B, Timonen S, Kettunen J, Pirinen M, Karjalainen J, Thorleifsson G, Hägg S, Hottenga JJ, Isaacs A, Ladenvall C, Beekman M, Esko T, Ried JS, Nelson CP, Willenborg C, Gustafsson S, Westra HJ, Blades M, de Craen AJ, de Geus EJ, Deelen J, Grallert H, Hamsten A, Havulinna AS, Hengstenberg C, Houwing-Duistermaat JJ, Hyppönen E, Karssen LC, Lehtimäki T, Lyssenko V, Magnusson PK, Mihailov E, Müller-Nurasyid M, Mpindi JP, Pedersen NL, Penninx BW, Perola M, Pers TH, Peters A, Rung J, Smit JH, Steinthorsdottir V, Tobin MD, Tsernikova N, van Leeuwen EM, Viikari JS, Willems SM, Willemsen G, Schunkert H, Erdmann J, Samani NJ, Kaprio J, Lind L, Gieger C, Metspalu A, Slagboom PE, Groop L, van Duijn CM, Eriksson JG, Jula A, Salomaa V, Boomsma DI, Power C, Raitakari OT, Ingelsson E, Järvelin MR, Thorsteinsdottir U, Franke L, Ikonen E, Kallioniemi O, Pietiäinen V, Lindgren CM, Stefansson K, Palotie A, McCarthy MI, Morris AP, Prokopenko I, Ripatti S, ENGAGE Consortium

Nat. Genet. 47 (6) 589-597 [2015-06-00; online 2015-05-12]

Using a genome-wide screen of 9.6 million genetic variants achieved through 1000 Genomes Project imputation in 62,166 samples, we identify association to lipid traits in 93 loci, including 79 previously identified loci with new lead SNPs and 10 new loci, 15 loci with a low-frequency lead SNP and 10 loci with a missense lead SNP, and 2 loci with an accumulation of rare variants. In six loci, SNPs with established function in lipid genetics (CELSR2, GCKR, LIPC and APOE) or candidate missense mutations with predicted damaging function (CD300LG and TM6SF2) explained the locus associations. The low-frequency variants increased the proportion of variance explained, particularly for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and total cholesterol. Altogether, our results highlight the impact of low-frequency variants in complex traits and show that imputation offers a cost-effective alternative to resequencing.

NGI Uppsala (SNP&SEQ Technology Platform)

National Genomics Infrastructure

PubMed 25961943

DOI 10.1038/ng.3300

Crossref 10.1038/ng.3300

pii: ng.3300
pmc: PMC4757735
mid: EMS67068


Publications 9.5.0