Title: Genome-Wide Association of Kidney Traits in Hispanics/Latinos Using Dense Imputed Whole-Genome Sequencing Data: The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos.

Authors: Qian, Huijun; Kowalski, Madeline H; Kramer, Holly J; Tao, Ran; Lash, James P; Stilp, Adrienne M; Cai, Jianwen; Li, Yun; Franceschini, Nora

Published In Circ Genom Precis Med, (2020 08)

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Genetic factors that influence kidney traits have been understudied for low-frequency and ancestry-specific variants. METHODS: This study used imputed whole-genome sequencing from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine project to identify novel loci for estimated glomerular filtration rate and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio in up to 12 207 Hispanics/Latinos. Replication was performed in the Women's Health Initiative and the UK Biobank when variants were available. RESULTS: Two low-frequency intronic variants were associated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (rs58720902 at AQR, minor allele frequency=0.01, P=1.6×10-8) or urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (rs527493184 at ZBTB16, minor allele frequency=0.002, P=1.1×10-8). An additional variant at PRNT (rs2422935, minor allele frequency=0.54, P=2.89×10-8) was significantly associated with estimated glomerular filtration rate in meta-analysis with replication samples. We also identified 2 known loci for urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (BCL2L11 rs116907128, P=5.6×10-8 and HBB rs344, P=9.3×10-11) and validated 8 loci for urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio previously identified in the UK Biobank. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows gains in gene discovery when using dense imputation from multi-ethnic whole-genome sequencing data in admixed Hispanics/Latinos. It also highlights limitations in genetic research of kidney traits, including the lack of suitable replication samples for variants that are more common in non-European ancestry and those at low frequency in populations.

PubMed ID: 32600054

MeSH Terms: No MeSH terms associated with this publication