High blood pressure is a highly heritable and modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We report the largest genetic association study of blood pressure traits (systolic, diastolic, pulse pressure) to date in over one million people of European ancestry. We identify 535 novel blood pressure loci that not only offer new biological insights into blood pressure regulation but also reveal shared genetic architecture between blood pressure and lifestyle exposures. Our findings identify new biological pathways for blood pressure regulation with potential for improved cardiovascular disease prevention in the future.

Human longevity is heritable, but genome-wide association (GWA) studies have had limited success. Here, we perform two meta-analyses of GWA studies of a rigorous longevity phenotype definition including 11,262/3484 cases surviving at or beyond the age corresponding to the 90th/99th survival percentile, respectively, and 25,483 controls whose age at death or at last contact was at or below the age corresponding to the 60th survival percentile. Consistent with previous reports, rs429358 (apolipoprotein E (ApoE) ε4) is associated with lower odds of surviving to the 90th and 99th percentile age, while rs7412 (ApoE ε2) shows the opposite. Moreover, rs7676745, located near GPR78 , associates with lower odds of surviving to the 90th percentile age. Gene-level association analysis reveals a role for tissue-specific expression of multiple genes in longevity. Finally, genetic correlation of the longevity GWA results with that of several disease-related phenotypes points to a shared genetic architecture between health and longevity.

The genetic architecture of human reproductive behavior – age at first birth (AFB) and number of children ever born (NEB) – has a strong relationship with fitness, human development, infertility and risk of neuropsychiatric disorders. However, very few genetic loci have been identified and the underlying mechanisms of AFB and NEB are poorly understood. We report the largest genome-wide association study to date of both sexes including 251,151 individuals for AFB and 343,072 for NEB. We identified 12 independent loci that are significantly associated with AFB and/or NEB in a SNP-based genome-wide association study, and four additional loci in a gene-based effort. These loci harbor genes that are likely to play a role – either directly or by affecting non-local gene expression – in human reproduction and infertility, thereby increasing our understanding of these complex traits.

The genetic contribution to the variation in human lifespan is ∼25%. Despite the large number of identified disease-susceptibility loci, it is not known which loci influence population mortality. We performed a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 7729 long-lived individuals of European descent (≥85 years) and 16 121 younger controls (<65 years) followed by replication in an additional set of 13 060 long-lived individuals and 61 156 controls. In addition, we performed a subset analysis in cases aged ≥90 years. We observed genome-wide significant association with longevity, as reflected by survival to ages beyond 90 years, at a novel locus, rs2149954, on chromosome 5q33.3 (OR = 1.10, P = 1.74 × 10−8). We also confirmed association of rs4420638 on chromosome 19q13.32 (OR = 0.72, P = 3.40 × 10−36), representing the TOMM40/APOE/APOC1 locus. In a prospective meta-analysis (n = 34 103), the minor allele of rs2149954 (T) on chromosome 5q33.3 associates with increased survival (HR = 0.95, P = 0.003). This allele has previously been reported to associate with low blood pressure in middle age. Interestingly, the minor allele (T) associates with decreased cardiovascular mortality risk, independent of blood pressure. We report on the first GWAS-identified longevity locus on chromosome 5q33.3 influencing survival in the general European population. The minor allele of this locus associates with low blood pressure in middle age, although the contribution of this allele to survival may be less dependent on blood pressure. Hence, the pleiotropic mechanisms by which this intragenic variation contributes to lifespan regulation have to be elucidated.

Penalized regression methods offer an attractive alternative to single marker testing in genetic association analysis. Penalized regression methods shrink down to zero the coefficient of markers that have little apparent effect on the trait of interest, resulting in a parsimonious subset of what we hope are true pertinent predictors. Here we explore the performance of penalization in selecting SNPs as predictors in genetic association studies. The strength of the penalty can be chosen either to select a good predictive model (via methods such as computationally expensive cross validation), through maximum likelihood-based model selection criterion (such as the BIC), or to select a model that controls for type I error, as done here. We have investigated the performance of several penalized logistic regression approaches, simulating data under a variety of disease locus effect size and linkage disequilibrium patterns. We compared several penalties, including the elastic net, ridge, Lasso, MCP and the normal-exponential-γ shrinkage prior implemented in the hyperlasso software, to standard single locus analysis and simple forward stepwise regression. We examined how markers enter the model as penalties and P-value thresholds are varied, and report the sensitivity and specificity of each of the methods. Results show that penalized methods outperform single marker analysis, with the main difference being that penalized methods allow the simultaneous inclusion of a number of markers, and generally do not allow correlated variables to enter the model, producing a sparse model in which most of the identified explanatory markers are accounted for. Genet. Epidemiol. 34:879–891, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

To identify genetic loci for autism-spectrum disorders, we have performed a two-stage genomewide scan in 38 Finnish families. The detailed clinical examination of all family members revealed infantile autism, but also Asperger syndrome (AS) and developmental dysphasia, in the same set of families. The most significant evidence for linkage was found on chromosome 3q25-27, with a maximum two-point LOD score of 4.31 (Z(max )(dom)) for D3S3037, using infantile autism and AS as an affection status. Six markers flanking over a 5-cM region on 3q gave Z(max dom) >3, and a maximum parametric multipoint LOD score (MLS) of 4.81 was obtained in the vicinity of D3S3715 and D3S3037. Association, linkage disequilibrium, and haplotype analyses provided some evidence for shared ancestor alleles on this chromosomal region among affected individuals, especially in the regional subisolate. Additional potential susceptibility loci with two-point LOD scores >2 were observed on chromosomes 1q21-22 and 7q. The region on 1q21-22 overlaps with the previously reported candidate region for infantile autism and schizophrenia, whereas the region on chromosome 7q provided evidence for linkage 58 cM distally from the previously described autism susceptibility locus (AUTS1).

Summary Clear evidence exists for heritability of human longevity, and much interest is focused on identifying genes associated with longer lives. To identify such longevity alleles, we performed the largest genome-wide linkage scan thus far reported. Linkage analyses included 2118 nonagenarian Caucasian sibling pairs that have been enrolled in fifteen study centers of eleven European countries as part of the Genetics of Healthy Ageing (GEHA) project. In the joint linkage analyses we observed four regions that show linkage with longevity; chromosome 14q11.2 (LOD=3.47), chromosome 17q12-q22 (LOD=2.95), chromosome 19p13.3-p13.11 (LOD=3.76) and chromosome 19q13.11-q13.32 (LOD=3.57). To fine map these regions linked to longevity, we performed association analysis using GWAS data in a subgroup of 1,228 unrelated nonagenarian and 1,907 geographically matched controls. Using a fixed effect meta-analysis approach, rs4420638 at the TOMM40/APOE/APOC1 gene locus showed significant association with longevity (p-value=9.6 × 10−8). By combined modeling of linkage and association we showed that association of longevity with APOEε4 and APOEε2 alleles explain the linkage at 19q13.11-q13.32 with p-value=0.02 and p-value=1.0 × 10−5, respectively. In the largest linkage scan thus far performed for human familial longevity, we confirm that the APOE locus is a longevity gene and that additional longevity loci may be identified at 14q11.2, 17q12-q22 and 19p13.3-p13.11. Since the latter linkage results are not explained by common variants, we suggest that rare variants play an important role in human familial longevity.

Elevated blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and has a substantial genetic contribution. Genetic variation influencing blood pressure has the potential to identify new pharmacological targets for the treatment of hypertension. To discover additional novel blood pressure loci, we used 1000 Genomes Project–based imputation in 150 134 European ancestry individuals and sought significant evidence for independent replication in a further 228 245 individuals. We report 6 new signals of association in or near HSPB7, TNXB, LRP12, LOC283335, SEPT9, and AKT2, and provide new replication evidence for a further 2 signals in EBF2 and NFKBIA. Combining large whole-blood gene expression resources totaling 12 607 individuals, we investigated all novel and previously reported signals and identified 48 genes with evidence for involvement in blood pressure regulation that are significant in multiple resources. Three novel kidney-specific signals were also detected. These robustly implicated genes may provide new leads for therapeutic innovation.