Association study in African-admixed populations across the Americas recapitulates asthma risk loci in non-African populations

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Michelle Daya, University of Colorado; Nicholas Rafaels, University of Colorado; Tonya M. Brunetti, University of Colorado; Sameer Chavan, University of Colorado; Albert M. Levin, Henry Ford Health System; Aniket Shetty, University of Colorado; Christopher R. Gignoux, University of Colorado; Meher Preethi Boorgula, University of Colorado; Genevieve Wojcik, Stanford University; Monica Campbell, University of Colorado; Candelaria Vergara, Johns Hopkins University; Dara G. Torgerson, University of California San Francisco; Victor E. Ortega, Wake Forest School of Medicine; Ayo Doumatey, National Institutes of Health; Henry Richard Johnston, Emory University; Nathalie Acevedo, University of Cartagena; Maria Ilma Araujo, Universidade Federal a Bahia; Zhaohui Qin, Emory University; Adolfo Correa, Emory University; Yijuan Hu, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2019-02-20
• Publisher: Nature Research (part of Springer Nature): Fully open access journals
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2019, The Author(s).
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08469-7
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Nature Communications
• ISSN: 2041-1723
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 880
• End Page: 880
• Keywords: LINKAGE; ATHEROSCLEROSIS; LUNG-FUNCTION; CHILDREN; GENE; TOTAL SERUM IGE; GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION; Science & Technology; METAANALYSIS; STAT6; Multidisciplinary Sciences; Science & Technology - Other Topics; DIVERSE
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health; Biology, Microbiology; Biology, Genetics

Abstract

Asthma is a complex disease with striking disparities across racial and ethnic groups. Despite its relatively high burden, representation of individuals of African ancestry in asthma genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has been inadequate, and true associations in these underrepresented minority groups have been inconclusive. We report the results of a genome-wide meta-analysis from the Consortium on Asthma among African Ancestry Populations (CAAPA; 7009 asthma cases, 7645 controls). We find strong evidence for association at four previously reported asthma loci whose discovery was driven largely by non-African populations, including the chromosome 17q12–q21 locus and the chr12q13 region, a novel (and not previously replicated) asthma locus recently identified by the Trans-National Asthma Genetic Consortium (TAGC). An additional seven loci reported by TAGC show marginal evidence for association in CAAPA. We also identify two novel loci (8p23 and 8q24) that may be specific to asthma risk in African ancestry populations.