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Gilks WP, Abbott JK, Morrow EH. Sex differences in disease genetics: evidence, evolution, and detection. Trends Genet 2014; 30:453-63. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2014.08.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2014] [Revised: 08/27/2014] [Accepted: 08/27/2014] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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Malkin I, Williams FMK, LaChance G, Spector T, MacGregor AJ, Livshits G. Low Back and Common Widespread Pain Share Common Genetic Determinants. Ann Hum Genet 2014; 78:357-66. [DOI: 10.1111/ahg.12074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2014] [Accepted: 04/30/2014] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Ida Malkin
- Department of Anatomy and Anthropology; Sackler Faculty of Medicine; Tel Aviv University; Israel
| | | | - Genevieve LaChance
- Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology; King's College London; UK
| | - Timothy Spector
- Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology; King's College London; UK
| | - Alex J. MacGregor
- Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology; King's College London; UK
- School of Medicine; University of East Anglia; Norwich UK
| | - Gregory Livshits
- Department of Anatomy and Anthropology; Sackler Faculty of Medicine; Tel Aviv University; Israel
- Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology; King's College London; UK
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Franco L, Williams FMK, Trofimov S, Malkin I, Surdulescu G, Spector T, Livshits G. Assessment of age-related changes in heritability and IGF-1 gene effect on circulating IGF-1 levels. AGE (DORDRECHT, NETHERLANDS) 2014; 36:9622. [PMID: 24493200 PMCID: PMC4082604 DOI: 10.1007/s11357-014-9622-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2013] [Accepted: 01/20/2014] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
It is well established that insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) circulating levels correlate with age and that heritability and influence of IGF-1 gene variation on IGF-1 levels also well-known. However, the influence of age on the genetic factors determining IGF-1 levels is not clear. In this study, we compared heritability estimates between younger (<52 years) and older (>52 years) twins and tested: (a) whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) lying within 100 kbp of the IGF-1 gene are also associated with IGF-1 variation and (b) whether associated SNPs show interaction with age on IGF-1 levels. To achieve these aims, we measured plasma levels of IGF-1 and genotyped 18 SNPs with minor allele frequency >0.1 in a large sample, 4,471 UK female twins. Heritability explained 42 % of IGF-1 variation adjusted for age and in unadjusted sample was independent of age. Ten SNPs in four haploblocks showed significant association with IGF-1 levels, with p = 0.01-0.0005. The most distal SNP was located up to 90 kbp from the IGF-1 gene. When their age-dependent effects were examined, one SNP, rs855203, showed significant (p = 0.0009) age-dependent interaction effect on IGF-1 levels variation. This is the first study to test the age × genotype interaction in IGF-1 levels. The genomic region marked by rs855203 may consequently be of significance for further molecular and pharmacogenetic research, in particular in advanced age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liran Franco
- />Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Frances M. K. Williams
- />Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, London, UK
| | - Svetlana Trofimov
- />Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Ida Malkin
- />Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Gabriela Surdulescu
- />Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, London, UK
| | - Timothy Spector
- />Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, London, UK
| | - Gregory Livshits
- />Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- />Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, London, UK
- />Human Population Biology Research Unit, Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978 Israel
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Assessing genetic influences on behavior: informant and context dependency as illustrated by the analysis of attention problems. Behav Genet 2014; 44:326-36. [PMID: 24797406 DOI: 10.1007/s10519-014-9657-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2013] [Accepted: 04/04/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Assessment of genetic influences on behavior depends on context, informants, and study design: We show (analytically) that, conditional on study design, informant specific genetic variance is included in the genetic variance component or in the environmental variance component. To aid the explanation, we present an illustrative empirical analysis of data from the Netherlands Twin Register. Subjects included 1,571 monozygotic and 2,672 dizygotic 12-year-old twin pairs whose attention problems (AP) were rated by their parents, teachers, and themselves. Heritability estimates (h(2)) of AP were about ~0.75 for same informant ratings (mother, father, and same teacher ratings) and ~0.54 for different informants' ratings (different parents', different teachers', and two twins' self-ratings). Awareness of assessment effects is relevant to research into psychiatric disorders. Differences in assessment can account for age effects, such as a drop in heritability of ADHD symptoms. In genome-wide association studies, effects of rating specific genetic influences will be undetectable.
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Jansen R, Batista S, Brooks AI, Tischfield JA, Willemsen G, van Grootheest G, Hottenga JJ, Milaneschi Y, Mbarek H, Madar V, Peyrot W, Vink JM, Verweij CL, de Geus EJC, Smit JH, Wright FA, Sullivan PF, Boomsma DI, Penninx BWJH. Sex differences in the human peripheral blood transcriptome. BMC Genomics 2014; 15:33. [PMID: 24438232 PMCID: PMC3904696 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-15-33] [Citation(s) in RCA: 103] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2013] [Accepted: 01/14/2014] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Genomes of men and women differ in only a limited number of genes located on the sex chromosomes, whereas the transcriptome is far more sex-specific. Identification of sex-biased gene expression will contribute to understanding the molecular basis of sex-differences in complex traits and common diseases. RESULTS Sex differences in the human peripheral blood transcriptome were characterized using microarrays in 5,241 subjects, accounting for menopause status and hormonal contraceptive use. Sex-specific expression was observed for 582 autosomal genes, of which 57.7% was upregulated in women (female-biased genes). Female-biased genes were enriched for several immune system GO categories, genes linked to rheumatoid arthritis (16%) and genes regulated by estrogen (18%). Male-biased genes were enriched for genes linked to renal cancer (9%). Sex-differences in gene expression were smaller in postmenopausal women, larger in women using hormonal contraceptives and not caused by sex-specific eQTLs, confirming the role of estrogen in regulating sex-biased genes. CONCLUSIONS This study indicates that sex-bias in gene expression is extensive and may underlie sex-differences in the prevalence of common diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rick Jansen
- Department of Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center, Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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Perfect genetic correlation between number of offspring and grandoffspring in an industrialized human population. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2014; 111:1032-6. [PMID: 24395780 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1310058111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Reproductive success is widely used as a measure of fitness. However, offspring quantity may not reflect the genetic contribution to subsequent generations if there is nonrandom variation in offspring quality. Offspring quality is likely to be an important component of human fitness, and tradeoffs between offspring quantity and quality have been reported. As such, studies using offspring quantity as a proxy for fitness may yield erroneous projections of evolutionary change, for example if there is little or no genetic variance in number of grandoffspring or if its genetic variance is to some extent independent of the genetic variance in number of offspring. To address this, we performed a quantitative genetic analysis on the reproductive history of 16,268 Swedish twins born between 1915 and 1929 and their offspring. There was significant sex limitation in the sources of familial variation, but the magnitudes of the genetic and environmental effects were the same in males and females. We found significant genetic variation in number of offspring and grandoffspring (heritability = 24% and 16%, respectively), and genetic variation in the two variables completely overlapped--i.e., there was a perfect genetic correlation between number of offspring and grandoffspring. Shared environment played a smaller but significant role in number of offspring and grandoffspring; again, there was a perfect shared environmental correlation between the two variables. These findings support the use of lifetime reproductive success as a proxy for fitness in populations like the one used here, but we caution against generalizing this conclusion to other kinds of human societies.
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Batouli SAH, Sachdev PS, Wen W, Wright MJ, Ames D, Trollor JN. Heritability of brain volumes in older adults: the Older Australian Twins Study. Neurobiol Aging 2013; 35:937.e5-18. [PMID: 24231518 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.10.079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2013] [Revised: 10/10/2013] [Accepted: 10/14/2013] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to brain structure change throughout the lifespan. Brain structures have been reported to be highly heritable in middle-aged individuals and younger; however, the influence of genes on brain structure is less studied in older adults. We performed a magnetic resonance imaging study of 236 older twins, with a mean age of 71.4 ± 5.7 years, to examine the heritability of 53 brain global and lobar volumetric measures. Total brain volume (63%) and other volumetric measures were moderately to highly heritable in late life, and these genetic influences tended to decrease with age, suggesting a greater influence of environmental factors as age advanced. Genetic influences were higher in men and on the left hemisphere compared with the right. In multivariate models, common genetic factors were observed for global and lobar total and gray matter volumes. This study examined the genetic contribution to 53 brain global and lobar volumetric measures in older twins for the first time, and the influence of age, sex, and laterality on these genetic contributions, which are useful information for a better understanding of the process of brain aging and helping individuals to have a healthy aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seyed Amir Hossein Batouli
- School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Perminder S Sachdev
- School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
| | - Wei Wen
- School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | | | - David Ames
- Director, National Ageing Research Institute and University of Melbourne, Australia; Professor of Ageing and health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia
| | - Julian N Trollor
- Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Head, Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
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Genetic Architecture of the Pro-Inflammatory State in an Extended Twin-Family Design. Twin Res Hum Genet 2013; 16:931-40. [DOI: 10.1017/thg.2013.58] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
In this study we examined the genetic architecture of variation in the pro-inflammatory state, using an extended twin-family design. Within the Netherlands Twin Register Biobank, fasting Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-Reactive Protein (CRP), and fibrinogen levels were available for 3,534 twins, 1,568 of their non-twin siblings, and 2,227 parents from 3,095 families. Heritability analyses took into account the effects of current and recent illness, anti-inflammatory medication, female sex hormone status, age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, month of data collection, and batch processing. Moderate broad-sense heritability was found for all inflammatory parameters (39%, 21%, 45%, and 46% for TNF-α, IL-6, CRP and fibrinogen, respectively). For all parameters, the remaining variance was explained by unique environmental influences and not by environment shared by family members. There was no resemblance between spouses for any of the inflammatory parameters, except for fibrinogen. Also, there was no evidence for twin-specific effects. A considerable part of genetic variation was explained by non-additive genetic effects for TNF-α, CRP, and fibrinogen. For IL-6, all genetic variance was additive. This study may have implications for future genome-wide association studies by setting a clear numerical target for genome-wide screens that aim to find genetic variants regulating the levels of these pro-inflammatory markers.
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van Dongen J, Willemsen G, Chen WM, de Geus EJC, Boomsma DI. Heritability of metabolic syndrome traits in a large population-based sample. J Lipid Res 2013; 54:2914-23. [PMID: 23918046 DOI: 10.1194/jlr.p041673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Heritability estimates of metabolic syndrome traits vary widely across studies. Some studies have suggested that the contribution of genes may vary with age or sex. We estimated the heritability of 11 metabolic syndrome-related traits and height as a function of age and sex in a large population-based sample of twin families (N = 2,792-27,021, for different traits). A moderate-to-high heritability was found for all traits [from H(2) = 0.47 (insulin) to H(2) = 0.78 (BMI)]. The broad-sense heritability (H(2)) showed little variation between age groups in women; it differed somewhat more in men (e.g., for glucose, H(2) = 0.61 in young females, H(2) = 0.56 in older females, H(2) = 0.64 in young males, and H(2)= 0.27 in older males). While nonadditive genetic effects explained little variation in the younger subjects, nonadditive genetic effects became more important at a greater age. Our findings show that in an unselected sample (age range, ~18-98 years), the genetic contribution to individual differences in metabolic syndrome traits is moderate to large in both sexes and across age. Although the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome has greatly increased in the past decades due to lifestyle changes, our study indicates that most of the variation in metabolic syndrome traits between individuals is due to genetic differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenny van Dongen
- Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Heritability of subcortical brain measures: a perspective for future genome-wide association studies. Neuroimage 2013; 83:98-102. [PMID: 23770413 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.06.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2013] [Revised: 05/31/2013] [Accepted: 06/07/2013] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Several large imaging-genetics consortia aim to identify genetic variants influencing subcortical brain volumes. We investigated the extent to which genetic variation accounts for the variation in subcortical volumes, including thalamus, amygdala, putamen, caudate nucleus, globus pallidus and nucleus accumbens and obtained the stability of these brain volumes over a five-year period. The heritability estimates for all subcortical regions were high, with the highest heritability estimates observed for the thalamus (.80) and caudate nucleus (.88) and lowest for the left nucleus accumbens (.44). Five-year stability was substantial and higher for larger [e.g., thalamus (.88), putamen (.86), caudate nucleus (.87)] compared to smaller [nucleus accumbens (.45)] subcortical structures. These results provide additional evidence that subcortical structures are promising starting points for identifying genetic variants that influence brain structure.
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