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Hatton AA, Cheng FF, Lin T, Shen RJ, Chen J, Zheng Z, Qu J, Lyu F, Harris SE, Cox SR, Jin ZB, Martin NG, Fan D, Montgomery GW, Yang J, Wray NR, Marioni RE, Visscher PM, McRae AF. Genetic control of DNA methylation is largely shared across European and East Asian populations. Nat Commun 2024; 15:2713. [PMID: 38548728 PMCID: PMC10978881 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47005-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2023] [Accepted: 03/15/2024] [Indexed: 04/01/2024] Open
Abstract
DNA methylation is an ideal trait to study the extent of the shared genetic control across ancestries, effectively providing hundreds of thousands of model molecular traits with large QTL effect sizes. We investigate cis DNAm QTLs in three European (n = 3701) and two East Asian (n = 2099) cohorts to quantify the similarities and differences in the genetic architecture across populations. We observe 80,394 associated mQTLs (62.2% of DNAm probes with significant mQTL) to be significant in both ancestries, while 28,925 mQTLs (22.4%) are identified in only a single ancestry. mQTL effect sizes are highly conserved across populations, with differences in mQTL discovery likely due to differences in allele frequency of associated variants and differing linkage disequilibrium between causal variants and assayed SNPs. This study highlights the overall similarity of genetic control across ancestries and the value of ancestral diversity in increasing the power to detect associations and enhancing fine mapping resolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alesha A Hatton
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Fei-Fei Cheng
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, 310030, Zhejiang, China
| | - Tian Lin
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Ren-Juan Shen
- Beijing Institute of Ophthalmology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, 100008, Beijing, China
- School of Ophthalmology & Optometry, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325027, China
| | - Jie Chen
- School of Ophthalmology & Optometry, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325027, China
| | - Zhili Zheng
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Jia Qu
- School of Ophthalmology & Optometry, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325027, China
| | - Fan Lyu
- School of Ophthalmology & Optometry, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325027, China
| | - Sarah E Harris
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
| | - Simon R Cox
- Lothian Birth Cohorts, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
| | - Zi-Bing Jin
- Beijing Institute of Ophthalmology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, 100008, Beijing, China
- School of Ophthalmology & Optometry, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325027, China
| | - Nicholas G Martin
- Queensland Institute of Medical Research Berghofer, Brisbane, QLD, 4006, Australia
| | - Dongsheng Fan
- Department of Neurology, Peking University Third Hospital, 100191, Beijing, China
| | - Grant W Montgomery
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Jian Yang
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, 310030, Zhejiang, China
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang, China
| | - Naomi R Wray
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Riccardo E Marioni
- Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH4 2XU, UK
| | - Peter M Visscher
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Allan F McRae
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
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Hatton AA, Hillary RF, Bernabeu E, McCartney DL, Marioni RE, McRae AF. Blood-based genome-wide DNA methylation correlations across body-fat- and adiposity-related biochemical traits. Am J Hum Genet 2023; 110:1564-1573. [PMID: 37652023 PMCID: PMC10502853 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.08.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2023] [Revised: 08/04/2023] [Accepted: 08/03/2023] [Indexed: 09/02/2023] Open
Abstract
The recent increase in obesity levels across many countries is likely to be driven by nongenetic factors. The epigenetic modification DNA methylation (DNAm) may help to explore this, as it is sensitive to both genetic and environmental exposures. While the relationship between DNAm and body-fat traits has been extensively studied, there is limited literature on the shared associations of DNAm variation across such traits. Akin to genetic correlation estimates, here, we introduce an approach to evaluate the similarities in DNAm associations between traits: DNAm correlations. As DNAm can be both a cause and consequence of complex traits, DNAm correlations have the potential to provide insights into trait relationships above that currently obtained from genetic and phenotypic correlations. Utilizing 7,519 unrelated individuals from Generation Scotland with DNAm from the EPIC array, we calculated DNAm correlations between body-fat- and adiposity-related traits by using the bivariate OREML framework in the OSCA software. For each trait, we also estimated the shared contribution of DNAm between sexes. We identified strong, positive DNAm correlations between each of the body-fat traits (BMI, body-fat percentage, and waist-to-hip ratio, ranging from 0.96 to 1.00), finding larger associations than those identified by genetic and phenotypic correlations. We identified a significant deviation from 1 in the DNAm correlations for BMI between males and females, with sex-specific DNAm changes associated with BMI identified at eight DNAm probes. Employing genome-wide DNAm correlations to evaluate the similarities in the associations of DNAm with complex traits has provided insight into obesity-related traits beyond that provided by genetic correlations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Robert F Hillary
- Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Elena Bernabeu
- Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Daniel L McCartney
- Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Riccardo E Marioni
- Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Allan F McRae
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Brisbane, Australia.
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