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Arunachalam V, Lea R, Hoy W, Lee S, Mott S, Savige J, Mathews JD, McMorran BJ, Nagaraj SH. Novel genetic markers for chronic kidney disease in a geographically isolated population of Indigenous Australians: Individual and multiple phenotype genome-wide association study. Genome Med 2024; 16:29. [PMID: 38347632 PMCID: PMC10860247 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-024-01299-3] [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] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2023] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 02/15/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is highly prevalent among Indigenous Australians, especially those in remote regions. The Tiwi population has been isolated from mainland Australia for millennia and exhibits unique genetic characteristics that distinguish them from other Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. Notably, the rate of end-stage renal disease is up to 20 times greater in this population compared to non-Indigenous populations. Despite the identification of numerous genetic loci associated with kidney disease through GWAS, the Indigenous population such as Tiwi remains severely underrepresented and the increased prevalence of CKD in this population may be due to unique disease-causing alleles/genes. METHODS We used albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) to estimate the prevalence of kidney disease in the Tiwi population (N = 492) in comparison to the UK Biobank (UKBB) (N = 134,724) database. We then performed an exploratory factor analysis to identify correlations among 10 CKD-related phenotypes and identify new multi-phenotype factors. We subsequently conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on all single and multiple phenotype factors using mixed linear regression models, adjusted for age, sex, population stratification, and genetic relatedness between individuals. RESULTS Based on ACR, 20.3% of the population was at severely increased risk of CKD progression and showed elevated levels of ACR compared to the UKBB population independent of HbA1c. A GWAS of ACR revealed novel association loci in the genes MEG3 (chr14:100812018:T:A), RAB36 (rs11704318), and TIAM2 (rs9689640). Additionally, multiple phenotypes GWAS of ACR, eGFR, urine albumin, and serum creatinine identified a novel variant that mapped to the gene MEIS2 (chr15:37218869:A:G). Most of the identified variants were found to be either absent or rare in the UKBB population. CONCLUSIONS Our study highlights the Tiwi population's predisposition towards elevated ACR, and the collection of novel genetic variants associated with kidney function. These associations may prove valuable in the early diagnosis and treatment of renal disease in this underrepresented population. Additionally, further research is needed to comprehensively validate the functions of the identified variants/genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vignesh Arunachalam
- Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health and School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Rodney Lea
- Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health and School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Wendy Hoy
- Centre of chronic disease, Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Simon Lee
- Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health and School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Susan Mott
- Centre of chronic disease, Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Judith Savige
- Royal Melbourne Hospital, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - John D Mathews
- Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Brendan J McMorran
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, The John Curtin of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Shivashankar H Nagaraj
- Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health and School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
- Translational Research Institute, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
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Reis ALM, Rapadas M, Hammond JM, Gamaarachchi H, Stevanovski I, Ayuputeri Kumaheri M, Chintalaphani SR, Dissanayake DSB, Siggs OM, Hewitt AW, Llamas B, Brown A, Baynam G, Mann GJ, McMorran BJ, Easteal S, Hermes A, Jenkins MR, Patel HR, Deveson IW. The landscape of genomic structural variation in Indigenous Australians. Nature 2023; 624:602-610. [PMID: 38093003 PMCID: PMC10733147 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06842-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023]
Abstract
Indigenous Australians harbour rich and unique genomic diversity. However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestries are historically under-represented in genomics research and almost completely missing from reference datasets1-3. Addressing this representation gap is critical, both to advance our understanding of global human genomic diversity and as a prerequisite for ensuring equitable outcomes in genomic medicine. Here we apply population-scale whole-genome long-read sequencing4 to profile genomic structural variation across four remote Indigenous communities. We uncover an abundance of large insertion-deletion variants (20-49 bp; n = 136,797), structural variants (50 b-50 kb; n = 159,912) and regions of variable copy number (>50 kb; n = 156). The majority of variants are composed of tandem repeat or interspersed mobile element sequences (up to 90%) and have not been previously annotated (up to 62%). A large fraction of structural variants appear to be exclusive to Indigenous Australians (12% lower-bound estimate) and most of these are found in only a single community, underscoring the need for broad and deep sampling to achieve a comprehensive catalogue of genomic structural variation across the Australian continent. Finally, we explore short tandem repeats throughout the genome to characterize allelic diversity at 50 known disease loci5, uncover hundreds of novel repeat expansion sites within protein-coding genes, and identify unique patterns of diversity and constraint among short tandem repeat sequences. Our study sheds new light on the dimensions and dynamics of genomic structural variation within and beyond Australia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andre L M Reis
- Genomics and Inherited Disease Program, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Centre for Population Genomics, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Melissa Rapadas
- Genomics and Inherited Disease Program, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Centre for Population Genomics, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Jillian M Hammond
- Genomics and Inherited Disease Program, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Centre for Population Genomics, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Hasindu Gamaarachchi
- Genomics and Inherited Disease Program, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Centre for Population Genomics, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Igor Stevanovski
- Genomics and Inherited Disease Program, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Centre for Population Genomics, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Meutia Ayuputeri Kumaheri
- Genomics and Inherited Disease Program, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Centre for Population Genomics, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Sanjog R Chintalaphani
- Genomics and Inherited Disease Program, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Centre for Population Genomics, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Duminda S B Dissanayake
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Owen M Siggs
- Genomics and Inherited Disease Program, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Centre for Population Genomics, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
- Department of Ophthalmology, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia
| | - Alex W Hewitt
- Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
| | - Bastien Llamas
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences and Environment Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
- Indigenous Genomics, Telethon Kids Institute, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Alex Brown
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- Indigenous Genomics, Telethon Kids Institute, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Gareth Baynam
- Telethon Kids Institute and Division of Paediatrics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- Genetic Services of Western Australia, Western Australian Department of Health, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- Western Australian Register of Developmental Anomalies, Western Australian Department of Health, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Graham J Mann
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Brendan J McMorran
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Simon Easteal
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Azure Hermes
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Misty R Jenkins
- Immunology Division, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Hardip R Patel
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
| | - Ira W Deveson
- Genomics and Inherited Disease Program, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- Centre for Population Genomics, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia.
- Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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4
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Silcocks M, Farlow A, Hermes A, Tsambos G, Patel HR, Huebner S, Baynam G, Jenkins MR, Vukcevic D, Easteal S, Leslie S. Indigenous Australian genomes show deep structure and rich novel variation. Nature 2023; 624:593-601. [PMID: 38093005 PMCID: PMC10733150 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06831-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2022] [Accepted: 11/03/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023]
Abstract
The Indigenous peoples of Australia have a rich linguistic and cultural history. How this relates to genetic diversity remains largely unknown because of their limited engagement with genomic studies. Here we analyse the genomes of 159 individuals from four remote Indigenous communities, including people who speak a language (Tiwi) not from the most widespread family (Pama-Nyungan). This large collection of Indigenous Australian genomes was made possible by careful community engagement and consultation. We observe exceptionally strong population structure across Australia, driven by divergence times between communities of 26,000-35,000 years ago and long-term low but stable effective population sizes. This demographic history, including early divergence from Papua New Guinean (47,000 years ago) and Eurasian groups1, has generated the highest proportion of previously undescribed genetic variation seen outside Africa and the most extended homozygosity compared with global samples. A substantial proportion of this variation is not observed in global reference panels or clinical datasets, and variation with predicted functional consequence is more likely to be homozygous than in other populations, with consequent implications for medical genomics2. Our results show that Indigenous Australians are not a single homogeneous genetic group and their genetic relationship with the peoples of New Guinea is not uniform. These patterns imply that the full breadth of Indigenous Australian genetic diversity remains uncharacterized, potentially limiting genomic medicine and equitable healthcare for Indigenous Australians.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew Silcocks
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- University of Melbourne, School of Biosciences, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Ashley Farlow
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- University of Melbourne, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Azure Hermes
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Georgia Tsambos
- University of Melbourne, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Hardip R Patel
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Sharon Huebner
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Gareth Baynam
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Division of Paediatrics and Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- Western Australian Register of Developmental Anomalies, King Edward Memorial Hospital and Rare Care Centre, Perth Children's Hospital, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Misty R Jenkins
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- Immunology Division, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- University of Melbourne, Department of Medical Biology, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Damjan Vukcevic
- University of Melbourne, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Simon Easteal
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Stephen Leslie
- National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
- University of Melbourne, School of Biosciences, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
- University of Melbourne, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
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